We have doubled the nation’s debt from $10 trillion to $20 trillion in the last eight years, growing the police state.
ISIS is on the march.
North Korea and Iran have nukes.
We have a mucked-up health care system, a sluggish economy, and the highest corporate tax and imprisonment rates of any country in the world.
But now we are spending our money, time and attention on a “he said, he said” retrospective of former FBI Director James Comey’s firing.
It also diverted the nation’s attention from the Paris Accord, which I think is a deal where France’s army surrendered again.
It would be nice to be fired like Comey and then be able to go in front of Congress and the nation to vent your anger at your ex-boss.
This partisan carping in Washington makes the Salem Witch Trials look like a kinder, gentler and more reasoned time in America. The whole thing is a public conviction in search of facts. Putin is just smiling.
Democrats will stop at nothing to bring this president down. If Trump wiped out ISIS right now, Democrats would haul him before Congress and charge him with genocide.
Orchestrated by Democrats and some RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) to make Trump look bad, the Comey show trial failed. It was like following the Kathy Griffin beheading bit with a more boring attempt to get the president, but with similar intended results. Republicans were outraged at her for holding up the bloody severed head of a sitting U.S. president. Democrats were mad because it was not actually Trump.
And for the record, the company Squatty Potty fired Kathy Griffin before CNN did. That tells you all you need to know about how much the media are in the toilet today.
Politicians looked transparently petty in this non-fact-based witch-hunt before Congress. Conveniently, it plays into why the nation sent Trump to Washington in the first place.
Comey’s testimony revealed him to be a cowardly, self-preserving, government bureaucrat intent on keeping his job. Instead of reporting what he now implies was "obstruction of justice," he kept his notes in his desk in case he needed them later to save himself. After being fired, he leaked his notes through a surrogate (cowardly again) to The New York Times. Perhaps that was a crime too.
In fact, there are so many laws on the books, layered upon each other, enabling the government to go after whoever it wants. The Justice Department loves saying, “We go where the facts lead us,” but what they do not tell you is that they only follow the facts and the cases they want. It’s like the media: They say they report the news, but they only report news that fits their world view. The same is true of law enforcement when politics is involved; the Loretta Lynch effort to derail the Clinton investigation (a.k.a. “matter") comes to mind.
Comey’s narrative made him a "brave hero" when confronting the Trump Administration, but it revealed a compliant coward when told what to do by the Obama Administration.
Comey seemed to want to insert himself in every situation he could, rather than taking the traditional, non-partisan, low profile, investigative role the FBI historically has played. He famously said he did not pursue Hillary Clinton’s emails charges because there was “no intent.” Apparently, knowingly setting up a private server and bleaching 30,000 emails was not intent.
Comey's anger came to a head when it was leaked that Trump told a Russian ambassador Comey was a “nut-job.” Comey was so mad and wanted to prove Trump wrong that he testified before Congress.
Ron Hart, a libertarian op-ed humorist and award-winning author, is a frequent guest on CNN. Contact him at Ron@RonaldHart.com or @RonaldHart on Twitter.
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This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Getting queasy watching Washington