I finished reading James Comey's new book A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership. I normally don't buy into publicity stunts like this. For instance, I resisted buying Fire and Fury,
because I didn't want to give money to a guy for telling us what we
already knew - that Trump's a tool -, and the juicier bits of gossip,
whether true or not, were something we would all find out about anyway,
whether or not we bought the book. But I wanted to buy Comey's book,
because the poor guy needed to make a living after he was fired from the
FBI, and so I did, fully aware that I was buying into the narrative of a
man who had every reason to show himself in a good light. But the
narrative we have been hearing so far is that of Hillary Clinton and
Democrats who haven't been able to get over their loss.
To
be clear, I don't necessarily admire Comey, but I also don't think he
was wrong in doing what he did leading up to the 2016 elections. Hillary
may or may not have won if Comey hadn't reopened the investigation into
her emails. (Have people forgotten about Russia's hand in all this?)
But as bad as the alternative (Trump) has been, I still don't think the
outcome of an election is something that the FBI should consider during
an investigation. Comey repeatedly emphasizes in his book and in his
television appearances, where he resembles a traumatized puppy trying to
get on with his life, that the FBI doesn't play for one team or the
other, and nothing that Comey has done suggests that this hasn't been
the case.
But
of course, Hillary Clinton still goes around telling people she felt
"shivved" by Comey. When it comes to deflecting blame, Hillary is second
only to Trump. If anything, the country should be furious that Hillary
was such a piss-poor candidate that she lost to Trump. Any other year
she would have been the worst candidate on the ballot. If anything, her
losing the election was a blessing to her legacy, because now people
will forever remember a hypothetical Hillary presidency as one of the
great presidencies that never were. Had she become president, her name
would have gone direct to the trash heap of history, novelty of being
the first woman president notwithstanding, alongside that of other
uncharismatic venal hawks who have adorned the Oval Office during the
latter half of the twentieth century, from Nixon all the way up to Bill
"Whipped Cream" Clinton. Hillary would have been a Democratic version of
George W. Bush - unpalatable any other year. (Recall how people are now
wishing Ol' Dubya had been president again.)
That
said, I thought Comey's book promised more than it delivered. This may
partly be because he couldn't reveal classified information. Sure, there
were a few interesting episodes, some glimpses into the workings of the
FBI and its place in the power hierarchy of Washington D.C., but in the
main the book read like a long-winded apologia. "Hey, I'm one of the
good guys!" Comey seems to be saying. He says things like, "I feel
mildly nauseated that I might have had an impact on the election," in
his book and in his television appearances, trying to extort sympathy
from the public by making himself appear "only human" (this is also why
he says folksy things like "oh, lordy"), and he writes about Obama in
glowing terms in order to ingratiate himself with the Democrats, now
that the Republicans have disowned him. He peppers in the occasional
trite maxim about leadership, common sense to most people, in order to
distract from the fact that the book is little more than a catharsis for
him and to satisfy his publishers, after having been traduced for over a
year by the media and people from both political parties. Nothing wrong
with that. But the reader should be aware that this what he's going to
get with this book.
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