This book has if nothing else been very tough on James Comey-no doubt about that. And this is, I believe, deserved: Comey’s handling of Emailgate was just very very reckless and rogue. He violated protocols and precedents again and again with the self righteous attitude that somehow his-what the IG report called-insubordination was just a sign of his greater moral righteousness.
There’s an old African American saying that goes like this: only the truth hurts. The truth is that he handled Emailgate with-to use his own words-extreme carelessness. As we saw in (Chapter A) the Democrats House Judiciary Committee intends to investigate the issue of leaks by rogue anti Clinton pro Trump agents in October, 2016-that forced Comey’s hand into writing the Comey letter-and presumably Comey will be a very important witness.
UPDATE: Today is Friday, February 22, and the IG still hasn’t released its report on the leaks of the rogue anti Clinton pro Trump agents and the no Democrat in Congress I’m aware of have called on the IG to do so.
The House Democrats should also ask him some very tough questions about the issues I bring up in the Comyegate part of the book: What was the probable cause of the investigation in the first place, why did it take so long to conclude it, what’s this about a fake Russian document being used as a pretext for the very careless press conference? Or did you actually believe the document was authentic at the time? It’s not clear which scenario is worse-that he knew it was false and yet used it as a pretext for his rogue press conference or that he really was fooled by the Russians.
Doesn’t this just say it all-that the FBI Director at a time when the Bureau was starting to investigate Russian interference in the election was himself conned by Russian active measures?
Comey will have to explain all of this in public hearings. Again as I argued in (Chapter A) we, the American people, can’t just get over this until we have closure on what was done to our election. These conspiracies-both in Russia but also with rogue anti Clinton agents gaming the system to hurt her and help Trump-just like Russians wanted to-are conspiracies as Mueller put it in his indictments in July, 2018 conspiracies against the. United States.
In, other words, against us-our democracy, our country.
Presumably Director Comey will voluntarily set the record straight. It will be very difficult for him-he’s going to have to reconsider his frank refusal to admit any responsibility claim that somehow he made the best decisions he could under the circumstances just don’t pass the laugh test.
UPDATE: What differentiates McCabe is at least he’s willing to admit they made a mistake with the presser and the letter-he frankly acknowledged it on Chris Hayes last night. It’s particularly big of McCabe to ‘admit’ to a mistake on the Comey letter as Comey quite outrageously barred him from the October 27, 2016 discussion-what’s outrageous is Comey sighted the fact that McCabe’s wife was running and receiving donations as a Democrat-thereby giving credence to this false narrative that ‘President Trump’ continues to foment to this day.
Right-Comey felt ‘queasy’ over McCabe’s wife receiving donations from Democrats but not over himself for donating to Republicans for years. The entire FBI leadership is Republican-including McCabe-but having a spouse run as a Democrat disqualifies you.
Like any other investigation, Comey’s truthful testimony will enable us to find those that not only were extremely careless like himself but those who may have engaged in criminal activity-the rogue agents at the FBI.
We’ll see if he finally concedes his own grave and indefensible errors.
Yet, I do welcome him ‘home’ to the #Resistance and at least temporarily to the Democratic party-he’s not a Democrat but he did support a Dem Congress-which shows he wants oversight and accountability-though ironically, enough, this Congress will need to put Comey himself on the hot seat.
While this book views his actions in Emailgate very critically and perhaps you could say ‘harshly’ it’s perhaps a little less ‘harsh’ than Randol Schoenberg’s extremely harsh view in the sense that while I largely agree with Schoenberg’s very tough criticism of Comey’s role (Chapter A) I do see some redeeming features in him as well.
Schoeberg is right that Comey has gotten far too much benefit of the doubt regarding motives-it’s never really appreciated to the extent to which Comey is-or at least was-an ideological and partisan conservative Republican-see Chapters A and B for more.
The difference with Schoenberg is I do also see other dimensions to Comey. His lifetime partisan membership in the Republican party was his id, but what differentiates him from the rogue anti Clinton agents at the FBI-who as argued in (Chapter B) are probably even more powerful now than then-this the House Dems must also investigate-is Comey also has an ego and superego.
He is-of course-very concerned about his reputation as someone independent and having great integrity and he also has genuine concern for his own agency’s public standing.
The trouble with 2016 was he got to have it both ways-his ego was gratified as he could poise as being tough and independent on the President who appointed him but at the same time he was also gratifying his own GOP partisan preferences-the id, ego, and superego all seemed to line up. This turned out to be a dangerous seduction for Comey.
But his genuine concern for both his own reputation and his agency is why he supported a Dem House though, he might have at least considered they might want to bring him back for some more tough questions…
Hopefully he will see this as a the larger need to restore the country’s faith in its electoral process again-as what the FBI did is in its own way just as outrageous as what Russia did.
So welcome home, Director Comey!
“Former FBI Director James Comey has broken his streak of donating to Republicans, giving the maximum legal amount to one of the most competitive House races in the country.”
“According to Federal Election Commission filings, Comey gave $2,700 in September to Jennifer Wexton’s campaign to unseat incumbent Republican Rep. Barbara Comstock in Virginia’s 10th congressional district.”
“Comey, whom President Donald Trump fired early into his presidency, has traditionally donated to Republican candidates. He donated to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign in 2012 and John McCain’s in 2008, as did his wife, Patrice Comey.”
Comey revealed during a congressional hearing in 2016 that he was no longer a registered member of the GOP, but had been for most of his adult life.
During his book tour earlier this year, Comey said the Republican Party did not reflect his values anymore.
“I see the Republican Party, as near as I can tell, reflects now entirely Donald Trump’s values,” he said in an interview with ABC News. “It doesn’t reflect values at all. It’s transactional, it’s ego-driven, it’s in service to his ego.”
“I can’t imagine a circumstance of me voting for President Trump, given what I think he reflects in terms of values,” he added. “If we don’t get that right, we can waste all the time we want to waste on fighting about policy. We’re losing something that is essential to America.”
Couldn’t agree more-while I’m an ideological ‘progressive’ Democrat-I prefer ‘liberal’ but these days everyone wants to use ‘progressive’-what matters to me and many Americans is more important than ideology-it’s #MakingAmericaLegitimateAgain.
As for Wexton-that was money well spent as she blew away Barbara Trumpstock in VA10.
Welcome home, Direct Comey-I just hope you finally engage in some honest self criticism-it would do yourself and the country a lot of good.