The sordid fabricated story of the Donald Trump "golden showers" "dossier," put out there by Beltway smear professionals is being chipped away by congressional hearings, and the Democratic perpetrators of it and their media allies, doesn't look good.  Fusion GPS, a left-wing opposition research firm that specializes in smears, took the cash from someone in the matter, and news got out that the existence of the file came about at the bequest of one big fat-cat Republican donor – who subsequently changed his mind and withdrew support.

There is one problem.  There doesn't seem to be a GOP fat-cat donor.  Glenn Simpson, who founded Fusion GPS, has testified before Congress behind closed doors and reportedly refused to name the name, even under those cosseted conditions.

That might be as expected, notes Byron York in an important piece about the matter, but circumstantial evidence suggests that the donor does not exist at all.  Nobody in GOP circles, and among Trump's bitter rivals, knows who this fat-cat GOP donor is. They simply haven't heard of the guy, despite his money.

That raises questions as to whether this "narrative" of the GOP fat-cat being to blame for the fiasco really exists – and more to the point, what the real story is.  If it wasn't a GOP donor, was it a Democrat donor who engineered the smear?  Was it one who likes to portray himself as a philanthropist?  Or was it something worse than that, maybe a rival campaign itself on the Democrat side?  Was funding properly used?  If it wasn't that, and this whole operation involves Russian intelligence, was it real Russian collusion?

By Democrats?  That would be important to know.  About time Simpson and his smear operation got served a real subpoena for his tax records to get to the bottom of this sorry rat hole.