Is James Comey a Slime Ball

Don’t call James Comey a Slime Ball
The View from the Middle

Many people believe that the President shouldn’t have called James Comey a “Slime Ball”, and I agree with them, but probably for different reasons. First, I do think that kind of rhetoric is below the office of the President. Trump should have allowed his surrogate attack dogs do it for him as all other Presidents have done in the past. Bill Clinton did it famously with James Carville. But this President has decided long ago to do his own dirty work which will get him praise from some and condemnation from others. The easy route would be to delegate the insults, but he has chosen the more difficult yet more transparent method of attacking his opponents himself. I would rather he delegate. My wife doesn’t agree with me.
The second reason I disagree with the “Slime Ball” label that Trump placed on Comey is because it doesn’t go far enough. James Comey is actually a narcissistic, manipulative, unethical coward and hypocrite. And I don’t come to that conclusion lightly. I have followed James Comey since his blunder in July of 2016 when he threw Hillary Clinton under the “too incompetent to manage her own email” bus, and then refused to indict her. I’ve studied his background and have read all 140+ pages of his full five-hour interview with George Stephanopoulos. Let me share with you what I have found about James Comey as result of this extensive research.
First and foremost, Jim Comey is a first-class hypocrite. It amazed me to see how he could talk out of both sides of his mouth within seconds in his interview with Stephanopoulos. Early in the interview, Comey paints himself as a courageous, “by the book” individual, challenging Vice President Cheney over a surveillance program Cheney wanted to invoke. He says the room was “thick with tension” and he feared he would be “crushed like a grape”, but he stood his ground. What a guy! Then, within minutes, he’s the Director of the FBI who folds like a cheap tent for Loretta Lynch. She asks him to call the Hillary Clinton investigation “a matter”, and he agrees even though he knows it’s improper. He tries to minimize his duplicity by saying that everyone still called it an investigation. That, however, doesn’t change his complicity in an effort that he knew to be inappropriate by FBI guidelines. Where was the tough guy who challenged Cheney? I don’t think he exists. The real James Comey is the “go along to get along” snake that capitulated to Loretta Lynch.
During this interview, Comey constantly lectured the audience about the importance of “integrity” in our government. After I stopped laughing, I looked seriously to see if I could find any level of integrity in Mr. Comey himself. What I found was just the opposite. First, he has thrown virtually everyone he has worked for or with under the bus at his convenience. We know how he needlessly trashed Hillary Clinton, and throughout the interview he managed to demean and or ridicule President Obama, Attorneys General Loretta Lynch and Jeff Sessions and of course President Trump. He seems to have a high regard only for himself, which allows him to be the sole arbiter of honor and righteousness. What a joke. A man with no character at all judging the integrity of others.
When Stephanopoulos asked, “Did Trump deserve to know that Hillary Clinton and the DNC financed the Steele Dossier”, Comey demonstrates his contempt for the audience when he said, “I don’t know the answer to that. It wasn’t necessarily my goal.” Are you kidding me, James? You are briefing the President of The United States on an unverified, sleazy dossier that was paid for by his political opponent, and you didn’t think that was relevant information to share? This proves him to be either stupid or unscrupulous, and I don’t think he’s stupid.
He also throws out unverified, disgusting accusations and covers his butt by adding, “It’s possible, I just don’t know.” He said that about the accusation in the dossier that Trump had prostitutes pee on themselves and the bed that the Obamas slept in while they were in Moscow. That reminds me of the old political saying which goes, “If you don’t have any real evidence of misconduct on your opponents, give them something to deny.” This is as sleazy as it gets. In fact, you could say that about anyone and about anything. What if Comey had said that it was “possible” that President Obama had a mountain of child pornography on his personal computer, based on some opposition research done by Trump? And then let's say that story was reported on every news network, creating a vision you just can’t “unsee”. Most of you, and particularly the Obama fans out there, would say, “That’s disgusting”. And I would agree with you. Spreading unverified tales about anyone is completely unethical and certainly NOT a sign of integrity. Yet, Comey regularly trades in that practice.
Throughout the interview, Comey harps on the importance of honesty and truth in politics, and I’m assuming life in general. I do agree with him on that. He, however, has given himself a pass on the whole “truth” thing. He has lied to Congress and the American people, and I think his lying is pathological. He also brags that his wife and children supported Hillary Clinton for President in 2016. I guess they gave her the same waver from the truth as Jim gives to himself. They must have ignored the fact that, according to ABC News, the three most commonly used words to describe Hillary Clinton in 2016 were “dishonest”, “liar”, and “untrustworthy”. If honesty was so important, they could not possibly support her. Jim’s wife did admit that she just wanted a woman to be President. I guess she could turn a blind eye to Hillary’s faults as long as her gender was right!
Two last, quick shots before I close. First, in the interview, Comey assures President Trump that the FBI is not politicized. Really? I guess James doesn’t get a newspaper or have a computer or just doesn’t hang around the water cooler at work. The list of politically biased people at the top of the FBI who have either been fired or demoted for their partisan behavior is impressive. That list includes; Andrew McCabe (Comey’s #2 guy at the FBI), Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Bruce Ohr (don’t forget his wife Nellie who worked for Fusion GPS), James Baker (FBI General Counsel), James Rybicki (Comey’s Chief of Staff) and of course James Comey himself. Mr. Comey has to be the most unaware Director of the FBI – Ever!! Or a liar.
Second, Comey constantly paints himself as the “by the book” guy who follows procedures even when things get tough. Yet, in July of 2016, he broke from established practice by going on TV and roasting Hillary Clinton. Virtually every analyst with any experience in Justice Department practices suggested that James Comey should have done the investigation of Mrs. Clinton and then turned over his findings to the Justice Department for a decision on how to proceed. If Loretta Lynch chose not to make that call because of her foolish meeting with Bill Clinton on the tarmac in Phoenix, the task would have fallen to her #2, Sally Yates. Even I knew that was what James Comey should have done, but somehow the guardian of proper procedure, James Comey, ignored protocol.
Finally, I believe that James Comey has reverse engineered his motives in all of these lies and blunders to try to save himself. He creates a storyline that positions him as the victim of unscrupulous and less talented people, which includes Trump, Obama, Clinton, Lynch, Sessions and others. It was Obama, Lynch and Bill Clinton, for example, who forced his hand in July of 2016. Comey had to step in to save the FBI and the Republic as we know it. Gag me! It was Hillary, who he knew was going to win the election, who forced his hand in October. By the way, what should Hillary’s inevitable victory have to do with this decision? (He’s apolitical, remember) Thank God for the noble and brave Jim Comey for doing the right thing despite the attacks he would take personally. That’s a fantasy, a self-delusion if you will, that he would like us all to buy.
I believe that James Comey was and is a very political animal, despite of all of his claims to the contrary. I believe that he had very high (maybe even the highest) political ambitions, and his last year as Director of the FBI was designed to build his name recognition and create a noble (gag me again) reputation for him. If he could trash any possible political opponents along the way, all the better. This is consistent with his narcissistic, manipulative, unethical and cowardly nature. We can only hope that the Inspector General, Michael Horowitz, sinks his dream forever so that this true hypocrite never gets a chance to do any more harm to this country.