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-- That the FBI would attempt to pass it off as anything more solid than a whisper campaign shows their mistake right off the bat. --

It was no mistake. They were in on the frame up, an essential part of it. Comey extended this to his March 20, 2017 testimony.

As you know, our practice is not to confirm the existence of ongoing investigations, especially those investigations that involve classified matters, but in unusual circumstances where it is in the public interest, it may be appropriate to do so as Justice Department policies recognize. This is one of those circumstances.
I have been authorized by the Department of Justice to confirm that the FBI, as part of our counterintelligence mission, is investigating the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia's efforts. As with any counterintelligence investigation, this will also include an assessment of whether any crimes were committed.

The basis for that testimony before the House Intelligence Committee was the Steele dossier and the Yahoo news report, and the existing counter intelligence investigation into Carter Page.

Going forward, that testimony became the justification for and basis of the appointment of Mueller.

I have been authorized by the Department of Justice to confirm that the FBI, as part of our counterintelligence mission, is investigating the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia's efforts. As with any counterintelligence investigation, this will also include an assessment of whether any crimes were committed.

If this was truly a concern why were they not looking at both campaigns? He really thinks we're all stupid.

It sounds as if we may be in violent agreement on that. I did call it a mistake, meaning not that they took the course unintentionally, but that they unjustifiably misconstrued the nature of what they had in that "salacious and unverified" document. It was my intent to say that their doing that would rightfully later be their undoing.

Oppo research and a whisper campaign are very different things. Steele's construct--what he was apparently tasked to generate, a whisper campaign document that would intentionally initiate (harmonized) falsehoods, intended to be disseminated among the public--is not against the law within its own context. He was not testifying to the police, FBI or the court with that, he was only serving his political paymasters, thus had no special obligation to the truth.

Of course, the FBI had grander plans for the McCain-delivered document, that did include special obligations to the truth. Their later representations misdirected the document's provenance and implied it was filled with truths that justified serious investigation through violation of a US citizen's 4th Amendment Rights.

That should be called an informed (and you rightly would say "intentional") lie (and I say "a mistake") for which those people deserve punishment.