Pardon my cynicism, folks, but Attorney General Barr's declared determination to dig to the bottom of the purported Jeffrey Epstein suicide rings a bit hollow.  Had he said he was appointing an independent investigative team headed by an assistant attorney general on loan from one of our southern red states — say, Texas, Alabama or Georgia — where cultural sophistication doesn't rise to the level of blasé acceptance of pedophilia found in blue, coastal urban enclaves, I might feel more confident.  Had he further announced an investigative team comprising veteran sleuths from state police departments from similar red states, with no federal presence other than scientific criminological support, I would be truly heartened.

But to tell this nation that the same federal investigative agency that, we have learned, and still are learning with every passing day, was thoroughly corrupted at its head, leading to deceptive cover-up investigations of powerful political figures, is to conduct an investigation that most of this country now believes may involve powerful political figures from those previous pretend probes is, to borrow A.G. Barr's word describing the suicide itself, "appalling."

I know, I know — many of you are going to tell me I should not distrust all the good, honest, hardworking rank-and-file members of the FBI who played no role in their leadership's treachery.  After all, we've been fed that line endlessly by politicians and talking-heads.  However, it was those same pols and pundits who told us what a reliably trustworthy cop James Comey was when he was heading up the Hillary email inquiry, and that Robert Mueller was such a straight-arrow professional, one who could be relied on to conduct a fair inquest into Trump's possible Russian collusion.  So much for their character-reading skills.

So, pardon the hell outta me when I tell you that I just have to wonder whether some of that political cancer in the head of our federal policing hasn't metastasized down to other regions of that body, especially to such politically aquiver vital organs as the New York and South Florida offices, where most of the Epstein case is focused.  Believe me: I would like nothing better than to be able to believe in the complete integrity of our vaunted federal police agency, but sadly, like many, if not most of you, I'm beyond that.  My trust has been poisoned by their malignant leaders and my skepticism that their organization is now fully free of political malevolence, particularly in these urban power centers.

So we need a federal investigation?  What's not federal about a federally appointed team made up of states in the federation?