After a great deal of agitation by Republicans and the right-wing media, last night the Justice Department sent Congress lightly redacted versions of James Comey's memos on his meetings with President Trump -- and the memos were leaked to the press in 39 minutes. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had been threatened with impeachment if he didn't release these and other memos ... but the Comey memos, once we were all able to see them, had few new revelations, and were consistent with what Comey has said in congressional testimony, in his book, and in his recent interviews.

Many people are puzzled.

I'm a little confused why House Republicans were so eager to have these memos out.

— Josh Barro (@jbarro) April 20, 2018

What exactly were House Republicans hoping to accomplish by demanding the full release of these memos? Nothing I’ve read seems to change Comey’s story and if anything, these memos give more, not less, credence to the dossier.

— Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) April 20, 2018

It's simple. Republicans are running a Ponzi scheme -- but instead of promising wealth, they're promising a payoff that apparently means much more to the rageoholics who watch Fox: proof of unprecedented criminality on the part of their political enemies. For days, weeks, or months, they tease angry right-wingers with new tales of Deep State perfidy -- and yes, by the time the reveal comes it's clear to everyone that it's all a big nothing, but by that time they've been laying the groundwork for other claims of gross misconduct by everyone the rubes hate, so no problem. Republicans and their allies don't really care if there's no payoff, just as they didn't care that the much-hyped Devin Nunes memo was a damp squib, because the buildup is the point. Days or weeks in which they promise shocking revelations of pure evil are days and weeks when the hate reaches maximum level. The point is to keep the rubes invested in their narrative, and to maximize the number of days when they're at peak anger.

The Republicans won't slink away crestfallen. They'll just move on to the next thing. They'll have achieved another anger peak that lasted longer than the current momentary letdown.

Rinse and repeat. They can keep this up forever.