Comey

[oldtime dfl_er]

After watching Bill Maher on Friday, I have a slightly better idea of who James Comey is. The impression the panel gave was that this was a man who not only has a very exalted opinion of himself, but also believes himself completely morally upstanding, kind of a latter-day Elliot Ness. I think it was Maher who used the phrase "the only honest man in a crooked town" to describe how Comey sees himself (not that it's literally the truth).

97% of what I have seen of Comey fits with this description. The part that hasn't made sense is the part where he comes out a few weeks before the election and makes an announcement that Hillary's emails might cause the investigation to be reopened. There was no good reason for him to hold that press conference or to make that useless announcement. Except...to hurt Hillary Clinton and to help Donald Trump become president.

Is it possible that Comey wanted to help Trump to win so that he could then go ahead with his investigation (which had started in July) into Russian interference? Maybe he believed that, should Trump lose, the investigation would die on the vine and the Russians would get off scot free without exposure. (You may say that the investigation could have gone forward even if Hillary had won, but at that point who would have cared? Would there have been interest, would there be any sense of urgency, would the investigation have been given credence by the press or the rest of the world?)

And maybe this is why Obama didn't fire him when so many of us thought he should have.

This is just me, thinking and trying to make sense of what has happened to our country.

[aikoaiko]

1. I think that's fair and consistent with my view of him.

He really doesn't give an eff about presidents or their administrations. He is just as comfortable standing up to Bush II and their exploitation of an infirmed Ashcroft and Trump and the Russians as he is to Bill Clinton in the Whitewater investigation and HRC's email investigation.

I just wish he didn't send that second letter 10 days before the election. It was not necessary and it was foreseeable that it would have an effect on the election.

[Lucinda]

2. Louise Mensch (was on the panel) goes into depth about what

she believes prompted Comey's actions here:


https://patribotics.blog/2017/01/17/dear-mr-putin-lets-play-chess-louise-mensch-trump-russia/

[Blue_Roses]

4. I saw her talking about that and immediately

thought, how does she know all this stuff? She's been pretty accurate too.

[Lucinda]

6. She links her source info in her blog posts. And I've watched her post questions and track leads

in real time on twitter. I think she is plugged into a network of anti-Trumpy folks working hard to get him out of office... Journalists as well as political junkies and professionals...

[Warpy]

7. You mean his long history of trying to find a crime to pin on the Clintons?

He started out with the first Whitewater investigation and has been a rabid Clinton hater since then. I think that is what clouded his judgment to the point he ran to the press with absolutely nothing just days before the election.

Obama didn't fire him because he didn't want to look like he was acting in retribution. He did/does like to stay above the affray.

I can think of nothing else that would persuade him to make a dramatic announcement so close to election day. He knew damned full well there was nothing there and went with it anyway.

[canetoad]

13. Why would Obama fire him

When he appointed him?

[Hortensis]

18. For gross misuse of power. HOWEVER, we were winning.

Virtually all polls said so.

We don't know if Obama would have wanted to fire Comey--at that power level these are complex decisions with many repercussions--but as far as the election went, the right would absolutely have tried to manufacture that action into a major election-tampering scandal. You know, Dictator Obama, putsch, democracy dead, etc?

As for the notion that Comey took out a strong, experienced presidential candidate (Clinton), whom Russia had good reason to fear, and put a dysfunctional boob in the presidency as part of a grand battle with Russia, that's totally ridiculous. Mensch is broadcasting from la-la land.

Rump's election has weakened us tremendously, and with it all nations in Russia's way. It destabilized us internally, put the military under the control of an astonishingly incompetent CiC, and severely damaged our standing among other nations.

Now, if Mensch was accusing Comey himself of being lead point in a vast Russian conspiracy, it'd at least make a little more sense.

[Hortensis]

16. YES. "He knew damned full well there was nothing there and went with it anyway."

Comey's not nearly as principled or honorable as he wants people to believe he is, and perhaps wants to believe himself to be. When it comes to the Clintons, the big difference between him and the typically Clinton-deranged boob is that he functions at a much higher level.

And, Comey's also conservative. He may also have colluded with other plotters to keep Democrats from getting control of the White House and Congress. Literally hundreds of sea were at stake. That's not been ruled out.

We know the FBI watched Russia run free in DNC files for months while having excellent reason to believe the DNC leadership never got their oddly-channeled notice that it was happening.

[KewlKat]

19. i read that whole article and i'm numb.

[Lucinda]

20. Her entire blog is worth a read...I dont know how much she has correct, time will tell

but it does seem to align well with what is currently being uncovered...

[tirebiter]

3. I had to reexamine my bad vibe about him

after reading Louise Hensch. I held out changing until he openly announced he was investigating Trump. Hensch says Comey's got a Trumpland problem within the FBI. If I got it right these are agents with allegiance to Giuliani. They are under investigation by the DOJ.

[Hortensis]

17. Comey simply cannot be "a good guy."

A principled FBI director would NEVER misuse his power to interfere with the democratic process. That is a huge, huge betrayal of his nation and of his personal duty to his position in the FBI.

[Blue_Roses]

5. Like Bill Maher, I want to believe

he is one of the good guys. I guess time will tell.

[Warpy]

8. Maher is correct about many things and he's usually entertaining

but he's perfectly capable of being a total blockhead because his blind spots are large ones.

[Blue_Roses]

12. True.

I've been watching his show since he was on ABC with Politically Incorrect. Sometimes I just take what he says in jest. It keeps my blood pressure down.

[nocalflea]

9. I don't doubt he is as outraged over all of this as we are .

I don't think there is any simple answer for his Hillary moment.
If he purposely threw the election for Trump , that is indictable . Would someone with his sense of self-righteous integrity break the law , bigly , for the purpose of advancing an investigation ? Seems like a stretch .
I don't think the investigation would've ended with Hillary being elected. So why try to tip it ? Comey would not have known the election results beforehand .

[brush]

10. The self-described "only honest man in DC", ego and all, is just a despicable, partisan repug hack

You don't turn over the presidency to someone like trump, who you are investigating for colluding with the Russians unless you are a despicable, partisan repug hack who couldn't bring himself to allow a Dem, especially Hillary, to win.

He was investigating trump for possibly colluding with the Russians for months without disclosing it but discloses that there are "new" Clinton emails 11 days before the election that he hadn't even seen yet.

Sorry, those two things couldn't be anymore unequal in importance but he outs the story on alleged "new" emails but keeps quiet on possible treason.

It's inexcusable. O should've fired him then had the DOJ investigate him.

[JI7]

11. i still think he was pressured by right wing types in the FBI to go public with the CLnton stuff

because remember that there were people on trump's campaign including his own family who hinted at something that was going to come out.

and comey might have convinced himself that she will win anyways so it wont affect the election.

[UCmeNdc]

15. I think some higher ups in the New York FBI office worked on him until he broke.

They made it seem they had more on Clinton than they actually had. Then said he was playing favorites for the Clinton camp. (Just my guess.) I knew right away Comey just gave the election to Trump with his announcement. That made a lot of voters say to themselves "I do not want a criminal in office".
I think the same NY FBI higher ups kept Comey away from Trump's true connections to Russian spies. Sometimes I think maybe the NY FBI was infiltrated to some degree by the Russians.

[nikibatts]

14. To me, it's just this simple: Men who view themselves as powerful, despise strong women.