Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Hoist with Her Own Petard
By recommending that Hillary Clinton not face trial for keeping classified documents on a private email server, FBI Director James Comey may have done the impossible: Ending the way the Clintons have done business for the past thirty years and — thus far — gotten away with it.
If the past is any guideline, Clinton’s trial would have lasted decades, with her (and her husband) doing their level best to avoid cooperating with the prosecution, dragging out the process long past its expiration date in the public’s mind. From Whitewater, to Lewinsky, to Benghazi, to the Clinton Foundation, to this, the Clintons’ modus operandi has always been to delay the pre-trial process for as long as possible in order to make the dogged determination for justice look like a partisan witch hunt.
But not yesterday. Yesterday, Director Comey made it very clear: Hillary Clinton was guilty, but she was not going to have her day in court. With his statement, the FBI director did more damage to Hillary than Ken Starr ever did to Bill, who was acquitted of perjury and obstruction of justice by the Senate, allowing him to portray his prosecution as partisan-based, giving him a platform from which to rebuild his reputation.
Hillary will have no such luck. For her, the narrative is set, and that narrative is not working in her favor. At best, she’s careless with government secrets; at worst, she broke the law but will not be charged because of her access to power. Donald Trump may have come up with the phrase “Crooked Hillary,” but it’ll be James Comey who makes it stick.
The FBI director has done to Hillary Clinton what she has done for so long: namely, dragging out the process of determining guilt or innocence over months (and months, and months) with no ultimate resolution. By using a punishment that is outside the legal process, the FBI Director has shown us the way to end Hillary’s outside-the-legal-system antics, once and for all.
Published in Elections, Law, Politics
That was my take. Unfortunately, the Republicans aren’t best positioned to take advantage of the set up, in terms both candidate, talent and infrastructure. In the end, the clarity and brevity of the first ten minutes of yesterday’s presentation getting on the record will have to suffice.
Chaser:
I dunno. This has made “Crooked Hillary” a reality. Trump’s hammer just got a little heavier and much easier to swing.
Has anyone seen Monica Lewinsky lately?
So we’re better off that he didn’t recommend prosecution?
How would it have been worse if Comey had said the same things up until the end, namely, she’s guilty of this and that, and therefore we DO recommend prosecution?
In that case she would still be receiving the “punishment that is outside the legal process” as you said but with the additional possibility of criminal conviction.
Comey accomplished what you said he did regardless of which way his final recommendation went.
This will really put to the test my belief that the electorate has an attention span of about 49 seconds. It’s rather sobering to think that, as this is going on, in excess of 50m people are preparing to vote for her.
It’s enough to make a grown cisgendered person cry. If Cruz, or Rubio, or Fiorina were the presumptive nominee it wouldn’t matter if Hillary was indicted or not. She would be toast. She is either a criminal who, because of her connections, got away with a felony or, at the very least, an incompetent unfit for office. (Most of us would go with the former.) The drama this summer would be whether the Dems could free up their delegates in the hope that Elizabeth Warren or Joe Biden could at least make a fight of it. Oy.
Time for the voters to pour a bucket of water on the witch and be done with her.
Lost in the clamor over her character is her results. If we examine Libya as a whole, Benghazi in particular, and the email scandal, we come to a single conclusion: she’s inept. Let’s face it, she sucks at this.
Conservatives treat her with the respect you’d give to Darth Vader, but the fact is that her record shows carelessness, myopia, and a soap opera mindset that prevents her from actually resolving any problems.
She thinks small. Take a look at her website and see what she claims are her “biggest accomplishments:”
Why all the deference to a person who has accomplished so little?
Kevin, you did make me feel just a little bit better…
I can appreciate the need to rationalize this, but no matter how harsh Comey’s statement may have been, it falls far short of the right and just outcome. Expecting the American populace to parse his statement beyond “no charges recommended” is, sadly, a bridge too far.
My first reaction yesterday after listening to Comey, and then re-reading the transcript of his briefing, was pretty much to eviscerate this “straight shooter” as he was referred to by many of his colleagues and friends.
Then I stepped back, and am now wondering if there isn’t a Machiavellian side to Comey after all. After the email story broke, and watching the chain reaction from Obama’s first 60 Minutes interview through to Clinton’s Lynch as AG comment, Comey recognized politics of intimidation. So he considered all the possibilities/outcomes, and decided to try and beat the Clintons at their own game. If he couldn’t take her down through the DOJ, his detailed comments of her wrongdoing were the next best thing, and will dog her throughout her entire campaign. Now, it will be up to the Sanders supporters, the independents, and the #NeverTrumps to seriously consider who they’d rather have in the White House.
Trump’s been given a golden opportunity, if he can just control his mouth, and begin acting like a presidential candidate, and not a casino owner. Hopefully, his family, who seem to have a good grip on the campaign, will have some influence over him. I think if he pulls it together in the coming weeks, makes a good VP choice, he has a clear shot at the White House. And the Dems know it.
That is why you have to do the parsing for them. And I think Trump will probably do this better than other potential nominees would. I have already heard clips interspersing Hillary saying she never sent emails marked as classified with Comey saying that she did; including the number.
From your keyboard to God’s inbox. I pray you are correct.
Br’er Comey showed her. He flung her into dat briar patch.
Lawyers for the Clintons are from the firm “Dilly Dally Doolittle & Stall”
Based on recent past performance, I doubt the Republicans would have effectively taken advantage of this even with Jeb!, Rubio or even Paul Ryan as its candidate.
You’re too optimistic.
No indictment, no trial, no jail time.
No problem getting elected.
No more rule of law. Welcome to the Banana Republic of Clintonistan.
Whistling past the graveyard.
Kevin – as much as I appreciate your attempt to put a good spin on this bad news, I can’t agree. Comey’s responsibility was to conduct an investigation and turn the results over to the DoJ for the ultimate decision whether to prosecute. He could make a recommendation, but he was not required to do so. If he believed that Clinton was guilty and that the evidence showed that, he should have announced that he recommended prosecution and let Lynch decide what to do (that she would inevitably decline to prosecute would have added far more fuel to the fire than Comey’s act of detailing all the evidence of guilt and then declining to recommend a prosecution – a decision that let Lynch off the hook). Had he detailed the evidence and recommended prosecution, only to have Lynch decline to prosecute, the firestorm would have been much greater and might well have consumed Hillary’s campaign. What he has done has let both Lynch and Clinton off the hook. Read the media commentary. There are some harsh assessments of Hillary, but there is already a “so now it’s over and we have to move on” feeling to much of it. And read the comments that follow the stories; few minds will change because of this, I’m afraid. Already the HRC spin machine is in gear – and she’s got the money to make it spin at top speed until the election. It will shortly be “old news” that is just one more attack by the “vast right-wind conspiracy.” The attack ads against Hillary almost write themselves, but there doesn’t appear to be any money to make them or air them. It’s times like this I wish I was a drinking man.
Kevin – you make a very good point – how much more taxpayer money, lawyers and attention this would have gotten while we have a country to fix and our enemies are not napping. Time to let history move forward – the truth always wins – the Clintons are not above the law and they will face the Ultimate Judge one day for everything –
A small comfort, maybe. But this is all a sideshow compared to the Clinton Foundation morass. By the time that unwinds, Chelsea will be the goat, with her parents in care homes, at least. She won’t be able to escape as she isn’t nearly as slick as her DNA donors.
As I have since Bill was first elected, and continuously ever since, whenever I see Clintons or read about them, I get this “soiled” feeling.
To those who say we’d be better with an indictment, I agree.
However, failing that, (which we have), how Comey handled this was/is absolutely brilliant. He could have done an announcement that whitewashed her of any guilt, instead, he made it very, very clear she is guilty, just not charged with a crime.
I come not to bury Hillary, but to dig up Vince Foster’s corpse and let it decompose in the sun.
That’s the best, and so true.
You make it sound like any other candidate wouldn’t do the exact same thing.
While I agree that Comey’s recitation of Hillary’s conduct was damning, all we’ll hear until election day is how she beat the rap. I don’t understand why he didn’t take the additional step of referring the matter to DOJ for further action; let Lynch and Obama pass that hot potato around. Perhaps I just don’t understand the process but further action certainly seems appropriate. I’m tired of the avoidance of hard decisions, equivocation if you will, by people in positions of authority with the capacity to do the right thing. I’m beyond tired of the unpunished conduct in this case and in others at the VA, IRS, and DOJ.
Interesting idea but essentially just a silver lining to a really bad situation. We’ve been in this spot before and claimed that the American people will see these facts and reject them with their votes. It will turn out to be, as usual, wishful thinking.
At first this struck me as attempting to put a positive spin on a horrible outcome yet ruminating on it a bit how could one reasonably expect better?
Did anyone seriously believe Attorney General Lynch was ever going to indict Clinton? After Obama had finally decided to fully embrace Clinton as his successor clearly that was never going to happen, regardless of what the FBI found. Expecting anything resembling actual justice here would be a fantasy.
Perhaps Comey’s actions are the closest we could get and perhaps he knew this.
Yeah, remember how Romney stood up to the MSM and Obama after Candy Crowley ran to Obama’s defense in the debate. Remember the ad he ran showing Crowley admit the next day that Obama hadn’t called Benghazi a terror attack after all?
Or after the economic implosion, the ads McCain ran showing footage of Democrats defending the out-of-control, unsecured, Fanny/Freddie home loans that Republicans were appalled by? The stuff was available on Youtube.
Oh, yeah, we’ve got some real fighters on our side.