Is there someone out there with clout in the GOP with a spine to do the right thing?
I am severely stressed by the Comey firing. Comey was not perfect and how he acted with regards to the e-mail controversy was inappropriate. But that was last year; I can only imagine the outcry had Obama fired him (as he could have).
If Trump was concerned about Comey's conduct, why didn't he fire him on January 20? Instead, he picks a day when the noose keeps getting tighter (grand jury indictments, Comey's request for more money and resources, Yates and Clapper's testimony, request to the DOT's financial crimes unit, Mike Flynn, etc.).
What makes it even more befuddling is that Trump was one of Comey's biggest cheerleaders when Comey's actions served his purposes. Now, we are led to believe that someone who was just confirmed two weeks ago had the resources and time to formulate a memo (which looks like it could have been written off after a night of Wikipedia and Google searches) to disparage said conduct (again, related to a year ago), that Trump is such a concerned President who - despite public comments otherwise - does care for the way poor Hillary Clinton was treated...
No, this cannot stand. This is not the America I read about in history books. Yet, GOP leaders - but for a few - are buying the White House spin hook, line and sinker. No, it won't change the investigation, they say. Oh, Comey had lost trust of his people (really? Whom did you ask?). President Trump followed the recommendations of the AG and DAG (I thought he is the President and what the hell is Sessions doing in any of this, since he 'recused' himself?). Blah, blah, blah.
No, what happened is a serious travesty of a power-mad and power-hungry reality TV star/failed businessman who has a pattern (proven and many years long) of firing people when they get too close to criticizing him or revealing unpleasant things about him or his inner circle.
Trump may very well do so in the private sector; but he's the freaking Commander in Chief. He fired a man who - for all his faults - is the lead and public face of an investigation that involves people around Trump, if not Trump himself.
Jeffrey Toobin on CNN stated it best and repeatedly. This is not normal, we cannot accept this as normal, we cannot normalize this. Even the Saturday Night Massacre so often referenced of late is not an apt comparison. Archie Cox was a public prosecutor when Nixon had Robert Bork fire him; Cox was not the FBI Director.
Yet, I do not see many spines out there. There is little of country above party out there. I guess people would rather go back to discussing the Kardashians than contemplating the serious repercussions of the Comey firing and, with it, the impeachable actions of this administration and his coterie of fools (fools, but dangerous ones).
This investigation the FBI is conducting will proceed, I suppose. There are many people who do take country above party seriously within the FBI. I have no doubt. The problem, however, will be what happens when these people want to investigate further issues or go in other directions counter to the Trump administration and whatever stooge Trump will have in Comey's place. The Senate and House committees are already poorly staffed and resourced as is - Comey reportedly was asking for more resources in order to ramp up the investigation.
I expect that we will see these investigations be strangled by their lack of resources and staffing. Our only hope is for someone with the guts to spill the beans, a new Deep Throat of sorts. I fear that massive leaks will be the only way people of all political stripes will understand the depths and dangers of what happened with Russia's involvement in the elections and, in my view as a fraud examiner, the collusion between Trump's people (if not Trump himself, via his murky real estate and financing deals) and Putin's government.
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