Comey-Out Party

Former FBI director James Comey has brought America together across partisan lines in a way that no one has been able to for fifty years.  Democrats and Republicans universally hate him.

Comey is promoting his memoir, which comes out today, in a series of interviews and public appearances, and the comments he's made so far arr bound to enrage everyone and satisfy no one.  He told ABC's George Stephanopoulos that Donald Trump might have put himself in a compromising position that could be exploited by the Russians, and said that he had tried to consult with Trump to see if there were anything that the Russians might have to incriminate him.  Comey, in all fairness, doesn't say that the Russians have any incriminating evidence of malfeasance, personal or public, against Trump - "It's possible," he says - but he does pass judgment on Trump's overall.

"A person who sees moral equivalence in Charlottesville, who talks about and treats women like they're pieces of meat, who lies constantly about matters big and small and insists the American people believe it, that person's not fit to be President of the United States, on moral grounds," Comey said.

As for the FBI's October 2016 re-opening of the investigation into Hillary Clinton that likely sank her presidential ambitions?  Comey said that he expected her to win the presidential election, and an investigation into unseen e-mails on the laptop in the possession of her assistant Huma Abedin's estranged husband Anthony Weiner was, he felt, necessary to get out in the open as soon as possible. He thought Hillary was going to win the Presidency, and he wanted to clear her of any charges before rather than after the election so she wouldn't enter office as a compromised President, though it's hard to imagine how anyone named Clinton could enter the White House without being compromised under any circumstances. "I would so much rather Anthony Weiner had never had a laptop," Comey said.

Trump, of course, called Comey a slimeball in public.  (A far cry from Franklin Roosevelt's public line "I welcome their hatred" about his adversaries, and even a far cry from what he said about Thomas E. Dewey in private after Dewey lost the 1944 presidential election to him: "I still say he is a son of a bitch.")  But Democrats have long been ticked off at Comey also, as evidenced from a clip of Democrats questioning Comey's motives in the investigation of Hillary Clinton's e-mails from 2015 and 2016 now playing in a video released by the Republican - the Republican - National Committee.  And Comey's explanation of the Weiner laptop investigation doesn't fly with Democrats.  U.S. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, who would have given up his powerful Senate seat for the worthless presiding officer's seat overlooking the Senate floor as Vice President had the Democrats won the 2016 election, said that the FBI had also been investigating Trump but did not divulge the nature of the ongoing investigation before the election and should have done the same for Hillary.  Had Comey divulged the re-opening of the case after the election, and had Hillary won, it still would have cleared her before the inauguration and no harm would have been done.

Comey writes about his entire career in public service, not just his last year as FBI director, and he credits himself for helping to reform an FBI now under political suspicion.  Indeed, the Federal Bureau of Investigation certainly has more credibility than it did back in the days of J. Edgar Hoover or even the tenure of director Louis Freeh, whose tenure was noted for letting the real Atlanta Olympic bomber go while going after the wrong man and could only catch the Unabomber with the help of his brother (sorry, I couldn't resist the dig).  But Comey's involvement with the toxic politics of today has, if not slimed him, made him a bit unclean, as no politically involved American - Democratic, Republican, independent - wants to touch him with a ten-foot-pole.  (Which is funny, considering Comey's massive frame.) Comey will make a lot of money from this book but likely won't return to public life any time soon after.

Flynn and Taxes

Michael Flynn, Donald Trump's former national security adviser, agreed with special counsel Robert Mueller to plead guilty to lying about his contacts with Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak, after it turned out that he had asked the ambassador on December 29, 2016 to, as CNBC reported, "refrain from escalating the situation in response to sanctions that the United States had imposed against Russia that same day" while Barack Obama was still President.  Trump had opposed the sanctions and Flynn apparently was trying to tell Kislyak to stay calm and wait for the incoming administration to take charge and initiate a friendly relationship.

Even if you don't think Russian intervention caused Trump to win the Presidency - I think they intervened in the election but I don't think they were instrumental in Trump's victory -  Flynn has been under investigation for allegedly planning a kidnapping and a Turkish cleric living in exile in the U.S. and having him sent back to Turkey.  And if all that weren't mind-boggling enough, Trump has now tweeted that he fired Flynn for lying to the FBI about his meeting with Kislyak, suggesting that he knew all along that Flynn had lied when he asked then-FBI Director James Comey and was therefore trying to obstruct justice.  Then, of course, he later fired James Comey.

Trump could be forced out of office soon.  But as far as preventing him from doing irreparable damage to the country, it's already too late.

Because the Senate just passed its tax reform bill by a 51-49 margin. Bob Corker of Tennessee was the only Republican to vote against it.  They got it through after last-minute revisions to the bill that, I understand, were written on the back of a Chinese takeout menu.  And even though the differences between the Senate bill and the House bill have to be worked out in a bicameral conference, no one thinks there'll be any problems with that.  And Trump, the chief instigator of tax reform, will proudly sign it before the first day of Kwanzaa and rhetorically ask black voters what they could possibly have to lose.

The final bill will likely eliminate state and local tax deductions and possibly also eliminate the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate and thus possibly eliminate . . . the Affordable Care Act.  The biggest benefits go to the wealthy, and the pressure on the deficit will mean cuts to public assistance and the sort of amenities that make a country worth living in.  

Because of procedural rules, there's nothing the Democrats could do to stop this bill, and to be fair, they didn't have the time or the ability to digest or even read the last-minute changes to it.  But the Democrats did a lame job in opposing it, concentrating more on the deficit than on the threat to domestic spending and, as a result, arguing against the tax bill on the basis of Republican talking points, which did the Democrats no favors.  They only tipped the scales to the GOP in the debate, and scale-tipping is something Hillary supporters know a thing or two about.   The pressure this tax law will put on expensive, Democratic-leaning states will short-circuit the progressive agenda and doom incoming New Jersey governor Phil Murphy to failure before he's even sworn in.

Thus, despite Democratic victories in  2017 gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia, the party has gone back to going full Whig. 

On the bright side, now that tax reform is all but done, maybe Republicans, no longer needing Trump to pass their agenda, will go ahead and help remove him from office.

Well, THAT Was Weird . . .

Former FBI director James Comey's testimony about Donald Trump in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee this past Thursday was pretty damning, showing how the Trump White House is more off base than we thought and leaving a lot of people to think that Trump's days in the Presidency are numbered.  Especially after Comey told of Trump having him alone in the White House to tell him to go easy on then-national security adviser Michael Flynn.  But while partisan attitudes on the Senate Intelligence Committee may be softening, partisanship outside the committee may be hardening. Trump supporters found Comey to be lacking in credibility, and while he suggested the possibility of obstruction of justice involving the investigation into collusion between the Russians and the Trump campaign, CNN's Chris Cillizza has noted that Trump's "hope" that the  investigation would get dropped, isn't the same as Trump flat-out telling Comey to drop it.  But Trump's pressure on Comey and Comey's recounting of the incidents of pressure don't look good for Trump.  Nor does it look good for Trump when he suggests that Comey is lying.

And why is John McCain still in the Senate?  He turns 81 this year, and he would be enjoying retirement right now if he and not Barack Obama had been elected to the first of two terms as President in 2008, and so he should just go back to Arizona and put his feet up and toss a cold one while looking back on a distinguished career in public service.  Instead he's still in the Senate, and he was so off his game he suggested at one point that the FBI should investigate whether Hillary Clinton colluded with the Russians.  How did she collude with Vladimir Putin?  To have Trump win so she could blame her loss on Jill Stein?

McCain also referred to the fired FBI director as "President Comey," which may have given the old G-man ideas.

McCain sought to clarify his line of questioning after the fact.  "What I was trying to get at," he said, "was whether Mr. Comey believes that any of his interactions with the President rise to the level of obstruction of justice.  In the case of Secretary Clinton’s e-mails, Mr. Comey was willing to step beyond his role as an investigator and state his belief about what ‘no reasonable prosecutor’ would conclude about the evidence. I wanted Mr. Comey to apply the same approach to the key question surrounding his interactions with President Trump - whether or not the President’s conduct constitutes obstruction of justice. While I missed an opportunity in today’s hearing, I still believe this question is important, and I intend to submit it in writing to Mr. Comey for the record."

I may intend to submit in writing a request for Comey to run for office - any office.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Theresa May appears to have lost her Tory majority in Parliament, she may lose her office, and by calling a snap election in Britain, she may have lost her mind.  This may put an end to Brexit. But Britain will still be in the Paris Agreement.

Oh yeah, record heat is on tap for my area this week . . . 

Comey-Hither

My, how Trump's opinion of James Comey has changed!

Trump fired the now-former FBI director because he had lost his faith in Comey's ability to run the investigative bureau.  Or so he said.  He had no problem with Comey investigating Hillary Clinton's e-mails and going over the top with how he disclosed information about the investigation, and only now Trump thinks that was a violation of protocol?  Comey's real violation of protocol was having the audacity to . . . investigate possible Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

In fact, he seems to have said as much to NBC's Lester Holt. :-O

Who recommended Comey's dismissal?  That depends on who you ask.  The White House press office and Vice President Pence said that the President acted on the recommendation of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein - a man so obscure that people have trouble getting the pronunciation of his surname straight (it's "Rosenstine," not "Rosensteen") - but the brief memo Rosenstein wrote on Comey's recklessness gave no indication of such a recommendation.  Besides, Trump himself says he decided to fire Comey and had decided to do so on January 21 but was waiting for a good day to do it . . . before deciding that May 9 was as good a day as any.

When the FBI director is investigating your presidential campaign,  the best day to fire him is the twelfth of never.

Rosenstein - who was confirmed as Deputy Attorney General by a Senate vote of 94-6 just a few weeks before, is overseeing the Russia investigation after Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself for having talked to a Russian government official.  It turns out the dismissal of Comey was endorsed by . . . Jeff Sessions.

Sessions won't comment on that.  He's too busy for pushing for punitive action against drug dealers that are out of proportion with their offenses.  Trump, meanwhile, has tried to get information on the investigation from Comey himself and has threatened him not to talk to anyone. "James Comey," Trump tweeted, "[had] better hope that there are no 'tapes' of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!"

"Tapes?"

But so what, Trump himself isn't under investigation, right?  At least that's what he asked Comey, thus compromising the Russia investigation . . . just like when Bill Clinton conferred with then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch over Hillary's e-mails on that plane, forcing Lynch to refer to Hillary investigation to . . . James Comey.

Awk-ward!

Democrats ought not to get cocky about this.  They were calling for action against Comey for how he handled the Hillary Clinton investigation, now all of a sudden he's a great guy?  Best to let the FBI speak up for Comey; he was well liked in the bureau despite reports to the contrary.  Look, although I'm no fan of Hillary, I don't approve of how Comey handled his investigation of her.  But even though he's made a few mistakes, he's been persistent in pursuing justice, and he's helped the FBI come a long way from its more embarrassing moments of the past twenty years.  Like this one.  

I don't hold out much optimism for this affair - which could be bigger than Watergate - getting investigated satisfactorily, given the partisanship involved.  Democrats are calling for a special prosecutor.  Republicans, including the insufferable Mitch McConnell, are insisting that the congressional investigations - the House investigation compromised to some degree by the behavior of Representative Devin Nunes (R-CA) - continue until they run their course.  Senators from one party making appeals to the other over the matter on the Senate floor might as well be reading excerpts from "Trout Fishing In America" to each other.  But it's becoming more likely that Trump's administration will soon be dead in the water. 

Comey, Gorsuch, Whatever . . .

James Comey can't not tell the truth.  The FBI director publicly leveled with everyone about Hillary Clinton, and now he's doing the same about Donald Trump.  I love this guy.  

On Monday, he came right out and said there is no evidence whatsoever that Trump got wiretapped before taking office by President Obama, and yet Trump painted himself in an even deeper corner by refusing to admit he was wrong. He did tweet ecstatically when he said that Comey proved that the Russians had nothing to do with influencing the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.  Not so fast - what Comey meant by that was that there's no evidence that the Russians hacked voting machines to stuff the electronic ballot box.  But he does believe that the Russians may have been responsible for the leaks of Democratic National Committee (DNC) e-mails and fake-news Internet posts that may have swayed enough people to vote for Trump.

On the other hand, the recent revelation of the government legally recording Trump campaign staffers in 2016 in an effort to get more intelligence on the Russians - not wiretapping, but an action that might have snared more than a few Trump aides - has made the waters even murkier . . .

Be that as it may, even if the Russians did hack the DNC, what they uncovered wasn't fake news.  It was true - an uncovering of real efforts to tip the scales for Hillary and manipulate the voters with a flawed general-election candidate.  And by the way, now that he doesn't have to campaign for her anymore, Martin O'Malley says he's done with the DNC.

I may be done with the whole damn party.  Because, also this week, Senate hearings for the confirmation of Judge Neil Gorsuch to fill a Supreme Court seat President Obama should have been allowed to fill began, and despite the fact that the Republicans are going to get him confirmed one way or another, even if it means suspending the filibuster rule, Democrats have no idea or strategy as to what the hell to do about it.  If they fight the nomination, they'll get steamrolled and look like fools.  If they acquiesce to it, the base will never forgive them, and party disunion will ensue.  

Delay it by trying to tie it to the Russia investigation? You're going to have to do better than that, Senator Schumer.

Those who say we'd be a whole lot better off if Hillary had won and picked Antonin Scalia's replacement on the High Court forget that Democratic hopes of retaking the Senate and controlling the confirmation process faded long before it became apparent that Hillary was actually gong to lose the election.  They also forget that the Republicans were ready to do to any Supreme Court nominee she would have put forward what they did to Merrick Garland - ignore said nominee. And her nominee would not have been another William Brennan or Thurgood Marshall - it would have been a centrist.  Merrick Garland, who's at least slightly left of center,  might be a Supreme Court justice today if the public had pressured Mitch McConnell into allow hearings, but no, the Democratic base was dissatisfied with the fact that he was just another white guy, and so couldn't get excited for him.  Yet another example of identity politics ruining America for everyone.  Now the hapless Democratic caucus in the Senate is trying to figure out how to avenge Garland without having it backfire on them.

But then, who cares when only 43 percent of Americans can name any Supreme Court justices and the other 57 percent are the ones who will be most affected by the rulings of a Justice Gorsuch?  Not that the Democrats did a lot to push the issue in the 2016 elections.

Face it, Democrats, you blew it.  While I'm glad to see Trump cratering, I'm also glad to see you doing the same.  Whig out and let a new party take your place.  It's over.