Did former FBI Director Comey's ego — play Russian roulette too long? — a fractured metaphor

© 2017 Peter Free

 

10 May 2017

 

 

Caveat

 

There's a twist at the end of this.

 

You get a gold star if you see it coming.

 

 

President Trump toppled tall James Comey yesterday

 

Demonstrating that:

 

 

(i) too many self-launched stray mortar rounds are bad for one's professional health —

 

or stated another way,

 

(ii) playing Russian roulette with too big a gun is likely to bite "ya" in the ass.

 

 

Outgoing mortar round 1 — 05 July 2016, Director Comey launches himself into controversial prominence

 

He pronounced then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton recklessly negligent with her past State Department emails. But Comey magnanimously assessed her innocent of any criminal or traitorous wrongdoing.

 

Comey's July escapade unquestionably trampled the Justice Department's administrative and procedural priority in making such claims.

 

Eyebrows were raised.

 

I understood that the Director was trying to protect his Bureau's reputation from former President Bill Clinton's (26 June 2016) conniving attempted manipulation of Justice Department head, Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

 

But still, Comey's was a risky move. Politically vulnerable Domino One was now in place.

 

What lay down the road?

 

 

Outgoing mortar round 2 — 28 October 2016, Comey slants the 2016 presidential election Donald Trump's way

 

Just 9 days before the presidential election, Director Comey sent Congress a lightning bolt posing as a vacuous update letter. His absurdly brief message noted only that the Bureau had learned of the existence of yet more (probably unsecured) Hillary Clinton (State Department) emails.

 

These emails — Congress was left to infer — might lie outside the Director's previous "Hillary's innocent" pronouncement.

 

The public naturally wondered where the emails were.

 

News reports obligingly indicated that they had been found on notorious photo and sex-texter (and former Representative) Anthony Weiner's computer.

 

Kee-Rist !!

 

Big explosion.

 

Shrapnel everywhere.

 

Jaws drop.

 

Some voters presumably changed their choice for president on the basis of Director Comey's specifics-lacking news.

 

 

Outgoing mortar round 3 — 06 November 2016 (just 2 days before the election), Comey again announces Hillary Clinton's innocence in a follow-up letter to Congress

 

OMG !!

 

Can the deadly shrapnel from just a few days ago be reeled back?

 

 

Clintonites are more furious than ever about Comey's previous meddling. His second innocence verdict has come too late to overcome 28 October's subtle retraction of it.

 

And formerly gleeful Trumpites now vow never to forgive the Director for handing Hillary Clinton a halo for the second time.

 

 

Objectively speaking, it is difficult to imagine a continuous stream of more blatant election meddling.

 

 

Outgoing mortar round 4 — 09 May 2017, Director Comey is caught mistaken or lying about the number of Hillary emails that . . .

 

. . . were allegedly sent to the Weiner-Marvel's sexy computer.

 

OMG (cubed) !! !! !!

 

Ya mean Jim Comey was wrong about the magnitude of Dearest Hill's (reportedly reckless) negligence the whole time?

 

 

Incoming mortar round 5 — 09 May 2017, courtesy of the President

 

Kaboom:

 

 

It is essential that we find new leadership for the FBI that restores public trust and confidence in its vital law enforcement mission.

 

[see full text here]

 

 

Was terminating Comey's directorship — more about the FBI's investigation of Trump's alleged Russia ties?

 

Speculation has it that President Trump wanted to dump Comey because he was titular head of the "Russia Owns Donald" inquiry.

 

Trump-the-Putin-Puppet is the American-cosmos-consuming allegation that the Democratic Party and Deep State foisted upon the gullible U.S. public late last year.

 

The accusation then grew legs, despite the lack of any publicly shared proof.

 

Perhaps President Trump is sick of this maliciously diverting nonsense. Or maybe he just took post-100 day frustration out on Director Comey.

 

 

However — it is unlikely that the FBI investigation will end with Director Comey's firing

 

Too many lie-generating Democrats and too many Russia-hating Everybodys have fingers in the (evidently delicious) "Putin Owns Trump" soup.

 

We are evidently going to slurp from this bowl, even unto the reality-defying Gates of Phantasmagorical Hell.

 

 

The narrower question — should fallen Comey's "self-blasting mortar sequence" become a teaching parable?

 

Can wannabe leaders learn from the Very Tall Man's arguably too prominently taken dance steps?

 

 

Did he do a little too much lime-lighting?

 

Pay too little attention to the society-wide effects that his (probably unnecessary) pronouncements predictably caused?

 

Or did he just irritate too many people, too much of the time?

 

 

Even an ethically minded interferer begins to stink, with too much parading around.

 

 

The moral? — If one is going to muscularly strut in public . . .

 

. . . one had better be vitally important enough to get away with it.

 

In this case, Top-Dog Trump took prancing Under-Dog Comey down. Whether that was fair or institutionally wise, I do not know.

 

One lesson might be:

 

 

Be careful not to set up too many foreseeably teeter-able adjacent dominoes.

 

Someone is eventually going to push on one.

 

 

Best arrange your self-initiated circumstances, so that you do not clearly share responsibility for a nasty got'cha splat. It is (debatably) better to do one's job quietly, competently and without egocentric fuss.

 

Perhaps Comey's director story is about hubris.

 

But with a twist:

 

 

He will professionally survive this stumble. No one of his influential clout stays down long in our celebrity-oriented culture.

 

Ironically, then, Director Comey's hubris may have served him well. Payback at these elevated ranks almost never amounts to anything that the people involved need to take seriously.

 

 

We commoners can only yearn for such Teflon coatings. Some of us are forced to grow from painful experience.