I Shed No Tears for James Comey

Captions: 1. Maria Houser Conzemius at the Sag Wagon bar in Cedar Rapids getting ready for IdidaRide, a bicycle ride, 2/2017. 2. On left, James V. Conzemius; on right, Maria Houser Conzemius at Phat Albert's in Brandon, IA, getting ready for the FOOLS' Ride from Brandon to La Porte City, IA, in early April 2017.

I shed no tears for James Comey, former FBI director. He thought he could put on and take off his integrity like a suit of clothing. Unfortunately, he tried doing that on multiple occasions and when it worked, it was because people admired his integrity or feared retribution. When it didn't, it was because his boss didn't understand or appreciate integrity.

Comey had his integrity on when he raced to former Attorney General Tom Ashbrook’s bedside to prevent the attempted hijacking of a very sick AG’s authority while he was considered too weak to resist. As it happened, Ashbrook wasn’t, but Comey was taking no chances. Comey was a hero that day.

But then, years later, Comey took off his integrity when he torpedoed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton 11 days before the 2016 presidential election with the revelation of inconsequential emails, helping to tilt the election toward Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Comey is a Republican and so was Donald Trump after he became president. He ran as a populist appealing to discouraged blue-collar voters, but that quickly changed when he became president and hooked up to the one-percenters of the Wall Street elite and filled his cabinet with millionaires, billionaires, and generals.

Had Comey left Hillary alone, she would probably have left him in his position as FBI director. Comey really played Russian roulette when he tilted the election toward Trump, a man who trusts no one, allegedly demanded a personal loyalty oath from Comey, which Comey refused to give (putting on his suit of integrity again).

Trump suffers from paranoid delusions and fired Comey for refusing to participate in and agree publicly with those delusions (Trump claimed that Obama wiretapped him, which Comey publicly denied). Trump also felt the noose tightening as Comey participated in the investigation of that “Russia thing,” and revealed in a tweet the real reason he fired Comey (“the Russia thing,” which Trump characterized as an excuse for Democrats who lost an election they should have won.

Comey friends and coworkers find it hard to believe that Comey would assure Trump one time, much less three times, that Trump was not a subject of investigation in the “Russia thing,” as Trump asserted.

If Trump appoints a Trump loyalist or even a Republican to replace James Comey, the optics won’t pass muster. He should appoint the acting FBI director, Andrew G. McCabe, as FBI director. McCabe seems to be speaking truth to power. As FBI director, he could give continuity to the investigation to determine whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to affect a Trump victory in November 2016.

Would Hillary get the presidency she lost through questionable activity and admittedly, campaign incompetence? It’s unlikely. It’s more likely that Trump will stumble along, possibly getting us into WWIII as a distraction, or that Trump will be impeached and deliver us unto President Mike Pence, a Republican who’s sane but a hard-right ideologue with an anti-choice, anti-woman agenda.

I can only look forward to U.S. House races in 2018 and send money to promising Democratic candidates. I'm keeping an eye on Iowa races, too, since the majority Republican Iowa legislature is every bit as depressing and destructive as the Republicans in Washington, D.C.