Double Down Take Down!!!

J. Edgar Hoover's spirit must be glowing with pride and envy!  As much power and sway as he held for so many decades as FBI Director, he never was able to do what James Comey has done - take down two Presidents!

First, James Comey took down the woman who was certain to win had he not intervened - President-to-be Hillary Clinton. Respected pollster, Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight, has stated that it was the decisive factor in Hillary's narrow electoral college loss.  Comey's announcement of uncovering emails to re-examine came at a crucial point.  His announcement that there was nothing in them a few days before the election had no impact - the damage was already done.

It's anecdotal, but I remember the change in Republicans that I knew.  None were going to vote for Hillary, but many of them couldn't stand Trump and were just going to not vote at all, or for the Libertarian candidate.  But the Comey thing gave them an excuse to come home to roost.  It confirmed their worst suspicions about Hillary, and made them feel like they could take a chance on Trump.  At least they could get the Supreme Court out of it, and maybe stop Obamacare.

What we didn't know at the time was that Comey was ALSO investigating Trump and his team, for their connection to the Russian interference in our election.

And now it's become clear that Trump was doing whatever he could to obstruct that investigation.  He fired those in charge.  He hounded and vilified the media.  And in what may be the last straw, Comey has notes showing that Trump explicitly asked him to end the investigation into Gen. Mike Flynn - a prima facie case of obstruction of justice.

You may not know how things have changed yet.  But the reaction by many Republicans, who've put up with a lot of awfulness and incompetence from Trump, is definitively different.  You can feel it in the air.

And Comey once again will be a large part of it.  He is instrumental in bringing down the candidate he inadvertently helped launch into office.

As upsetting as the Hilary thing may have been, the truth is that, although a conservative Republican whose career was accelerated by John Ashcroft, Bush's ultra-conservative Attorney General, Comey has a reputation for being a boy scout and a straight shooter.  He prides himself on even-handedness.  His announcement about Hillary's emails may have not been the right thing to do, but the truth is he feared that leakers connected to FBI buddies of Rudy Giuliani were set to leak it, and he thought if he did it, he could control it and mitigate the damage.  He was wrong, but I am convinced his motives were not sinister.

And so it is with Trump.  I believe he is trying to do his job, and he has been dealing with a spoiled man-child who clearly did not want him to do it.

It's not malice.  It's a quirk of history.  Nevertheless. it is there.

James Comey, the FBI Director who took down TWO Presidents!