Among baseball statistics types, there’s a concept of the replacement-level player. The idea is, sure, that player may suck, but before you get rid of him because he sucks, think of what sort of player you can get to replace him, and whether he’ll be even as good as the sucky player you’re tired of seeing screw up and kill rallies.
Same thing here. In the summer of 2016, the replacement-level player you could get for the position of FBI Director was pretty good; strictly in terms of ability, integrity, and independence, and ignoring the likely political fallout, there was no reason not to replace Comey with the best possible replacement player.
But it’s May 2017. We have a President who is running the U.S. government as if it were his family business, in the style of a Latin American strongman from 50 years ago. In terms of integrity and independence, the replacement player will make Comey look like an all-star by comparison.
The only question is how badly the GOP will fail this gut-check moment, and complete their descent into Banana Republicanism. Because that’s what we’re looking at here.
Both Comey and 45 can be in the wrong here. It is not inconsistent to think that any during-elections shenanigans he may have done (and I’m not sure how serious they are or aren’t, myself) warrant dismissal, and also think that this firing is mega-slimy since it’s obviously done to protect himself.
I personally was sort of confused by the director’s actions, but I struggle to find words for the gut level of revulsion I feel at this firing.
Many Americans felt that Comey badly mishandled the Clinton investigation and many of those same Americans also feel that Trump firing him now when he was heading an agency investigating Trump is an incredibly troubling move.
Anyone claiming not to understand those two points is being intentionally obtuse and are making it clear that they value partisan loyalty over national interests.
I’m very much looking forward to an Administration explanation of the timing of this firing.
According to the DoJ memo, Comey broke the rules in July 2016 because of his press conference. But he wasn’t relieved on January 20, 2017, when scores of other senior political appointees were told to hit the bricks.
Instead, the Administration says that it was because of the Deputy Attorney General’s two-week investigation into that July press conference that the firing occurred.
Seriously, what could have possibly been uncovered in that two week span that was not known on January 20th? The DoJ memo also references a loss of public trust in the FBI – are we to believe that this erosion of trust happened between January 20th and May 9th? Nonsense.
Last night I was googling around for replacement rumors and was sort of surprised to discover that the Comey rumors have been going around for a couple of weeks now, with calls for Gowdy to replace him.
A lot of stuff on the hard right clickbait sites. Of course, the reasons for the firing as given on the hard right sites are a little different and refreshingly honest in their own twisted way. And not one word about how Dems hated Comey, too. Here’s a sample. (Please note that the site is horrible itself, you will be hijacked by a zillion ads). While these sites re disturbing its a good way to find out the true motivations o the hard right - they aren’t very smart and talk like no ones watching in their own playgrounds.
QUOTE FROM LINKED STORY:
*President Trump has been as patient a boss as he could possibly be expected to be.
Over the past two months, while the FBI and intelligence community should have been busy investigating Hillary Clinton’s crimes and Barack Obama’s shadow government, they decided to instead investigate a fake news story about a connection between our president and the Russians.
It’s preposterous. President Trump has proven time and time again that there is no connection. He has posted and tweeted about it hundreds if times. If it weren’t for The New York Times and CNN there would be no scandal. Trump said so himself.
Now he’s finally decided to take action. he gave Director Comey all of the chances he could. The time has come to replace him. Trump, knowing what’s best and what the American people want, wasted no time and found Comey’s replacement before he asked for his resignation.*END QUOTE
Sadly, I think I believe this. The fun has just begun.
Which has what to do with the price of tea in China? (I was not one of the ones screaming for him to go, by the way and was perfectly fine with the Clinton revelations.)
A didn’t like B because of C.
Now, because of D, A must still dislike B? Is this some law of physics that I missed out on? No it’s just an ad hominem red herring that doesn’t amount to an argument of any form.
Let’s pretend that we’re all adult, reasonable human beings and (mostly) Americans. There are real and serious investigations into the President, due to his strange approval of a nation run by a dictator that had both taken by force several chunks of land - including in Central Europe - and provably been working to destabilize all of the first world nations, including the US; due to the President surrounded himself with people who have strange connections to that state; due to the President having many business ventures that he refuses to make public and many of which are purported to be with Russia (principally the holders of his debt); and due to there being plausible allegations of a multibillion dollar deal between Russia and the President that were discovered by an intelligence agent who has been recommended as credible by several major people who would know that sort of thing.
Now if we’re all pretending this above hypothetical to be true, where exactly in the works of physics does any such rule arise that a person cannot worry when a step is taken that potentially endangers the political stability of our country and planet?
I don’t think the timing indicates any direct connection to the Russia investigation. The Russia investigation has been dragging on for over a half a year at least, and it’s likely to drag on a lot further. There’s no point at which Trump could have fired him that wouldn’t have been equally prone to depiction as Russia-related.
If I had to guess, it has to with Comey’s recent testimony to Congress, in which he said that it made him slightly nauseous to think that he might have impacted the election outcome. That particular remark received a tremendous amount of media attention. Trump is a thin-skinned petulant guy in general, and if there’s one thing that really sticks in his craw, it’s the notion that his glorious, historic, and record-breaking landslide election is the result of any artificial factors. Declaring in a very public manner that this may well have been so, and adding that you’re nauseous at the thought of it, is one sure way to incur Trump’s wrath. And if you’ve incurred Trump’s wrath you’re not likely to be working for him for long.
Comey has become to controversial a figure. He’s become too influential in the political arena. Much like the Comey letter controversy influenced the Hillary campaign, I think Trump’s fear is that Comey has become a liability to him. Trump can’t afford Comey’s unpredictability, especially since subpoenas are being issued in the Trump/Russia investigation.
I don’t think Trump thinks firing Comey will stop the FBI investigation. But I think he hopes that killing the messenger (Comey) will help the Trump WH manage the message better.
Yeah, but to be fair not all Republicans. McCain is outspoken in his opposition to this firing. To pretend to not understand those two points you have to be a certain kind of R word.
It was great timing for Trump to fire him now because it stirs up drama and chaos to be at the center of. Time will tell if he had any tactical motivation beyond that.
I am reminded of Ulysses S. Grant’s firing of General John McClernand. (Not to be confused with George McLellan.) McClernand was an awful person and a terrible general who screwed up everything he did, but Grant was stuck with him for political reasons - McClernand was big in southern Illinois, and in those days that mattered. Anyway, McClernand screwed up over and over again and generally irritated everyone, and Grant reeeeeally wanted to fire him, but wasn’t allowed to. Then one day McClernand wrote a letter to some newspapers bragging about his achievements… which, as it happened, there was an order for him (and other generals) not to do. Grant promptly fired him for insubordination.
Key thing here; Grant did not really fire McClernand for writing that letter. If a competent general like Grierson or Sherman had done it Grant would have quietly warned him not to do it again. But he had his bullet to finally fire McClernand and he used it. So while the trigger was that letter, the REASON McClernand was fired was he was a crappy general.
Same with Comey. It’s entirely possible Trump’s trigger was Comey’s testimony, which was embarrassing to Trump and, frankly, humiliating to both Comey and the FBI. But if Comey was a boot-licking Trumpist doing his levelbest to torpedothe investigations, I assure you he’d still be in the job today. The reason he was fired was Russia.
