IF THIS IS YOUR PLANNED OCTOBER SURPRISE, YOU'RE NOT VERY GOOD AT SURPRISES

Michael Tomasky is concerned about William Barr and the election:

Daily Beast columnist Michael Tomasky is warning Democrats to beware of Attorney General Bill Barr’s last-ditch effort to save President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign by springing last-minute indictments of former law enforcement officials involved in probing Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Specifically, Tomasky speculates that Barr is pushing for prosecutor John Durham to allege that Russia was actually working to get Hillary Clinton, not Trump, elected in 2016....

“So Democrats need to start saying right now that Durham is engaged in a phony investigation that is an attempt by Barr to rig the election,” he writes. “They need to say it and say it and say it. And then, when Durham issues his report or indictments, public opinion, or the important slice of it anyway, will be conditioned to believe that it’s all a scam.”

It certainly wouldn't surprise me if that's what Barr has in mind. But why would it work?

Consider where we are right now. A deadly disease is rampant. The economy is in the toilet. Unaccountable police officers brutalize with impunity.

And we're supposed to care about yet another attempt to smear Hillary Clinton? Or former law enforcement officials most Americans can't identify?

Sure, this would be catnip for a certain segment of voters: people who are already 100% certain to vote for Donald Trump. If this is what Barr is up to, he's yet another Trumper who thinks that making Trump superfans into mega-ultra-super-duper-fans will actually translate to more Trump votes in November. (Newsflash: They can only vote once each.)

For all its flaws, the press has quite steadfastly stuck to the story the intelligence community initially told us about Russia and the 2016 election: The Russians interfered because they wanted Donald Trump to win. I know it's easy to imagine Hillary-haters in the media seizing on one more chance to take a swipe at her, but I think they'll question Barr and Durham's deviation from the original story, primarily because all of their intelligence sources will.

In the end, it doesn't matter. Nobody wants to see this happen except Fox-addled Republican voters. They'll cheer. No one else will care.