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Ty Cobb's end date for the Mueller probe has legs and keeps just out of reach. He's like those rapture forecasters.

“I’d be embarrassed if this is still haunting the White House by Thanksgiving and worse if it’s still haunting him by year end,” Cobb told Reuters in August.

  New York Magazine

Have they gone back to see if he's embarrassed?

At the end of October, Mueller’s team revealed that former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. On the same day, Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates were indicted on multiple charges.

Yet Cobb just adjusted his deadline. The Washington Post reported in mid-November: “He remains optimistic that it will wrap up by the end of the year, if not shortly thereafter.”

[...]

A few days before Christmas, Cobb offered a new timeframe: “January or so.”

Now as we enter the tail end of January, Cobb has revised his calculations again. In an interview with CBS News’ Major Garrett on this week’s The Takeout podcast, Cobb says he expects the Mueller investigation to be wrapped up in four to six weeks.

To be fair, "January or so" could have included four to six weeks.

So if all signs point to the Russia probe continuing at least through fall 2018, and everyone knows Cobb’s timeframe is unrealistic, why does he keep changing the investigation’s expected end date? We hate to say it, but it’s possible the guy who loudly blabbed about conflicts between Trump’s attorneys while dining at a D.C. steakhouse isn’t the world’s sharpest legal mind.

That may well be true. But he's also trying to put a good face on the mess for public consumption. Don't expect him to make any gloomy predictions.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.