Isn't it obvious why Comey struggled to figure out how to respond to Trump's "hopes"?

[pnwmom]

Last edited Fri Jun 9, 2017, 03:24 AM - Edit history (1)

Apparently not, because Diane Feinstein and others are asking:

Why didn't that "big, strong" Comey just stand up to the Don?

Here's why he was walking on eggshells:

Comey knew he was dealing with a liar.

He knew he was dealing with a narcissist.

He knew he was dealing with someone subject to fits of rage.

AND HE WANTED TO KEEP HIS JOB.

HE WANTED TO TAKE THE DON DOWN.

AND HE KNEW IF HE GOT PUSHED OUT, HIS REPLACEMENT WOULD BE SWEARING THE DON'S LOYALTY OATH.

So, Comey avoided confrontation. He said as little as possible. He got away as quickly as he could. And he did his best to avoid future contact.

And he got fired anyway. But he was prepared. He had those memos. So when the media reacted with shock to the firing, and the Don tweeted out about tapes, Comey was ready. He authorized his friend to discuss them with the media; and in the uproar, Rosenstein appointed Mueller -- Comey's old friend -- as special counsel.

No, Comey didn't "stand up" to the Don in those meetings. But he didn't cave in to him, either. He took his time to plan and to develop the case. He gave the Don just enough rope. And now Mueller will be pulling on the other end of that rope, and following it wherever it goes.

THANK YOU, JAMES COMEY FOR YOUR SERVICE AND YOUR LOYALTY.

[Wawannabe]

1. Yep

[bettyellen]

2. As a woman I can relate to the how the hell do I get out of here and also the

He's going to lie about this things.

[pnwmom]

5. Me, too. I can also relate to avoiding direct confrontation

with a narcissist.

It is rarely effective. Thanks to Comey's caution we are much better off than if he'd been replaced with a DT pick -- with no Special Counsel in place.

[bettyellen]

8. Yep- everyone knows that nothing would come if it if he was vocal about the

First direction to let it go. They'd say it wasn't a direction.
I'm going to trust Comey it was!

[Blue_Roses]

10. Yes, so true!

Smart man and smart move! Comey was prepared, which puts him 10 (plus) steps above Trump. Trump thinks in the "here and now", not considering the consequences.

[iamateacher]

3. A family member was an FYI agent

He would have handled it the same way. ..

[eppur_se_muova]

12. I didn't know they had agents for that ... :) nt

[Hekate]

17. They're the next building over from the CYA Department

[eShirl]

18. nice

[trueblue2007]

4. Excellent the way you put that all together. Totally logical

[pnwmom]

6. Thank you. For once, my lifetime experience

with narcissists has come in handy. I could see what Comey was doing -- and it was smart, not cowardly, to play it the way Comey did.

[ProudProgressiveNow]

7. K&R nt

[Blue_Roses]

9. Well said

[Hamlette]

11. He has a better reason that any one of the nearly 300 Republicans who can't stand up to Trump.

same for the 487 GOP presidential candidates that did not stand up to him in 2016. They sat by and watched him destroy each of them yet didn't stand up t o him.

And I wonder how many jobs DiFi has had. Every job I ever had I had a supervisor or manager who subjected me to meaningless work or bullshit meetings and exercises and the two times I did stand up to them, they figured out how to get rid of me. My rule has always been if I just have to put up with the bullshit occasionally, I can put up with it, keep my mouth shut and do my job. But, if the work sucked and the managers pulled political bullshit I would find another job as quickly as I could.

Although I'm not a huge Comey fan, he did exactly what I would have done. Put up with it and do my job. If all the Comeys give in and quit, can you imagine the clowns who will agree to take the jobs?

I've also not see a lot of standing up for DiFi.

[Bucky]

20. To be fair, few did stand up to him

Jeb, Cruise, Kasich. They were simply verbally outgunned by guy who knew how to play the Rubes like a fiddle.

For forty years the Republican Party has been cultivating a mean-spirited ignorance among their voting base. Instead of arguing for small government and personal responsibility like conservatives are supposed to, they're fighting for big corporations, irresponsible military growth, and racial resentment. Eventually, inevitably, a con artist came along who beat them at their own game.

I'm sorry, no, not just a single con artist. In fact if you look in Congress, Trump is simply the most accomplished example of a large group of Republican office holders. He is a cartoonish exaggeration of the fake True Believer. There are dozens and scores of office holders who exploit the ignorance and misdirected resentments of poorly educated white voters, voters who blame their problems and direct their scorn at foreign-born and minority scapegoats.

The Republicans now acting like Trump somehow perverted their conservative principles. Trump is in natural Evolution of where their irresponsible public policy has been heading all along.

[northoftheborder]

31. TRUE, TRUE, TRUE

[mrs_p]

32. Better than I ever could have said it. Nt

[jg10003]

13. If Comey did as Feinstein suggested he would have been fired immediately.

[pnwmom]

14. That's what I think. And we'd be worse off if Comey didn't have time

to push the case as far as he could. But by the time Comey did get fired, Rosenstein had the justification he needed to keep the investigation going and to name a special counsel.

[Bucky]

22. Yeah but fuck Comey anyway

He went out of his way to screw Clinton out of the presidency. He's a egomaniacal dilettante. He's playing politics and getting off on knocking leaders off who he considers to be unworthy of high office. He's using his power and position to act like the national sanctimonious school marm.

I like the fact that he's going after Trump. Trump is worse, obviously. Trump is a horrible miscarriage of democracy. But he's only in there because of Comey in the first place. If he can help us get rid of Trump, I'm glad, but let's not be blind to Comey's real character. And even if Trump goes away, we will still have a new horrible president due to the school marm's interference

[Hekate]

15. Well done, pnwmom

[pnwmom]

16. Thank you, Hekate!

[C_U_L8R]

19. Comey is a smart guy.

He wouldn't fall on his sword at the slightest provocation. He worked Trump, and is still working him, like a master strategist.

[Madam45for2923]

28. Good!

"He worked Trump, and is still working him, like a master strategist. "


Q: I like that. How do you see this happening now?

[C_U_L8R]

35. He's teeing the goods up for Mueller

and most artfully, drank Trump's milkshake.

You don't really see Republicans or the media rallying
to Trumps defense. No one can argue that Trump
isn't a liar. Now it's time to cue up the evidence
and make a case.

[brer cat]

21. K&R

[Mr. Ected]

23. Feinstein is using linear thinking

Comey was playing...and continues to play....four-dimensional chess.

I know he's hated by many around these parts...and until I saw the big picture, I pretty much detested him myself...but his actions have been nothing short of genius as far as I'm concerned.

[athena]

38. Just because someone hates our enemy does not make him our friend.

Note what he said about the NYT during his testimony. He claimed the NYT article was "not true", without specifying what was false in it. It was an extremely careless statement that will provide fodder to all those who call the NYT a "fake news" organization. Comey is not playing chess. He only cares about himself. Just because he is currently angry at Trump doesn't make him a genius.

[MiddleClass]

47. I see a different, sacrificing a piece or two for a shot at the Queen

A few more moments and Mueller will hold checkmate.


Did you notice he didn't say what was wrong with the article?

If the cop misspells the street name, technically, the whole speeding ticket is thrown out.

[WinkyDink]

24. James Comey towers over Trump. That fact was, IMO, the true, if subconscious, reason for the firing.

[Demsrule86]

25. Two things are at work here...first of all...it is the president.

He was Comey's boss...Comey wanted to keep his job. But I also think Comey recognized the threat of Trump appointing a yes man to the FBI before the investigation got off to a good start. He was fired, and risked his good name leaking memos in order to get a special prosecutor... and as one of the talking heads on MSNBC said. "I think he saved our Republic."

[Madam45for2923]

26. He knew he would've been summarily fired. Dump was dangling his job in front of him

The "hope" was a threat.

[Madam45for2923]

27. AND HE WANTED TO KEEP HIS JOB. HE WANTED TO TAKE THE DON DOWN. AND HE KNEW IF HE GOT PUSHED OUT,

AND HE WANTED TO KEEP HIS JOB.

HE WANTED TO TAKE THE DON DOWN.

AND HE KNEW IF HE GOT PUSHED OUT, HIS REPLACEMENT WOULD BE SWEARING THE DON'S LOYALTY OATH.



YES!!!!!!!



THANK YOU, JAMES COMEY FOR YOUR SERVICE AND YOUR LOYALTY.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

29. K & R!!! Great post!!!

[pnwmom]

34. Thank you!

[gratuitous]

30. I don't doubt that

But it still doesn't explain his public pronouncements during the general election, which handed Trump and his campaign a whole depot of ammunition to use against Secretary Clinton, predictably aided and abetted by the popular media. Service? Loyalty? Nope, don't see it myself.

[pnwmom]

33. I think he made the wrong call then, but not out of animosity.

Just the wrong call. In July he was thinking too much about Loretta lynch and the tarmac. In October, he was too worried about Giuliani and a leak.

[athena]

37. Comey is a conservative.

You are giving him way too much credit. Read the article I posted below, which shows that Comey has always been a conservative, even though he pretends to be an independent. The article mentions several of his political beliefs, which should be very disturbing to any liberal. It's sickening that he is now a hero on DU.

[pnwmom]

45. I know he is. But we would have been much worse off after the election

if he had listened to some Dems and resigned. Nobody DT would have appointed would have been as good.

[gratuitous]

40. I will simply say

I disagree with your assessment on that.

[athena]

36. Comey is all about Comey.

Comey's focus was on keeping his job and maximizing his own power. That's why he did not challenge Trump when Trump started making inappropriate demands. If Trump had not fired Comey, you would never have heard anything about what went on between Trump and Comey. It makes me sick that so many liberals have fallen for Comey's act. What we're seeing here is two extremely self-centered people -- Trump and Comey -- trying to destroy each other. Neither of them deserves applause or admiration; they are each equally disgusting in their total focus on themselves and their lack of concern for others. If you really want to applaud someone, applaud Salley Yates, who put her country's needs before her own concerns. But she's a woman, and we don't admire women in this society. We'd rather applaud a self-centered male conservative than a patriotic female liberal.

You should read this article about Comey before you go applauding him:

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/james-comeys-intellectual-history

When you get to the part about why he felt he had to meddle in the election, ask yourself who would really have suffered. The answer is Comey. The only person who would have been inconvenienced if Comey had not sent that letter on October 28th was Comey himself. He meddled in the election only to cover his own ass in case HRC became president, new and incriminating information was found in the e-mails, and he was attacked by conservatives for having helped HRC win. If he really felt he had to announce that he was reopening the investigation on Hillary, why couldn't he also announce that there was an investigation into the Trump campaign's ties with Russia? Comey assumed HRC would win the presidency and that he would end up looking like an amazingly independent guy with amazing integrity. Comey's whole focus is on looking as good as possible while screwing everyone else. It's sad that so many people fall for it.

[emulatorloo]

41. Yr post Sounds like a press release from the White House n/t

[athena]

43. You can feel free to fawn over the man who gave us President Trump.

I happen to be capable of holding two thoughts in my head at the same time: that Comey is all about Comey, and that Trump is a lying narcissist who is a danger to the world. In the end, it is not Comey, or any other conservative hero, who is going to bring down Trump. It is Democrats who will go out and vote in droves in 2018 to take back their country. You can feel free to attack other liberals while fawning over your favorite conservative, though. I'm sure he appreciates the attention.

[emulatorloo]

44. I don't fawn over any one. Comey gave credible testimony yesterday. White House is smearing him.

Your rage is preventing you from seeing the forest for the trees.

Carry on.

[ucrdem]

42. +1

Agree on Sally Yates and hope to hear more from her. She mentioned in her CNN interview that she's a Democrat from a Democratic family.

[jmg257]

39. This is a great explanation...

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029181321

[pnwmom]

46. Thank you!