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I Dunno
I was a police officer for 22 years, and by officer I mean that I never was promoted. I was never a Sergeant, Lieutenant, Commander, or Chief. During my career I had several disagreements with other officers, detectives, prosecutors, and higher-ups, including the chief of police. Sometimes I was wrong, and I admitted my error. Sometimes I thought I was right, but I agreed to comply with the decision of someone who was getting paid a lot more than me (for good reasons). I always thought I had a solid basis for my actions, though, again, sometimes I was wrong. I don’t think I ever said anything like this, though:
Sen. Rubio: “…you perceived it as an order, given his position, the setting, and the like, and the sum of the circumstances.”
James Comey: “Yes.”
Rubio: “At the time, did you say anything to the President about that is not an appropriate request or did you tell the White House Counsel ‘That is not an appropriate request, someone needs to go tell the President that he can’t do these things?'”
Comey: “I did not, no.”
Rubio: “Okay, why?”
Comey: “I dunno … (blah blah blah)”
“I dunno!?” You’re the [expletive] head of the FBI, you idiot. You darn well better know how to deal with something as simple as an inappropriate request by the President. What are you going to say when asked how to stop terrorist plots, “Beats me?”
When Comey got fired, I thought Our Dear Leader did it in a particularly incompetent fashion. I now see that Comey got no worse than he deserved.
Published in General
Hold your nose and vote for the most right wing candidate only works for so long. At some point a significant minority of center and right voters are going to throw up their hands and take their kids to the park. Because they subscribe to Einstein’s definition of insanity.
I think that Comey’s testimony reveals that he is (was) in fact the consummate politician – by which I mean, political player. Asked by Lorretta Lynch to refer to the Hillary investigation as a “matter,” he fails to report this not-so-subtle pressure from his Democratic boss to down-play the nature of the FBI investigation. Then, when not-so-subtle pressure emanates from his new Republican boss to drop an FBI investigation into the boss’s former advisor, he fails to alert anyone about that either, but he does make memoranda to CYA (or perhaps I should say, CHA). Then, despite the fact that these memoranda were made by the FBI Director, while he was FBI Director, summarizing his meeting with his boss, the President, while in his capacity as FBI Director (and concerning an on-going official government investigation), he retains these government documents and leaks them through a third party after he is no longer a government employee. Oh yes, he is a politician – albeit an unelected one!
I’m saving up the money I normally donate to political campaigns and plan to use it to buy more firearms. I will no longer subsidize these idiots for letting me down. They cost me enough in taxes as it is.
OH I agree with that for sure. I meant Trump haha. I think I’ll go edit that comment.
And that friend is when the Republicans are likely to say “What can we do, we don’t have the power?”
Edit turned into a double post…
I transcribed it from Andrew Klavan’s podcast. It sure sounded like “I dunno” to me.
I dunno. You do realize there are two James Comeys? Because I became a captive audience yesterday to NPR (your tax dollars at work) and listened to a solid hour of review and analysis: And it’s clear they heard a totally different James Comey in a totally different hearing.
They hear two Comey’s too: The brave hero who stood up to the Evil Trump, and the reprehensible jerk who sabotaged the Noble Hillary. This Comey guy appears to have taken the words of the apostle Paul to heart and become all things to all men.
Comey for President in 2020, he is all things to all people.
Vote for him or be investigated.
Very good observation!!
All or nothing?
Jeff Sessions just stopped the practice of giving big bucks to lefty groups in lieu of fines when settling law cases. To me, that is the change we sought. We pulled out of the Paris accord. We used the word “Islamic” in the same sentence with “terrorism.” Etc.
How can we expect all the change we want when we live in a huge, democratic nation? Or even, maybe, most of it.
“Money lost, little lost. Honor lost, much lost. Heart lost, all lost.”–inscription on an old Scottish cup.
I am getting impatient. Trump still has over a thousand administration positions without anyone nominated yet. That is on President Trump. I know; his staff that is supposed to be vetting candidates has been covered up with other stuff, but I bet they could borrow a couple of staff members from the RNC or even some Republican governors. The swamp can’t get drained until the team is assembled to start the work.
No, he did! In a really upbeat way, too, like someone saying he wasn’t sure what time the movie starts or sump’n. It was one of the few moments I heard. That and the moment where he admitted being the leaker.
Just a little aside – I’ve practiced some high-stakes criminal defense for 37 years, more or less. I always found the officers easier to deal with, more honest, direct to the point of bluntness, and more informative than the ones with finer titles. Friendlier, too. It seems the higher the title, the less clear the answers I could get.