There’s some speculation that James Comey moved up the release date of his highly anticipated memoir from May 1 to mid-April to get ahead of a possibly damning report due from the FBI inspector general about his (Comey’s) handling of the Clinton email server investigation. Via Politico:
The book could land at a complicated moment for Comey, as well. “A Higher Loyalty” was originally scheduled for release on May 1, but the publisher last month announced it was moving up the publishing date because of the “intense scrutiny” surrounding the FBI.
Comey detractors, however, have speculated that the change had more to do with spinning another major piece of Comey’s legacy: his handling of the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email during the 2016 election, which he is also expected to detail in the memoir.
The FBI inspector general’s report reviewing allegations of misconduct by Comey in connection with the email probe is also expected to come out this spring. “It’s hard to believe it won’t be critical of how he handled things,” said [Matthew] Miller. “There is speculation that he moved up the publication date to get ahead of the report. In the book he will come off as the saint he thinks he is.”
Miller was DOJ spokesman during the Obama administration. His remark captures my ambivalence about / contempt for Comey. On the one hand, there’s credible evidence he threw the election to Trump with a grandstanding letter to Congress days before the race ended. On the other, no Comey, no Mueller investigation.
Will the book make a big splash? Miller speculates that it could drive public opinion and become a PR headache for the White House, but being up to their eyeballs in negative publicity is normal for Team Trump.
So, regardless of what Comey reveals in the book, his legacy will likely come down to this: Comey set the house on fire, but at least he notified the fire department on the way out the door. My father-in-law was an old-school fireman, and he used to joke that his department had “never lost a basement.” We’ll see if Mueller’s team is able to salvage more than that.
Baud
If Trump and Company weren’t so god-awful,* Comey would rightly be the most hated man in Blue America.
* By which I mean, below the level of Bush II.
Litlebritdifrnt
No idea how to link toTwitter but CBS are reporting Kelly is going to resign as early as today.
dmsilev
@Litlebritdifrnt: To be replaced by an _incompetent_ racist asshole, one presumes.
PaulWartenberg
I do think, given what I’ve read about the email reveal, that Comey’s handling was due more to Trey Gowdy’s House committee getting information illegally from that rogue NYC office – the one that’s buddy-buddy with Rudy – than any direct intent on Comey’s part. That committee had forced him earlier to agree to give them “pertinent information about Hillary” and they forced him to release that stuff before even Comey understood what was in those emails (which turned out to do with Anthony Weiner’s weiner than with National Security).
I agree that Comey mishandled it, but I believe the Republicans had gamed this out better than people realized and timed it in the worst possible way.
It didn’t help that McConnell was blocking all reports about trump’s conspiracy with Russia. It was a devastating do/don’t do combination that wrecked our nation. I blame McConnell and the House Republicans more than I blame Comey.
dmsilev
@Litlebritdifrnt: CBS has a full article up:
I think this is the same rumor that’s been circulating for the last few days. Guess today will tell.
Betty Cracker
@PaulWartenberg: Great points, but the fact that there was a rogue NYC office points to Comey’s leadership failures. It was his job to stop them from engaging in partisan activities, and he didn’t. Instead, he allowed his own underlings to manipulate him into possibly the most partisan act of sabotage in US electoral history.
Hermann Fegelein
No ambivalence. Comey was in the tank for Trump and would have done anything Trump needed. But fellow criminals don’t talk about their corrupt plans out loud, everything is understood. Trump didn’t understand that and fired comey because he wouldn’t say it OUT LOUD; Trump wasn’t patient enough to just sit and let Comey take care of it.
Lapassionara
@PaulWartenberg: Trey Gowdy is high on my list. What a snake. His inept questioning of HRC was a lowlight of the investigation. And I find his retirement more than a little suspicious.
I just hope I live long enough to find out the truth of what happened and see justice be done.
SFAW
@PaulWartenberg:
As well you (and we) should.
But their traitorous behavior did/does not give Comey leave to fuck over Hillary the way he did. He was not some first-year Junior G-Man, he was the fucking Director, and doesn’t get to play the “OMFG what will the peepuls think of me and my legacy if I don’t play nice with the Rethugs” game. He’s not as insecure as Shitgibbon, but not for lack of trying.
SFAW
@Lapassionara:
Seconded.
Thoughtful David
Yup, he’s a seditionist, and deserves a long lifetime in the hoosegow for deciding he could let the FBI choose the president.
@PaulWartenberg:
And I don’t buy the “oopsy” argument. His actions against Clinton in June 2016 and his lack of actions against the Trump Russians show he was trying to disadvantage Clinton and advantage Trump. There were things he could have done against the Trump Russians.
Jeffro
@dmsilev:
I think it’s funny – ok, almost funny – the way that Trumpov keeps giving more and more to the same shrinking pile of loyalists and swapping one cabinet secretary for another.
Whatsamatter Don, doesn’t anyone want to work for you? Or is it that you just can’t trust anyone new to keep their mouths shut about your maladministration’s corruption?
Baud
@Thoughtful David: Agreed. His June 2016 statement shouldn’t be forgotten.
Baud
@Jeffro:
That’s calls for a porque no los dos.
Jeffro
@PaulWartenberg: @Thoughtful David: I think they were anticipating a Hillary blowout and thought they’d be able to keep her margins/mandate down by kneecapping her like this. Instead, they saddled us with Orange Crash. Thanks Comey, ZEGS, and Turtle!
TBF
@Betty Cracker: Also, this story is very convenient for Comey. “Rogue officials made me do it” absolves him of responsibility. It is enough reason for me to be suspicious. I think Comey’s actions are best seen as an attempt to grab power-By publicity investigating “Emails” he laid the groundwork for hamstringing Clinton from the very beginning if she ever took office, and he probably tried similar stuff with Trump except that he’s a much bigger crook than Comey. In any case Comey is a disgrace.
germy
Baud
@germy:
Jared?
Steve in the ATL
@Baud: 1. por que, not porque, according to a Spanish language pedant last night
2. are you a lawyer?
Thoughtful David
@Jeffro:
They don’t get to decide what the margin is either. Still sedition.
germy
@Baud: Stephen Miller ?
germy
@Jeffro:
Well, as Babs Bush said about Hurricane Katrina victims, “It’s worked out rather nice for them.”
Pinacacci
John Bolton whispering in the entropic cheeto’s ear scares the hell out of me.
Cheryl Rofer
Comey may be ramping up the publicity this week partly to help protect Andrew McCabe, who is supposed to retire from his job as Deputy Director of the FBI on, I think, Sunday, but the Trumpies want to fire him now so he doesn’t get a pension. The pettiness of this administration has no bottom. Comey is warning them that people may just speak out once they’re out of government service. (Last sentence added in edit.)
If his book helps to take down The Orange One, I’m all for it.
El Caganer
@dmsilev: Replacing a competent racist asshole with an incompetent racist asshole? I’ll take that as a win.
Belafon
@Hermann Fegelein:
I think Comey was more of a misogynist than in the tank for Trump. Everyone assumed Clinton would win. He was just laying down the law, saying that while Clinton was the “president”, the men would be running things.
Yarrow
@dmsilev: Interesting that Kelly is leaving as well. I didn’t hear about that yesterday. Wonder who will replace him.
Elizabelle
I hope Comey gets some whipsmart students who ask him some serious questions on ethics.
WaPost, from January 2018: Comey to teach course on ethical leadership for College of William & Mary
Chemistry and religion. That’s an interesting background.
Jeffro
@Thoughtful David: agreed…was just making a guess at their “reasoning”, not excusing it
schrodingers_cat
Is there nothing else happening besides the continuous game of musical chairs on the decks of the T-tanic.
ElegantFowl
Comey may try to wriggle, but he will be on the hook for eternity for his dereliction of duty that elected Trump. As they turn this year to the war part of the program, and the body count racks up, never forget Comey enabled it. No redemption.
satby
@Jeffro: I think that’s likely. I know for a fact from my ex-friend the journalist that excuse is what a lot of the media were doing, he admitted as much in his final argument with me. They all thought she’d win and were trying to cut that win down.
The Moar You Know
@Hermann Fegelein: Glad to know I’m not the only one who thinks this is exactly what happened. The “no Comey, no Mueller” argument is just wrong, because without Comey and the FBI’s interference Hillary Clinton would be president today.
schrodingers_cat
@satby: They are still attacking her with glee. See the spate of articles criticizing her for what she said in India. Our press is pathetic.
trnc
@Jeffro: DT said everyone wants to work in the White House. Except, apparently, most people working in the White House with him.
satby
@schrodingers_cat: I know. Pathetic is too nice of a word for them. Which is why I read and watch news media that isn’t US based. Garbage is the word I would use for them, and not just the fucking NYT.
The Moar You Know
@Elizabelle: Not at that school he won’t. My brother taught there for a while. His opinion of the student body is, let’s put it nicely, “low”.
Major Major Major Major
Imagine a drunk driver causes a 3000-car pileup, during which a fuel truck explodes and several trucks transporting hazardous materials rupture, closing down a busy interstate for months, killing dozens, and poisoning hundreds.
The drunk driver then calls 911.
I would not be ‘ambivalent’ about this driver.
Thoroughly Pizzled
@Jeffro: That’s the entire election. Comey anticipated a Hillary blowout so he released the letter. The media anticipated the Hillary blowout so they gave us wall-to-wall EMAILS. The brocialists anticipated a Hillary blowout so they voted for Jill Stein/nobody. And people like me anticipated a Hillary blowout so we didn’t volunteer as much as we could have…
The Wikipedia entry for “tragedy of the commons” should just be a picture of Hillary.
Schlemazel
Anybody know what the CoS job pays? I think it would be a lot of fun. I know I would be having the time of my life even if I hold lasted a few weeks
schrodingers_cat
@satby: NYT is the leader of the pack. I just checked out Huffpo. They are criticizing Ds and lionizing Edward fucking Snowden on the issue of torture.
So if you don’t mind my asking what news sources do you peruse?
rp
I view this as a good thing. The administration is equal opportunity — they’re prejudiced against all races, not just African-Americans and Latinos!
But her emails!!!
@germy:
It’s a tough call between Grima and the miniature shoulder devil.
tobie
Normally I wouldn’t give a hoot whether Comey, McCabe or others were criticized in the Inspector General’s report but my fear is that the IG’s report will be used to impugn the integrity of any FBI witnesses Mueller might call to testify against Trump. How much weight can be given to McCabe’s testimony if IG Michael Horowitz, an Obama appointee, recommended his firing? Horowitz may be a straight-up guy but he was tasked by Trump appointees to investigate the Clinton email case for partisan reasons, and he seems to be doing his master’s bidding. Judging from his recommendation to fire McCabe for “lack of candor,” he sounds like another goody-two-shoes, more concerned with letting everyone know that he follows the letter of the law than exercising judgment in an existential moment for the Republic.
Sanjeevs
I think losing the most powerful state in the world to a country with an economy the size of Italy would have to count as a failure for the head of counterintelligence in America.
A failure on Obama’s part too I’m afraid.
Amir Khalid
@Cheryl Rofer:
Are the Trumpenvolk just blowing smoke about this firing? I think someone (was it Adam?) said here that, per civil service rules, firing McCabe won’t take away his pension — that only being convicted of one of a list of enumerated crimes would bring about such a sanction. And anyway, the week before McCabe’s retirement date sounds like way too late to start termination proceedings against him.
patrick II
@Betty Cracker:
A few months back in a post on the same subject and with the same tone, that Comey threw the election to Trump. I went on rather hyperbolically (but not by much) to say, considering the outcome Comey deserved to be hung as a traitor, not for just his last minute announcement but for not starting an investigation of Trump Russian collusion before the end of July, and then not mentioning it when he did. Adam said at the time that while he sympathized with our harsh judgement of Comey, because of his inside knowledge he had more sympathy. More own feeling about that was he was holding up a black box we could not see inside of to justify his opinion. My own feeling was that unless that black box contained a message something like”we have kidnapped your children and are holding them at gunpoint” I didn’t care what else it could be.
Anyhow, my question is this, with all we have learned since then about the depth and breath of the Russian incursion from sources such as Fusion testimony, the Dutch who themselves had electronically infiltrated the Russian effort and were telling us exactly what the Russians were doing, and the news just last week that we had a Russian mole who told us in even more detail what was going on, given all of that, do you think Adam still feels the same way? You combine that with all of the Trump Russian connections, including Manafort as head of his campaign trying to change the Republican plank about giving weapons to the Ukraine, why there was not an earlier and more serious investigation into Russia, and why when asked by President Obama, Comey along with McConnell and Ryan, refused to support informing the public but instead another rehashing of Hillary’s emails is beyond me. Having him hanged for treason may be hyperbolic, but 3 to 5 years isn’t.
satby
@schrodingers_cat: I like the Guardian, Al Jazeera, sometimes the Times of India even. I’m pretty eclectic and scan around a lot to get different viewpoints. Even the BBC is light years better than our news. Get lots of good links right here.
ruemara
@satby: I wish you were still friends so you could slap them for me.
schrodingers_cat
@satby: Times of India is as garbagy as NYT with some Bollywood masala thrown in.
Guardian is too much of a purity pony for me when it comes to US politics
I will check out Al-Jazeera, thanks for the tip.
BBC is not bad, their website is pretty terrible though.
GregB
@ElegantFowl:
I felt early on that Trump will likely be driving force behind a worldwide conflagration responsible for untold deaths.
Global leadership is now populated by a cabal of soulless autocrats, dictators and elected sociopaths.
I have no faith that Trump, Putin, Xi, Erdogan, Duterte, Mohammad bin Salman, Netanyau, and Assad is a good combination for the world.
patrick II
Forced? He was head of the FBI. He could not be forced to publicly reveal on ongoing investigation against FBI longstanding policy and I would guess regulation. Especially given the “we have found some emails but have no idea of what’s in them” nature of nature of his report.
And I will tell you he could have waited a day and had someone run a grep program search looking for matches and he would have found that they were dupes quickly. But he didn’t want to in spite of the fact I am sure the FBI has some IT skills. But he chose not to and rushed out in ignorance and may have destroyed this country. Fck Comey.
As for Giuliani and the New York office, was Director Comey their boss or were they his?
scuffletuffle
@Elizabelle: class title, “How not to be ethical, ever”
GregB
@schrodingers_cat:
I think Hillary gave that mild comment on the day Trump campaigned for the shitheel who said Democrats hate God and country.
But Hillary is the one hurting feelings. Ooof.
germy
satby
@schrodingers_cat: the point for me is that it isn’t wired into the US Republican mindset (I don’t read local Indian news much, I don’t know enough to understand any of the nuances). Same with the Guardian. The BBC is somewhat conservative.
All news is reported by people, and all people have their biases, even in just deciding what’s newsworthy to report. What I’m doing is trying to spread the bias exposure. I don’t assume there’s none.
Roger Moore
@Cheryl Rofer:
Taking away his pension is not just pettiness. It’s intended as a punishment for insufficient loyalty and a warning to anyone else of what the price of disloyalty is.
satby
@ruemara: fortunately, I haven’t seen him face to face since our 35 year H.S. reunion. Because I would have punched him, not slapped him. Punched hard, in the nads.
Roger Moore
@trnc:
Everyone wants to work in the White House. Hardly anyone wants to work in the Trump White House.
Cheryl Rofer
@Amir Khalid: I don’t know. Adam knows the civil service rules better than I do.
I haven’t been following that closely. It’s getting damn near impossible to follow anything closely, which is part of the point of all the uproar. And I’ve had a lively week IRL, too.
tobie
@germy: Yet again we see the whole purpose of the IG’s report is to call into question the honesty of any former FBI official who might testify against Trump. The Inspector General writing this report, Michael Horowitz, is an idiot if he doesn’t realize this.
Jeebus Price
@satby: Anyone who tells you they’re completely unbiased is probably A) lying, and B) absolutely beholden to the “both sides” bullshit,
Roger Moore
@But her emails!!!:
I’ll go with Grima Wormtongue any day. Remember, his main accomplishment was making the leader he advised passive and weak. I find that vastly preferable to encouraging his worst aggressive impulses.
Frankensteinbeck
An excellent description.
@PaulWartenberg:
Doesn’t hold up once you add in the disgracefully improper way he handled recommending no charges be offered earlier in the year. He got up on stage and basically said ‘She’s guilty but can’t be prosecuted because of a technicality.’ No, he personally hated Clinton, wanted to sabotage her, and even if he thought he was doing the right thing found it awfully easy to decide ‘the right thing’ was to attack her.
@dmsilev:
While this could certainly true, so far these rumors have had an only random association with what actually happens.
Cheryl Rofer
@Roger Moore: Wait until Trump finds out that the US manufactured nerve agents too!
James E. Powell
@Major Major Major Major:
Exactly. I was trying to come up with an analogy – I was trying something with Titanic and a lifeboat – but yours is better. Even if Mueller’s investigation turns into something that ensures a D president & senate in 2020, the damage already done is huge and will last a very very long time. Gorsuch alone is too much.
Every argument that tries to paint Comey as a devoted politically neutral public servant beset on all sides by partisan hacks is just bullshit. He was wrong to go on his tirade over the emails in the summer and he was wrong to write the letter. When he learned there were elements in the NY office (reportedly, I have no knowledge myself), he was wrong to do nothing about it. I’ve referred to the famous scene from Absence of Malice as an example of what an FBI director could have done with that.
The only way I could begin to forgive him for the disaster he created would be if he issued a full confession, shaved his head, and entered a monastery. Even then, I’d wish him nothing but pain and loneliness for the rest of his days.
OzarkHillbilly
@schrodingers_cat: @GregB: I missed it. What did Hillary say?
But her emails!!!
@satby:
Did you ask how exactly deliberately impacting an election was consistent with journalist ethics, or ethics in general?
rikyrah
UH HUH
UH HUH
schrodingers_cat
@satby: I was not criticizing you. BTW Times of India is Gargbage^n. I have never read a more vapid news source.
ETA: In India the non-English language media is usually much better. English language media by and large are ass kissing toadies of whoever is in power.
schrodingers_cat
@OzarkHillbilly: She criticized the deplorables who voted for his Orangeness.
Amir Khalid
@Frankensteinbeck:
As I remember it (it was two years ago, so I may not have this right) Comey didn’t say Hillary had done something wrong but was getting off on a technicality; he said there was nothing to warrant criminal charges.
satby
@But her emails!!!: that’s the most engaging thing because he didn’t think they were impacting the election in any meaningful way. According to him, they didn’t need to dwell on Trump because that buffoon wouldn’t get elected, and people needed to be informed about Hillary’s many failings as a human being. He particularly harped on her voice and speech delivery. And was enraged when I pointed out how misogynistic that was.
He’s actually not that smart when it comes down to it.
But her emails!!!
@OzarkHillbilly:
She told the truth by Trump’s campaign and by extension impugned those who voted for him. Hence, media hissy fit.
She basically said that Trump ran a backwards looking campaign. The media seized on this as saying that his voters and even the whole country outside of the coasts was backwards.
OzarkHillbilly
@schrodingers_cat: There is a cohort of people who have always found simple truths to be the most objectionable.
Elizabelle
@James E. Powell: Comey needs to go the John Profumo route. Step out of the limelight; spend the rest of his days working with and for the have nots.
Chris
@dmsilev:
Safe bet. Not sure which is worse; hopefully the incompetence will seriously hinder the attempts to be a racist asshole, but that’s not a given.
GregB
Comey and the media helped saddle America with this odious shitheel and all of his fuckfaced simpletons and short fingered knuckle draggers.
Stormy Daniels’ attorney has now alleged that she was threatened by those elements in Trump world.
Also, a female judge in Panama has alleged the exact same thing in the legal hullabaloo over the Trump property there.
“So I won the places that are optimistic, diverse, dynamic, moving forward. And his whole campaign, ‘Make America Great Again,’ was looking backwards. You know, you didn’t like black people getting rights, you don’t like women, you know, getting jobs, you don’t want to, you know, see that Indian-American succeeding more than you are, whatever your problem is, I’m going to solve it.”
Chris
@Betty Cracker:
Even if you believe that the NYC office forced him to kneecap Hillary Clinton, there were ways to mitigate the damage. He could have simultaneously informed the public that Hillary was “under investigation” (she wasn’t, but what the hell) and also that Trump was under investigation; the media would’ve reported it as “both sides do it,” the effect on the campaigns would’ve canceled each other out, and he could sleep soundly knowing that he hadn’t affected the outcome of the election.
Nah. Comey, like virtually his entire bureau, was simply in the bag for Trump. He didn’t like the guy, but he still saw it as his duty to help him.
OGLiberal
@Belafon: Rudy’s NY FBI Office (which, I’m sure, is filled with the most misogynist, racist, Muslim hating white dudes, because that is the dictionary definition of NY Met area white law enforcement people) told Comey that if he didn’t do what he did, they’d leak that they had damaging Hillary info (they didn’t) and that if he didn’t mention it, they’d make sure everybody knew he was in the tank for Clinton. He wanted to keep his job post inauguration so he played ball without lying – “we’re checking again…OK, still, nothing there”. But the asshole still got fired.
satby
@schrodingers_cat: well, probably, but I don’t speak or read Hindi, so that’s out. Arabic either, for that matter. Like I said, spreading the bias exposure.
Frankensteinbeck
@Amir Khalid:
He listed all kind of things she did that sounded bad and sounded like she was guilty of the criminal acts she had been accused of, provided none of the context, and finished up by saying that you can’t prosecute without proving intent, so he was not recommending prosecution. It could not have been more perfectly designed to tell the truth while convincing everyone of a lie. That’s one of the fallacies, but I forget which one.
Central Planning
Dateline Rochester: Our rep, Louise Slaghter, passed away. She was 88. IDK what the NYS rules are for filling her seat.
OzarkHillbilly
@But her emails!!!:
They should try mingling with his base on a daily basis as I have to. They would soon come to the realization that these people have no foresight at all.
Corner Stone
@Amir Khalid:
Comey said Hillary was guilty as all fuck but that no reasonable prosecutor could initiate proceedings against her because reasons.
Betty Cracker
@Elizabelle: I didn’t know that about Profumo. Interesting.
schrodingers_cat
@satby: You might like The Hindu better, it is more Guardian like, as in it is more left-leaning and they cover science and history and other things that TOI doesn’t.
ETA: Its an English language newspaper published from Chennai.
Denali
Off thread. I am so upset. Our congresswoman, Louise Slaughter, has died. She was older(87) but very active. I did not know about it, but she had fallen in her home and was hospitalized last week in Washington. She will be missed.
raven
@Betty Cracker: And Christine Keeler and Mandy Rhys-Davies?
Chris
@satby:
People like this usually aren’t.
satby
@Central Planning: oh RIP Louise!
Steve in the ATL
@Frankensteinbeck:
This is actually a violation of legal ethics. He should be disciplined for it.
But her emails!!!
@OzarkHillbilly:
Most common sentiment that I saw from liberal leaning people in twitter responses to the news posts was something along the lines of “I agree with that even though she didn’t actually say it.”
Central Planning
@satby: here’s a link about it from our local paper
Chris
@GregB:
Note that the entire Republican electoral strategy from Nixon onwards has been to point at the entire blue half of the country and explain that it’s satanic, communistic, foreign, and un-American. So all the outrage at this (far far milder) quote is just the usual “can dish it out but can’t take it.”
satby
@schrodingers_cat: I will look it up, thanks!
Marshall
Charlie Manson not being available.
Villago Delenda Est
The Wonkette tour is going to hit Morgantown on the 26th. Cole, this is your chance to meet Donna Rose!
Stan
If only…..
….if only ONE senator had thought to ask, back in the summer of 2016, “Mr Comey, are there any OTHER campaigns or candidates under investigation?”
satby
@Chris: well, there’s “book smart” and “street smart” as shorthand for intelligent people without/with emotional intelligence (ability to read people and account for human nature). He’s definitely book smart. And of course, a Berniac, though I’m confident he voted for the despised Hillary in the general. And in IL, so whatever voting tantrum he might have thrown wouldn’t matter.
But we need his type to smarten up fast, and most of them refuse to.
Frankensteinbeck
@Steve in the ATL:
At the time, I saw a lot of commentary that his speech was wildly out of line with FBI procedure and ethics. He’s not supposed to editorialize.
SiubhanDuinne
@Yarrow:
Some motherfucker.
d58826
Somewhat OT but this is the headline in the WSJ today
Maybe it’s time for the media to stop obsessing over who is coming and going in the WH until it actually happens. I suspect that these stories are just shiny balls tossed out by the WH press office to distract from the real corruption and incompetence that is this WH. These kinds of stories may have made sense in prior more stable WH but given Der Fuhrer’s love of chaos and cries of fake news it just distracts from what is really happening
Frankensteinbeck
@d58826:
That sounds too competent and organized. I suspect the different factions leak self-serving gossip to their favorite stenographers.
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: How you say that in French?
SiubhanDuinne
@germy:
I used to think Mike Huckabee was just kind of “normal” bad and stupid, but he’s convinced me recently that he’s actually abnormally evil and deranged.
Hermann Fegelein
@Belafon: Nope. He committed perjury in his “slightly nauseous” testimony, mischaracterizing the choice as “conceal” or “disclose. He deliberately interfered in the election and then lied under oath.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
Un enculé
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@SiubhanDuinne: he was pretty savvy with the media and there are always MSM types looking for a “normal” right-winger, especially of the Bible-y variety. Huckabee plays/played (IIRC) base in I forget what kind of band (rockabilly?). Played on the Daily Show, and Stewart was always out front in the normalization brigade. He does seem to have let his freak flag fly since he left office in Little Rock. And that story about his son does not suggest to me a healthy household to have grown up in.
Music is always a big thing in the normalization narrative. Scarborough and Atwater played guitar. Ann Coulter used to talk a lot about following the Dead in her youth.
No Drought No More
The naval officer at Pearl Harbor who told the radar operators to disregard the blip on their screen as a flight of incoming B-17’s from the mainland committed an egregious error, but he was no villain himself. Isokoff and Corn* claim the success of the Russian Attack upon American democracy represents a massive failure of the entire intelligence community, and not isolated actors within it.
I damned Comey for his judgement then, and I always will. But his subsequent behavior informs me that however egregious an error in judgement, his was an honest mistake. That fact makes all the difference. Trump obviously believed otherwise, and acted on that belief. To be sure, Comey is a primary actor in this great historical drama. But at this point, he shoulders no more responsibility for the overall mess we find ourselves in than the naval officer did on that awful Sunday morning for the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki four years later.
SiubhanDuinne
@Central Planning:
Heard that a few minutes ago. Very sad. Louise was one of the good ones.
catclub
@dmsilev:
Mulvaney already has two jobs and now he is the only person Trump can think of for a third job.
Trump has no imagination. If the person is not standing in front of him, he cannot imagine that person could do the job – or even exists.
Likewise for Homeland security replacement, likewise for shifting Pompeo over to SEC State, like wise for the CIA replacement head.
Corner Stone
@d58826: Trump is waiting to see if Mueller drops anything else on him today. If that happens, 15 minutes later somebody’s getting tossed.
Corner Stone
@No Drought No More:
GTFOH
d58826
@No Drought No More:
i question the ‘honest mistake’ part. Comey was a part of the Ken Starr witch hunt of Bill in the 80’s and was involved in a 1991 investigation of the Clintons as part of the NY fed prosecutors office. He has been out to get the Clintons for 30 years and 2016 just gave him his big chance. He saw the opportunity and took it.
catclub
@No Drought No More: Not me. his comments in July, 2016 that ‘we are dropping the investigation of Hillary,
but she is really a terrible person and she did terrible things, etc etc’ were just the start of his misdeeds. He should have said nothing except the investigation
found nothing that should be taken to a jury. Or better yet, have someone lower down make that statement. But no. He feared the wrong people House Republicans, and fed them as much as he could.
Steve in the ATL
@Frankensteinbeck: indeed, but I was referring to legal ethics. As a lawyer, he is obligated to act in a professional and ethical way [insert lawyer jokes here] and his statements violated that obligation. Lawyers cannot make technically correct statements that create a false impression.
Example: kid graduates from low-rated law school, can’t get a job, so he hangs a shingle. Potential client comes in, asks newly minted lawyer if he has expertise in the area of his needs. Lawyer replies “I’ve never lost a case!”
catclub
@Central Planning:
link to Paul waldman recently column that special elections are stupid, just wait till the next regular election.
Steve in the ATL
@d58826: anyone who was involved in the Starr witch hunt should be shunned from society and forced to live as outcasts.
d58826
@Steve in the ATL: Of course there is the payback with Starr being canned from Baylor over a sex scandal in the football program. The Arc of Karma is long but it will get you in the end.
scav
@catclub: Well Donny-boy deep-sea-fishes in all the best puddles.
cosima
@Villago Delenda Est: I want to meet Donna Rose (as I’m subsidising her road trip via a donation) — she’s adorable to the 10th power.
And F*CK Comey. The only reason that I can see that he has generated any sympathy is through being shat upon by the evil orange fart cloud that he put (directly? indirectly?) into office. There are, alas, tens of millions of US citizens, and others around the world, who have also been shat upon by EOFC, or will be shat upon by him, thanks to Comey’s actions. So, whatever his book says, he is a blot on US history books forever & ever. As evil at Yertle the Tertle or Ryan? Right up there with them, imo.
Amir Khalid
@catclub:
Any search for executive talent willing to work for Trump’s administration is going to be hampered by his known habit of prizing loyalty — to him, not to the White House’s mission — above competence and integrity. Putting a team together is a basic task for a competent chief executive, which of course Trump is not.
satby
We discussed this a bit yesterday, so it’ll be interesting to see the outcome of these lawsuits.
d58826
so much for what is left of the rule of law.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/03/jeff-sessions-is-evading-senate-confirmation-of-u-s-attorneys-in-jurisdictions-where-trump-might-be-investigated.html
Matt McIrvin
@OzarkHillbilly: Unfortunately, I think it is difficult or impossible to say the simple truth about the American electorate–that a shockingly large fraction of them are terrible people with terrible ideas–and be elected President. It’s not the kind of thing that is polite or politically expedient to say.
They are not a majority, but they are enough to frequently swing national races. And there’s a fairly large collection of not-as-terrible people who like the terrible people enough that they will turn on you if you denounce the worst outright. If you are trying to drive a wedge there, you can’t be overt about it.
Chris
@Matt McIrvin:
They’re not a majority, but the majority tolerates them.
The Moar You Know
@Marshall: Manson’s code of extremely scary ethics was at least consistent, heartfelt, non-situational, and strictly adhered to. Can’t say the same for Comey.
Gelfling 545
@Denali: She was mine until the last redistricting. Higgins is fine mostly but she was amazing.
d58826
MSNBC is reporting that the D’s have whistleblower documents
https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/974316651192692736
germy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I don’t think she meant the band.
The Golux
@Steve in the ATL:
To turn the pedantry up to eleven, there are actually four variants:
por qué — why
porque — because
el porqué — the reason
por que — for which
Googled it m’self!
boatboy_srq
@The Moar You Know: Come (both aspects) is proof that the GOTea is accustomed to a more effete, competent-appearing crook: he got away with what what he did because he is, and got canned by tRump because tRump is not.
Likewise the GOTea investigation proceeded because no matter how much of the GOTea agenda the party gets from Lord Dampnut he’s still not One Of Them and he’s bad at being dishonest in the public sphere. Or vice versa.
cosima
@d58826: One of the things that made the future prospects a bit brighter was the talk about Obama & Holder making plans to challenge the voter suppression, over-reach, etc. once unfettered by their positions. Looks like now would be a really good time to start seeing A LOT of that challenge. Earlier would be better. Less Netflix documentary talking, more legal challenges filed.
woodrowfan
@satby: the Guardian is good. So is the independent. BBC is good. The Economist is good for Africa and Asia if you take into account it’s going to have a free market spin to everything. So it requires a bit of reading between the lines.
cosima
@Cheryl Rofer: Do you think that could be challenged in court? Wrongful termination? Coercion? Obstruction?
Brachiator
Don’t give a shit about the emails. Am mildly curious about what, if anything, he says about Trump.
rikyrah
The Koch Brothers Tried to Spread Fake News in Black Churches. It Did Not Go Well.
“God didn’t put me on this earth to pimp death for profit.”
KENYA DOWNSMAR. 16, 2018 6:00 AM
rikyrah
New race ratings changes in 10 districts.
Subscribers can read the full overview here: https://t.co/m4Q55C4aA0 pic.twitter.com/vgOSW2iJtr
— CookPoliticalReport (@CookPolitical) March 16, 2018
rikyrah
SCOOP: US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is creating a new internal oversight division to more closely monitor the adjudicators who process immigration applictions, internal documents show https://t.co/bY0o163nIQ
— Nick Miroff (@NickMiroff) March 16, 2018
rikyrah
The new cover of the New Yorker: “Exposed” pic.twitter.com/v9FsIdmT9p
— Axios (@axios) March 16, 2018
Brachiator
@The Golux:
Also barbecue porque, porque and beans, and the slightly redundant Porqué Pig.
gvg
I don’t agree quite. Comey was minor compared to McConnel and Ryan during Obama’s administration, and Gingrinch, Duke, Stormfront, Fox news, Nixon, Reagan, years of rightwing radio, rightwing bribers like the Mercer’s and the Koch’s and on and on. Comey didn’t do as much and what he said wouldn’t have had much affect if it hadn’t been for all the rest training a percentage of the population into hypersensitivity about the Clinton name. Now he wasn’t right about his attitude about Hillary, but it was just a straw that collapsed and undermined fortress wall.
My recollection at the time is that it was tougher for anyone to “do something” about the NY FBI office because they had connections to important loudmouthed GOP politicians that could make their side of the story sound more true than the actual truth, especially with so many people who weren’t even conservative trained for years to believe bad of Hillary. Its not like he could actually shut them up even if he fired them. Obama faced the same calculation about several things including why he couldn’t fire Comey himself. Basically taking action about the bad actors would make them seem more credible than their bosses. And also it would seem partisan and ramp things up by justifying retaliation. there were always problems with cleaning up the NY FBI even though the problems were known.
Still comey would have done better if he had the self awareness to realize his own bias and mistakes. I don’t approve of him, I just don’t think as much of it is his fault as you said. Its also still going to apply when someone gets elected to deal with this messes cleanup. They will be constrained from completely firing all the bad apples. This will make ICE a real problem IMO.
Brachiator
@germy:
You win all the Internets today…
cosima
P.S. Another dead Russian found in London. Now I’m off to take Little C to a weekend camp, then have my bday/anniversary dinner, so out for hours, but thought I’d drop that here before I go!
Bruce K
The scary thing is that George Lucas damn near predicted this train wreck twenty years ago, except that he didn’t figure on Jar Jar Binks ending up on top of the scrap pile afterwards.
(Admittedly, comparing Jar Jar to Trump isn’t fair. Jar Jar deserves better, for all that he wasn’t a good character.)
What really scares me is that there’s a Palpatine somewhere in the wings, waiting for his chance.
TenguPhule
He deserves to be spared the death penalty for hiring Mueller.
But for his crimes, the man needs to die in poverty.
TenguPhule
@Bruce K:
Paul Ryan.
TenguPhule
@No Drought No More:
Uh no. Looks more like last minute asscovering for actions he knew were wrong to begin with from over here.
Van Buren
@Elizabelle: My brother has a niece, same school, same double major. she is devoting her life to fighting abortion rights.
Must be something in the water in Williamsburg.
Stan
Army Lieutenant Kermit Tyler, 78th Pursuit Squadron USAAF. Lived to the ripe old age of 96.
Sorry, history nerd on duty here.
The Midnight Lurker
It’s about time they started to take Comey to the woodshed. I don’t buy the made an error in judgement argument either. It is clear to anyone with two motor neurons to rub together that in the run up to the 2016 elections, the FBI was sitting on a ton of info that Trump was unfit to be President. Yet, this sanctimonious fool was running from microphone to microphone with the latest on Hillary’s e-mails. And what ever happened to Trumplandia, you know, the pro-Trump, New York branch of the FBI that was obsessed with Clinton Cash? The same branch that looked into a private server in Trump Tower that was connected between a Russian bank and a company owned by the DeVos, and said, “Nothing to see here.” The same branch that was feeding Giuliani tasty tidbits for his frequent appearances on Fox & Fiends. And where in the world is Rudolph Giuliani?
Corner Stone
@Van Buren:
She fighting *for* protecting women’s access to medical care, or *for* more restrictions to outlaw the medical procedure?
SiubhanDuinne
@rikyrah:
I am never going to be able to unsee that, am I?
Corner Stone
@Bruce K:
Jar Jar Binks needs to be stricken from all mention in the history of everything. George Lucas needs to die a penniless and broken man, preferably locked into the stocks in town square where folk can throw rotten fruit at him every day.
dww44
@tobie: Could be he’s also a partisan, no? Or just a lily livered coward?
rikyrah
Carson, Mnuchin give Trump reasons to keep firing cabinet members
Rachel Maddow looks at how Donald Trump secretaries Ben Carson and Steven Mnuchin are garnering the kind of embarrassing scandal headlines that seem likely to draw the ax-wielding attention of Donald Trump.
Mar.15.2018
PaulWartenberg
If I had to create a list of people to blame for the atrocity that is Cadet Bone Spurs AKA The Shitgibbon, it would go like this:
1) trump himself, the SOB
2) Mitch McConnell
3) Putin
4) Trey Gowdy
5) Prince Rebus
6a) Every other cowardly Republican who refused to tell their rabid voting base to stop being assholes
6b) Fox Not-News
7) Jill Stein and the BernieBros
8) Every Beltway media talking head obsessed with Hillary’s Emails
9) Every Beltway media talking head obsessed with Both Siderism
10) Vote Suppressors in key battleground states who blocked more Dems from voting
…
9278076) Me, for failing to yell louder JESUS FUCKING CHRIST AMERICA DO NOT VOTE FOR TRUMP
I hope this helps.
Corner Stone
@SiubhanDuinne: Don’t worry. When Stormy wins her court case and the pic of Trump comes out where he’s trussed like a pig and has a ball gag in his mouth. That will push that magazine cover right out of your brain.
rikyrah
Mueller demands Russia documents from Trump Organization: NYT
Rachel Maddow relays a report by The New York Times that Robert Mueller has sent a subpoena to the Trump Organization for Russia-related documents over a time that extends to before Donald Trump declared his candidacy.
Mar.15.2018
Ruckus
drumpf has always been the way he is. He can’t hire anyone who might be better than him, which means all but the total dregs are out. He can’t have anyone who outshines him, gets more press (especially any positive press at all) than him, is seen to have some controlling influence on him, working for him. Which means of course that there will be a revolving cast of very dubious assholes around him. In his private life he could get by with screwing contractors, in this public life it doesn’t work at all. There are jobs to fill, stuff that has to happen that matters to more than just his shitty ego.
He has no way to do any of that himself, he’s not capable of anything positive. Everything he touches turns to shit, instantly.
What we are watching, to our great horror, is the result of total incompetence. Not just incompetence on some level, but total incompetence. And it feeds upon itself, one downward thing leads to another downward thing, leading to a cascade of shit. One thing can be said for drumpf, he is a world class leader in total incompetence.
schrodingers_cat
@PaulWartenberg: I see that you have left out the sage of Vt, himself.
rikyrah
Trump skips Russian sanctions law, meekly echoes Mueller instead
Rachel Maddow reports on new U.S. sanctions on Russia, the first action against Russia by the Trump administration, but instead of implementing the sanctions passed into law by Congress, the Trump administration instead copied Robert Mueller’s list of indicted Russian hackers.
rikyrah
New sanctions reveal Russian hacking of US energy infrastructure
Nicole Perlroth, cybersecurity reporter for The New York Times, talks with Rachel Maddow about new details of Russia’s efforts to hack vital U.S. infrastructure accompanying new sanctions on Russia
rikyrah
Mueller subpoenas Trump Org, Democrats point to Russian bank deal
Rep. Eric Swalwell talks with Rachel Maddow about evidence House Intel Democrats say they’ve seen that shows the Trump Organization negotiating a deal with a sanctioned Russian bank during the election season.
Ruckus
@Frankensteinbeck:
found it awfully easy to decide ‘the right thing’ was to use his high level government position to attack her.
Fixed it for you.
SiubhanDuinne
@Corner Stone:
Don’t need a picture. Your description is more than sufficient!
(I am not actually sure what a “ball gag” is, and not sure I want to know — PLEASE DO NOT TELL ME — but it sounds both unpleasant and unattractive.)
Corner Stone
@dww44: Don’t think that one is too difficult to determine:
Ideas With Consequences: The Federalist Society And The Conservative CounterRevolution
That’s a link to a blurb from the book. It has a sentence highlighting Michael Horowitz. In case the link fails, this is a part of the page:
“Simlarly, Michael Horowitz, who mentored many of the fledgling Federalists in the Reagan Administration, said that the Federalist Society was “so important”…
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
As I said above he not only didn’t stop them, he was effectively one of them.
Corner Stone
@SiubhanDuinne:
But this is a full service blog!
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Corner Stone: You hate me.
TenguPhule
@SiubhanDuinne:
It is exactly what it says on the rubber ball.
Corner Stone
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: Friends take the good with the bad.
TenguPhule
@Corner Stone:
Bondage does cost extra though.
SiubhanDuinne
@Corner Stone:
Service with a smile — a sly, silky, sinister smile.
SiubhanDuinne
@TenguPhule:
“CAUTION: Choking Hazard”?
Ruckus
@SiubhanDuinne:
LMAO
Thank you!
Of course that was an easy answer in the year 2018.
Ruckus
@raven:
baiseur de la mère
Kay
The name of the book is as insufferable as he is.
I’ll never understand why it was necessary to hold that media event to announce Clinton hadn’t done anything wrong, yet they kept the fact that Trump was under investigation under wraps. Why didn’t the public need to know about Trump?
joel hanes
@schrodingers_cat:
The Christian Science Monitor is often quite good.
BBC News occasionally.
TenguPhule
@SiubhanDuinne:
So you’re familiar with it then.
James E. Powell
@catclub:
He did not fear them, he served them.
TenguPhule
@Kay:
IOIYAR.
The GOP spent 30 years convincing the country that Republicans deserved every benefit of the doubt and that Democrats were guilty upon accusation.
joel hanes
@Roger Moore:
Grima vs shoulderdevil
Really doesn’t make any difference.
Trump is no Theoden.
Trump really only consults his dark palantir, his gut.
Mnemosyne
@No Drought No More:
Isikoff was one of the primary reporters who pushed the completely bogus Whitewater narrative on our country so, no, I don’t trust him when he claims the Democrats are mostly responsible for 2016’s result. But I’m not surprised that you’d rather listen to a guy who hates Hillary and the Democrats as much as you do.
Corner Stone
@Kay:
I’ll never understand why Comey was FBI Director.
Ruckus
@Kay:
The book should be named “A Lower Loyalty” because he certainly didn’t have a loyalty for the country that he worked for.
Kay
I don’t believe Comey’s media event was about the public’s right to know. I think it was about Comey’s ego and his sense of himself as a hugely honorable person. I think that’s why he screwed it up. He put himself at the center of it and he shouldn’t have been there.
We really would have been better off with someone who just didn’t complicate things, followed the rules and stayed in their own lane. Instead we got this great moral anguish and he fucked it all up. Keep it simple, stupid. No one ever could have touched him if he just treated it like any other investigation. That’s the reason for the rules- to insulate them from charges of bias and favoritism. Once he threw that out and decided to use his personal moral compass he was bound to screw it up because then it became about him.
Corner Stone
@Kay:
Oh, I don’t know. it sounds about right, IMO.
Uncle Cosmo
@SiubhanDuinne: It’s a comedy routine involving baseball, football, basketball, volleyball, lacrosse, tennis, soccer–
What? What did you think it meant, you of the dirty mind???
PaulWartenberg
@schrodingers_cat:
He’s Number 13, just ahead of Comey.
SgrAstar
@Hermann Fegelein: oh ffs. Comey was never in the tank for trump.
DissidentFish
@rp: I’d say a fine “auf Weidershen” to Zinke for his “quip,” to remind him of her German heritage, but you know, I’m not so sure we should encourage Trump’s team to get in touch with their inner Germans.
J R in WV
@joel hanes:
“The Christian Science Monitor is often quite good.”
Don’t rely on them for health care news or advice. In the end, the answer is always prayer. Otherwise they are pretty good.
dopey-o
I might be wrong, but AFAIR, Comey sent the letter to a few House / Senate committees. The media didn’t catch wind of it until Jason Chaffetz tweeted about it.
From the New Yorker. Read John Cassidy’s article at the link.
Bruce K
@Corner Stone: And even granting everything you’ve said, it’s still unfair to Jar Jar to compare him to Donald Trump.