The Commentariat -- October 31, 2016
Afternoon Update:
AND Trump Stiffs His Pollster. Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump's hiring of pollster Tony Fabrizio in May was viewed as a sign that the real estate mogul was finally bringing seasoned operatives into his insurgent operation. But ... [Trump] appears to have taken issue with some of the services provided by the veteran GOP strategist, who has advised candidates from 1996 GOP nominee Bob Dole to Florida Gov. Rick Scott. The Trump campaign's latest Federal Election Commission report shows that it is disputing nearly $767,000 that Fabrizio's firm says it is still owed for polling." -- CW
Sari Horwitz & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department sent a brief letter to six lawmakers Monday, saying that the department will work closely with the FBI to take 'appropriate steps as expeditiously as possible' in the renewed investigation into emails potentially tied to Hillary Clinton's private email server. The three paragraph letter written by Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs Peter J. Kadzik said that the department and FBI will 'dedicate all necessary resources' to the investigation, but provided no further details about the contents of the emails or whether they are significant. The short statement on behalf of Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch and FBI Director James B. Comey represents an effort by the Justice Department to stabilize and assert control over a politically explosive situation....' -- CW ...
... CW: I've been listening to Josh Earnest's briefing, and he surely is noncommital about Comey's stunt. The only thing he's willing to do is speak favorably about DOJ guidelines, which, um, Comey so flagrantly flouted. He's also said Comey's letter "did not have his intended effect." The suggestion to me was, "Comey screwed up. Stay tuned." ...
... New York Daily News Editors: "FBI Director James Comey's democracy-bending decision to inform America, 11 days before its presidential election, that the bureau is digging into a trove of additional emails demands the highest condemnation. And he must resign." -- CW ...
... Conservative WashPo columnist Jennifer Rubin reads Comey the riot act. She even spells out what Comey could have written if he really felt such a compelling need to suck up to Congressional Republicans. As Kevin Drum points out, linked below, even crazy winger Joe Walsh tweeted that "what [Comey] just did 11 days b4 the election is wrong & unfair to Hillary." -- CW ...
... Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly: "... we are witnessing the politicization of the FBI -- something that is extremely dangerous to our Constitutional order. What Comey (and AG Loretta Lynch) are now facing is something very similar to what has come to be known as the 'Saturday Night Massacre' when Attorney General Elliot Richardson resigned rather than politicize the Watergate investigation. The difference is that in that case, the pressure came from the president rather than rogue elements in the FBI. This goes way beyond what is/isn't contained in these new emails. That is why the focus has shifted from Hillary Clinton to Comey's FBI." -- CW ...
... CW BTW: If I were a minority voter, I would identify in Comey's stunt exactly what law enforcement does to me every day: rushes to cast suspicion on me because of who I am.
Hadas Gold of Politico: "CNN says it is 'completely uncomfortable' with hacked emails showing former contributor and interim DNC chair Donna Brazile sharing questions with the Clinton campaign before a debate and a town hall during the Democratic primary, and has accepted her resignation. Hacked emails posted by WikiLeaks show Brazile, whose CNN contract was suspended when she became interim DNC chair over the summer, sharing with the Clinton campaign a question that would be posed to Hillary Clinton before the March CNN Democratic debate in Flint, and sharing with the campaign a possible question prior to a CNN town hall also in March." CW: In her story, Gold doesn't bother to repeat what she herself has reported before: that Brazile denied giving the Clinton campaign a heads-up on questions and claimed she never had access to the questions in the first place. ...
... Update: See my comment in Nov. 2 Commentariat. I owe Gold an apology.
... Michael Grynbaum's New York Times story makes it seem Brazile did in fact leak questions to the Clinton campaign, right down to the description of the voter who would ask the question. -- CW
Kurt Eichenwald of Newsweek. "Over the course of decades, Donald Trump's companies have systematically destroyed or hidden thousands of emails, digital records and paper documents demanded in official proceedings, often in defiance of court orders. These tactics ... have enraged judges, prosecutors, opposing lawyers and the many ordinary citizens entangled in litigation with Trump.... Trump and entities he controlled also erected numerous hurdles that made lawsuits drag on for years, forcing courtroom opponents to spend huge sums of money in legal fees as they struggled -- sometimes in vain -- to obtain records. This behavior is of particular import given Trump's frequent condemnations of Hillary Clinton ... for having deleted more than 30,000 emails from a server she used during her time as secretary of state.... Trump has suggested repeatedly on the campaign trail that they were government documents Clinton was trying to hide and that destroying them constituted a crime." Clinton has asserted the deleted e-mails were not related to official business. -- Akhilleus
*****
Presidential Race
Jeremy Peters & Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton has established a slim edge over Donald J. Trump in early-voter turnout in several vital swing states, pressing her longstanding advantages in state-level organization and potentially mitigating the fallout from her campaign's latest scrap with the F.B.I.... In the states that are most likely to decide the election -- among them Florida, Colorado and Nevada -- close to a quarter of the electorate has already cast ballots. While their votes will not be counted until Election Day, registered Democrats are outperforming Republicans in key demographics and urban areas there and in North Carolina...." CW: Please bear in mind that these voters are not required to vote for their party's nominees! ....
... Nate Cohn of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump has slowly but surely improved his standing in state and national polls since the final presidential debate. A New York Times Upshot/Siena poll released Sunday is consistent with that trend: It gives Mr. Trump a four-point lead in Florida, 46 percent to 42 percent, in a four-way race. In our first poll of Florida a month ago, Mr. Trump trailed Hillary Clinton by a percentage point. The survey is Mr. Trump's best recent poll in Florida, and it should be interpreted with caution. In general, it is best to look at an average of polls. Mrs. Clinton still leads in an average of recent Florida surveys by nearly three points." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Scott Clement & Emily Gustin of the Washington Post: "Republicans' growing unity behind ... Donald Trump has helped pull him just 1 percentage point behind Hillary Clinton and has placed GOP leaders who resist him in a vulnerable position, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News Tracking Poll. A majority of all likely voters say they are unmoved by the FBI's announcement Friday that it may review additional emails from Clinton's time as secretary of state. Just more than 6 in 10 voters say the news will make no difference in their vote, while just more than 3 in 10 say it makes them less likely to support her; 2 percent say they are more likely to back her as a result." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Harry Enten of 538 looks at the effects [link fixed] October Surprises have had on earlier elections. Mostly, only one or two points, and the later the "surprise," the smaller the effect. CW: So I guess that's why Comey rushed out his surprise within a few hours of the time he learned about whatever it was he thought maybe might be in those Abedin e-mails. However, this may bolster the argument that Comey's Surprise will affect down-ballot candidates, to whom voters have given far less thought. The Comey Effect may be on the Congress, and could severely limit -- by dint of a Republican majority -- Clinton's ability to be an effective president.
Fire Jim Comey.
Hill: "Hillary Clinton's campaign sent out a letter Sunday night signed by nearly 100 former prosecutors and Department of Justice officials ... including ex-Attorney General Eric Holder ... slamming FBI Director James Comey.... 'Justice Department officials are instructed to refrain from commenting publicly on the existence, let alone the substance, of pending investigative matters, except in exceptional circumstances and with explicit approval from the Department of Justice officials responsible for ultimate supervision of the matter,' the letter says. 'They are also instructed to exercise heightened restraint near the time of a primary or general election because, as official guidance from the Department instructs, public comment on a pending investigative matter may affect the electoral process and create the appearance of political interference in the fair administration of justice.'" -- CW ...
... Eric Holder, in a Washington Post op-ed: "... I am deeply concerned about FBI Director James B. Comey's decision to write a vague letter to Congress about emails potentially connected to a matter of public, and political, interest. That decision was incorrect. It violated long-standing Justice Department policies and tradition. And it ran counter to guidance that I put in place four years ago laying out the proper way to conduct investigations during an election season. That guidance, which reinforced established policy, is still in effect and applies to the entire Justice Department -- including the FBI.... These rules ... are intended to ensure that every investigation proceeds fairly and judiciously.... Director Comey broke with these fundamental principles." -- CW ...
... Matt Apuzzo, et al., of the New York Times: "Federal investigators have obtained a warrant to begin searching a large cache of emails belonging to a top aide to Hillary Clinton, federal law enforcement officials said Sunday, as prosecutors and F.B.I. agents scrambled to review as much of the information as possible before Election Day. It remains unclear, though, whether they can finish their work by then.... A federal law enforcement official said agents had discovered hundreds of thousands of Ms. Abedin's emails on her husband’s computer, but investigators expected to seize only a portion of the total. Agents will have probable cause to search only the messages related to the Clinton investigation." -- CW ...
... Matt Zapotosky, et al., of the Washington Post: "FBI agents argued -- based at least in part on news accounts — earlier this year that the Clinton Foundation should be investigated for potentially giving donors special political access and favors. The Justice Department's public integrity unit said they did not have enough evidence to move forward. The Clinton Foundation said it was never contacted by the FBI, suggesting the bureau's efforts were in a preliminary stage as prosecutors weighed in. But agents in New York have sought to keep their inquiries alive, feuding with the Justice Department about the lengths to which they can go, according to people familiar with the matter.... The revelation, though, that public integrity section prosecutors -- who are not politically appointed -- felt FBI investigators did not have a case is a strong defense for Clinton." ...
... CW: If you recall those "news accounts" came up with a big nothing. Nonetheless, the FBI, not surprisingly, is so politicized that agents thought even attempts by the media to finger the foundation were cause for an "investigation"/witch hunt. ...
... John Cole of Balloon Juice, incorporating a WSJ story on FBI "internal deliberations": "No one is in control. No one. There's a general level of incompetence that is staggering. How could applying for a warrant in this case be an oversight? There appear to be careerists in the FBI who have been engaging in a wide-ranging fishing expedition regarding the Clintons for some times, to the extent of attempts at prosecutor shopping. The place leaks like sieve." -- CW ...
... Paul Krugman: "It seemed obvious from the start that Mrs. Clinton's decision to follow Colin Powell's advice and bypass State Department email was a mistake, but nothing remotely approaching a crime. But Mr. Comey was subjected to a constant barrage of demands that he prosecute her for ... something. He should simply have said no. Instead, even while announcing back in July that no charges would be filed, he editorialized about her conduct -- a wholly inappropriate thing to do, but probably an attempt to appease the right. It didn't work, of course. They just demanded more.... The moral of the story is that appeasing the modern American right is a losing proposition. Nothing you do convinces them that you're being fair, because fairness has nothing to do with it.... They're trying to create bias, not end it, and weakness -- the kind of weakness Mr. Comey has so spectacularly displayed -- only encourages them to do more." -- CW ...
... CW: Here's the evidence to prove Krugman's assertion. David Edwards of the Raw Story: "NBC News Justice Correspondent Pete Williams reported on Sunday that Donald Trump's baseless claim of a 'rigged' election influenced FBI Director James Comey to break with the Justice Department's policy against taking actions that could influence elections.... [Williams said,] "they [meaning Comey & his top advisors] thought that if they waited until after election and then it was discovered that they had found these emails, that would play into this whole scenario about how the system is rigged.'" -- CW ...
In my communications with you and other top officials in the national security community, it has become clear that you possess explosive information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisors, and the Russian government -- a foreign interest openly hostile to the United States, which Trump praises at every opportunity. I wrote to you months ago calling for this information to be released to the public ... and yet, you continue to resist calls to inform the public of this critical information. -- Harry Reid, letter to James Comey ...
... ** Give 'Im Hell Harry. Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid on Sunday accused FBI Director James B. Comey of breaking federal law in disclosing possible new evidence in the Hillary Clinton email investigation. Reid (D-Nev.) said in a letter sent to Comey that his disclosure to Congress, made 11 days before the election, might have violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits partisan politicking by government employees. 'Your actions in recent months have demonstrated a disturbing double standard for the treatment of sensitive information, with what appears to be a clear intent to aid one political party over another,' Reid wrote. 'I am writing to inform you that my office has determined that these actions may violate the Hatch Act, which bars FBI officials from using their official authority to influence an election. Through your partisan actions, you may have broken the law.' Reid's letter is the most forceful denunciation leveled by a high-ranking elected official. In the letter, Reid drew a contrast between how Comey has treated the Clinton email probe and how he has handled what Reid described as 'explosive information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisors, and the Russian government.'" ...
... Kevin Drum: "... this is A+ trolling from Reid.... It's hard to find anyone, Democrat or Republican, who approves of how Comey has handled this situation.... Either the field is full of rogue agents pursuing a vendetta against Hillary Clinton, or else the senior ranks of the Justice Department is full of political hacks who will stop at nothing to protect Hillary Clinton." -- CW ...
... CW: I wasn't sure the other day if Obama could fire Comey. Jonathan Vankin of Heavy: "... according to a 2014 report by the Congressional Research Service, 'there are no statutory conditions on the President's authority to remove the FBI Director.' In other words, the President can indeed fire the FBI director. An FBI director can also be removed by congress, through the impeachment process.... Because firing an FBI director is certain to bring accusations of playing politics with law enforcement against any president who chooses to do so, [President Bill] Clinton repeatedly asked [FBI director William] Sessions to resign his post. But Sessions refused to step down. So in July of 1993, saying that he had been advised by then-attorney general Janet Reno that Sessions 'can no longer effectively lead the bureau and law enforcement community,' Clinton fired the FBI director." Obama should fire Comey. ...
... Orrin Kerr, a right-wing constitutional law professor, in a Washington Post op-ed, argues that there is a good chance the FBI violated the Fourth Amendment when agents decided to open folder(s) in Anthony Weiner's computer which held Huma Abedin's e-mails. After citing a court case -- People v. Herrera -- that suggests the search was not legal, Kerr adds this: "... the alleged Weiner texting crimes apparently occurred in 2016. I gather that the Clinton emails were from her time as secretary of state, which was several years earlier from 2009 to 2013. If I'm right that there was a several-year gap between the warrant crime [Weiner's sexting with underage girls] and the second investigation, it's not clear the government could search through older emails for evidence of such a recent crime." Kerr goes on to discuss the "plain-view" doctrine (which despite its name is extremely ambiguous & in a state of flux regarding computer files), but here again, he thinks the agents may have violated Abedin's rights. -- CW ...
... Josh Marshall of TPM: "... everything we've learned over the last 48 hours-plus suggests Comey had no basis to believe there was significant new evidence, indeed no clear reason to think there was anything new at all. At best, Comey combined extremely poor judgment with a decision to place a near absolute priority on protecting himself from criticism over carrying out his professional and ethical obligations.... No one who actually knows what Comey's legal, professional and ethical responsibilities were in this case can find a basis to defend his actions." -- CW ...
... John Dean, who went to jail for Watergate-related crimes, in a New York Times op-ed: "Donald J. Trump wasted no time in seizing on the unprecedented letter that the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, sent to Congress on Friday, regarding the bureau's investigations into Hillary Clinton's emails. 'This is bigger than Watergate,' Mr. Trump's team tweeted just a few hours after the letter was made public.... Only someone who knows nothing about the law, and the darkest moment of our recent political history, would see a parallel between Nixon's crimes and Mrs. Clinton's mistakes.... Whatever mistakes Mrs. Clinton made, her actions bear no similarities whatsoever to Nixon's criminalization of his presidency, and his efforts to corrupt much of the executive branch.... Mr. Trump's insistence that 'Emailgate' is worse than Watergate serves to divert attention from the fact that, in my opinion, Mr. Trump is remarkably Nixonian, perhaps even more so than Nixon himself." -- CW ...
... Matt Zapotosky, et al., of the Washington Post: "The FBI agents investigating Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server knew early this month that messages recovered in a separate probe might be germane to their case, but they waited weeks before briefing the FBI director, according to people familiar with the case.... It is unclear why investigators did not tell Comey sooner." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... E.J. Dionne: "History shows that appeasing bullies never works. Maybe Comey has learned this lesson and will try to make amends in coming days. As for the voters, my hope is that they reject this perversion of justice all the way down the ballot." -- CW ...
... Jim Fallows of the Atlantic puts Comey's antics in a context that is imperative to understand if you want to know what, for the most part, the Republican party, thus our political landscape, is about these days: "The rules in politics haven't changed that much in recent years. What has changed is adherence to norms, in an increasingly destructive way.... For its survival, a democracy depends on norms. That's why the shift matters." Thanks to citizen625 for the link. -- CW ...
... Jamie Gorelick & Larry Thompson, in a Washington Post op-ed: "As former deputy attorneys general in the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, we are troubled by the apparent departure from these [normative] standards in the investigation of Hillary Clinton's email server. First, the FBI director, James B. Comey, put himself enthusiastically forward as the arbiter of not only whether to prosecute a criminal case -- which is not the job of the FBI -- but also best practices in the handling of email and other matters. Now, he has chosen personally to restrike the balance between transparency and fairness, departing from the department's traditions. As former deputy attorney general George Terwilliger aptly put it, 'There's a difference between being independent and flying solo.'" -- CW ...
... Mallory Shelbourne of the Hill: "... Tim Kaine said Sunday that FBI Director James Comey's letter to lawmakers regarding the Hillary Clinton email server investigation is 'unprecedented.' 'I just have no way of understanding these actions. They're a completely unprecedented move,' the Virginia senator said during an appearance on ABC's 'This Week' with George Stephanopoulos. 'When you haven't even seen the material yourself 11 days before an election, why would you talk about an ongoing investigation?' Kaine asked." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mallory Shelbourne: "Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said Sunday that FBI Director James Comey's email to lawmakers regarding the Hillary Clinton email server investigation was 'a terrible error in judgment.' 'I think this was a terrible error in judgment by the director, to release this kind of ambiguous letter. These may be pertinent; they may be significant; they may not be significant. They may not be pertinent,' Schiff, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, told ABC's 'This Week.'" -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... ** Richard Painter, "the chief White House ethics lawyer from 2005 to 2007," in a New York Times op-ed: "... on Saturday, I filed a complaint against the F.B.I. with the Office of Special Counsel, which investigates Hatch Act violations, and with the Office of Government Ethics.... [James Comey's] letter was sent in violation of a longstanding Justice Department policy of not discussing specifics about pending investigations with others, including members of Congress. According to some news reports on Saturday, the letter was sent before the F.B.I. had even obtained the search warrant that it needed to look at the newly discovered emails. And it was sent days before the election, at a time when many Americans are already voting.... We cannot allow F.B.I. or Justice Department officials to unnecessarily publicize pending investigations concerning candidates of either party while an election is underway. That is an abuse of power." CW: Yeah, you read that right. A Bush II lawyer has filed formal complaints against Comey for abusing his office. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... ** Riley Roberts, former speechwriter for Eric Holder, in Politico Magazine: "... increasing numbers of critics believe [James Comey] has displayed a worrying disregard for the rules and norms that have constrained all but one of his predecessors, straying with blithe confidence -- and with increasing regularity -- across the fine line that separates independence from unaccountability.... Over the past three years, current and former Justice Department officials have watched with growing discomfort as his 'streak of self-righteousness,' now essentially unchecked, has made him the most isolated, outspoken and openly defiant FBI director since [J. Edgar] Hoover." CW: This is a long, scathing indictment of Comey. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)...
... CW: What Comey should do Monday is apologize to Clinton, to the President & to the public for his egregious lapse of judgment. Then, since he's so fond of letter-writing, he should hand his letter of resignation to the POTUS, and Obama should accept it. Of course, that's not going to happen, because in Comey's mind, if the FBI director does it, it's A-Okay. Sound familiar?
Mallory Shelbourne: "... Donald Trump on Sunday accused the media of 'burying' the FBI's investigation into Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's private email server. 'Wow, Twitter, Google and Facebook are burying the FBI criminal investigation of Clinton. Very dishonest media!' Trump tweeted." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Jeremy Diamond, et al., of CNN: "Donald Trump for the second day in a row questioned the validity of [Colorado]'s largely mail-in voting system, the latest instance of the Republican nominee expressing skepticism about the legitimacy of the electoral process.... He then encouraged his supporters to get a 'new ballot' in person at a local polling location. 'They'll give you a ballot, a new ballot. They'll void your old ballot, they will give you a new ballot. And you can go out and make sure it gets in,' Trump said.... It was unclear whether Trump was encouraging his supporters to get a new ballot even if they had already voted, which would constitute voter fraud." CW: Whatever he meant, some Trumpbots will follow Trump's "advice" & vote twice. They're not that smart, after all.
Gabriel Sherman of New York: "In recent weeks, I spoke with more than two dozen current and formerTrump advisers, friends, and senior Republican officials, many of whom would speak only off the record given that the campaign is not yet over. What they described was an unmanageable candidate who still doesnot fully understand the power of the movement he has tapped into, who can't see that it is larger than himself." A long read, with some great anecdotes on the positioning of all of the hustlers inside the TrumpTower, such as this: "To hear Kellyanne Conway talk about managing her boss is to listen to a mother of four who has had ample experience with unruly toddlers...It's like saying to someone, 'How about having two brownies and not six?'"--safari
Meet Your Trump Supporters. Ben Schreckinger of Politico: "A speaker warming up the crowd for Donald Trump at a campaign rally Sunday morning fantasized about the deaths of Hillary Clinton and a senior aide. Conservative commentator Wayne Allyn Root, describing his fantasy of a made-for-TV movie about Clinton and aide Huma Abedin, said, 'We all get our wish. The ending is like "Thelma and Louise."' In the 1991 film, the title characters drive over a cliff to their death. Root's line drew cheers from rally attendees. Root's call is the latest elevation in the increasingly extreme and violent rhetoric directed by Trump and his surrogates at Clinton at campaign events." -- CW
Other News & Views
** Jonathan Chait: "The accommodations [Republican party] leaders have made to their erratic and delirious nominee underscore a capacity to go further and lower to maintain their grip on power than anybody understood. More consequentially, the horrors Trump has unleashed are the product of tectonic forces in American politics." CW: This is a long piece on the conservative takeover of the GOP & well-worth a read.
Way Beyond the Beltway
Mohammed Tawfeeq & Angela Dewan of CNN: "Iraqi special forces are hundreds of meters from ISIS-controlled Mosul and will enter in a 'matter of hours', the country's counter-terrorism chief said Monday.... A coalition of around 100,000 Iraqi-led forces have been in a decisive push toward Mosul since October 17 to end more than two years of the militant group's brutal rule. On Monday, they launched a new phase in the offensive, advancing on three separate fronts." -- CW
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Reader Comments (14)
Here is James Fallow's take on Comey: "http://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2016/10/trump-time-capsule-james-comey/505904/?google_editors_picks=true". What if the FBI director decided to do something, anything to help down-ticket Republicans and this was the fruit of that? Comey just lost all his credibility with Democrats, so he has to see some up side for himself by his revelation. He is a shining example of why police should do police jobs and not give the power to a lawyer. Comey is also a shining example of why working within the government doesn't make "public service".
Comey is Trump's October Surprise. And he's not wasting any time getting subpoenas and breathlessly updating his Confederate pals in congress. THIS is election rigging.
Excellent article on Comey mess by Josh Marshall of TPM.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/deeply-disturbing
This WSJ article discusses battles over pursuit of HRC within the FBI. Josh Marshall posted it although he dislikes the reporter. I don't subscribe to the WSJ, but was able to access the article from this link.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/laptop-may-include-thousands-of-emails-linked-to-hillary-clintons-private-server-1477854957
Again just for the fun I looked at NYT info on election polls comparing National vs. electoral. If you add 12 states voting 90% for Trump vs. CA voting 51% for Clinton, Clinton wins. In other words, with the exception of TX, most high electoral number States are Dem.
So again, while I don't know the real numbers, the point is that 'national' polls are not necessarily related to the electoral college numbers.
HOW TO HANDLE A TODDLER:
By the time I had my third child I realized that these little people needed to feel as though they were in control some of the time. "Do you want a full glass of juice or half a glass"––"I wonder how fast you you can pick up all those blocks and put them in that basket"––and so forth. It worked. Kellyann, mother of four, seems to have tried something similar with Trump who we can conclude is "just a big baby" but the tactics here don't take hold. Children evolve and usually embrace a world larger than themselves. It appears that Trump is stuck back in the "terrible two's" and will probably continue to operate at that level. Our problem is this "big baby" may just become our president–––and those blocks ain't gonna be picked up no how, no way.
Comey is no Herbert Hoover, but will go down in history as an FBI director who failed in his job. October surprise, indeed!
Comey is no EDGAR Hoover either...and I didn't know Edgar or Herbert! (Couldn't resist this PDPepe)!
Correction:
Earlier I posted that October Surprise Man, James Comey, was in the process of obtaining subpoenas. I meant to write "warrants". That's what I get for posting at 3 AM.
But there's no correction necessary for describing Comey's actions as constituting a last minute and even nefarious October Surprise. CNN reports that Comey knew about these e-mails weeks ago but decided to time his grand announcement, along with his life preserver tossed to the Orange Headed Bigot and congressional Republicans in tight races, for maximum effect on the electorate.
I never thought much of Comey but I had no idea what a complete and reprehensible, toadying, partisan, Confederate hack he was. And given the obscene number of reprehensible, toadying, partisan, Confederate hacks there are with years and years of experience, that's saying something.
He'll have a place of honor (if that word can be used in this context) with the Humpty Trumpty administration.
Comey is the latest in the looooong line of examples demonstrating the core Confederate belief that rules are for the other guys. Rules, norms, long-standing and generally agreed upon conventions, generations of precedent, and accepted guidelines of proper standards of behavior are part of the social glue, along with shared history and belief in a democratic form of government, that have helped to hold the country together through hard times and to provide it direction and sustenance in all times. Until recently, that is.
Since Reagan (really, since Nixon), Confederates have developed their own set of beliefs and democracy is not on that list. And they don't share the fact-based history with the rest of us. They make up their own history and their own rules. Thus, election stealing, rigging, and October Surprises have become common. Interesting, isn't it, that amidst all the screams from their candidate about other people rigging the election against him, the only proven election rigging thus far has been a Republican voter casting two votes for Trumpado.
Rules are for the other guys.
Gore didn't realize this back in 2000. Bush knew it. Cheney knew it. James Baker knew it. And so did the Confederates on the Court.
Clearly Comey knows it too.
An additional problem, for the rest of us, is that press pretend not to realize this. They pretend that Confederates operate under the same set of assumptions and therefore, if they say "Hey, there's a problem here..." well, there must be a problem. After all, they wouldn't lie to win an election, would they?
@Akhilleus: According to Zapotosky, et al., of the WashPo (linked above), FBI investigators knew of the Abedin e-mails weeks ago, but didn't tell Comey till Thursday, upon which he rushed to prepare the Big Blab. Of course all of this is based on leaks from unidentified "officials," so who knows? Different officials have different information & different agendas.
Any way you look at it, Comey's a jackass. I'm really, really glad the story is now focusing on Comey. BUT. Greg Sargent says this morning that he's hearing hints the FBI may produce something else this week. I say if the something else is anything less than at least a tentative exoneration of Clinton, then it's gross malpractice on Comey's part, and President Obama & AG Lynch should condemn (and fire) him. For the FBI to come out within a week of a presidential election and say, "Hey, we've got the goods on one of the candidates (and oh by the way, we're not saying jack-shit about the one who's kissing Putin's ass)" would be astounding. But at this point, Comey's ass is so backed up against the wall that you can see his butt cheeks from the next room, so you don't know what stunt he'll pull next. (My metaphors get more disgusting the madder I get; maybe I should watch that!)
Marie
@MAG: Ah, yes, Herbert and Edgar––thanks so much for clarifying–-getting old takes its toll. sigh~~~~~~~~~`
@Marie: How does all this stack up against putting off the Trump U. investigation until AFTER the election plus a candidate for President who refuses to release his tax returns plus the cozy connection with the Moscow meddler.
P.S. Love your metaphors––not good to hold back–-bad for the digestion.
PD Pepe, yes it is interesting how the 'rigged' media forgot all that Trump stuff. I guess because this is the new America. The land of the free and the home of the pussy and penis.
Marie,
Butt cheeks aside, Comey has clearly burned his bridges not just with Democrats but with any American who believes in a judicious and properly conducted investigation, not one stinking of leaked information to the one's buddies and snide middle school whispers of "something big" in the offing. And as I mentioned, he doesn't care about precedence, fairness, justice or any of that rules crap that Confederates find so tiresome. There can be no question that his perfectly timed announcement was designed to help Trump and the Confederacy so why would he care about doubling down with some new BIG announcement no matter how specious and ridiculously preliminary?
And don't worry, even though he's probably assigned 1,000 agents to checking Weiner's laptop (something vaguely offensive about the term "checking Weiner's laptop"...but never mind...) for any stray e-mails about which he can crow "PROBLEM!!" to his Confederate pals sitting in some secret room with forks and knives at the ready, waiting to carve up Clinton, if he comes up with zilch, I will bet you every dollar* I've ever made and ever will make that he won't announce any exonerations until after the election.
*Okay, so if you win, you wouldn't get much, but it sounds good.
Favorite quote of the day (so far--but in the age of Trump, midday can be awfully early to decide on a finalized quote of the day), comes from Gabe Sherman's piece (linked above) describing the nightmare of trying to corral Trumpty Dumpty. He quotes Kellyanne Conway's reminder that when trying to get Trump to calm down with his highly inadvisable midnight tweets "It’s like saying to [a child], ‘How about having two brownies and not six?"
The fact that the manager of a presidential campaign, in its last days, feels compelled to reveal this level of immaturity about her boss--her party's candidate--shows exactly how far down the political evolutionary tree we've slid. Not far below where we are now, early stage mitochondria are duking it out with eukaryotic cell nuclei for intracellular dominance. A few steps below that is primeval slime.
So the Trump candidacy has us just a few rungs above pukey primordial mung.
The Confederacy's gift to you, America. Making America Gross.