What We Have Become.

Two “documents” have recently been released; the memoirs of ex-FBI Director James Comey and the Report of the Investigative General of the Department of Justice.  Comey’s book has sucked all of the oxygen out of the room while very little attention has been paid to the IG Report.  One is a collection of sanctimonious opinions from a terminated federal employee who has, without question, improperly leaked DOJ information to the media in surreptitious fashion, at a minimum played fast and loose with the truth surrounding multiple FBI investigations, and sprinkled his novel with material better suited for the National Enquirer.  The IG Report is a result of a months-long investigation by a non-partisan career professional that has had complete and total access to all of the facts surrounding that of which he speaks.  It is a scathing indictment of how Obama’s Department of Justice operated and unfortunately, it is likely only a harbinger of many more scandals to come.  It says something about us as a country that all of the public attention is focused on Comey’s effort and not that of the IG.

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The Inspector General is Michael E. Horowitz, an Obama appointee.  You can read his report yourself and draw your own judgment @ https://www.lawfareblog.com/document-doj-inspector-general-report-andrew-mccabe.  There can be little doubt that the Obama Administration, through the Department of Justice and Attorney General Loretta Lynch, did all it could to deflect any investigation into Hillary Clinton wrongdoing in advance of the last presidential election.  Additionally, Andrew McCabe, the recently terminated FBI Deputy Director who previously worked hand-in-glove with his supervisor James Comey, is undeniably exposed as little more than a partisan hack who has long been abusing his power and position in the DOJ for political purposes.

Comey, a self-professed paragon of virtue, served as FBI Director beginning in September of 2013, being appointed by Obama, until he was fired from that position by President Trump in May of 2017.  At various times over the last few years of his tenure, he was alternately praised and condemned by both Democrats and Republicans …depending on whose ox he was goring at the time.  Although he spent most of his early legal career as a government employee, he spent the time period of August 2005 up to his Obama appointment as a corporate lawyer on the east coast.  His anti-Trump dialogue is openly embraced by the mainstream media and all those associated with the Resist Trump movement.  Trump supporters and loyalists claim that his literary effort is little more than a pathetic, partisan swipe at the man who fired him.  Again…you read the book and you decide.

At a moment in time when the three most powerful forces for freedom and liberty on this planet, America/United Kingdom/France, have just executed an attack on a rogue regime in Syria, at the high level risk of escalating an already volatile situation into a more heated environment; after years of fiscal paralysis, when America’s economy is finally beginning to gain some momentum, realizing the growth of decent jobs and seeing the business sector flourish; when Congress has pitifully continued to demonstrate its absolute incompetence by failing to pass a budget, continually squawking about Russian meddling, and generally spending most of its time on things that are peripheral to its  primary functions; when illegal immigration is tearing this country apart and there continues to be no meaningful discussion or debate about  how federal immigration policy should be revised; in the midst of all of this…most all of the media want to talk about a book that discusses Trump’s hair, his possible tanning bed habits, the size of  his hands, and an assessment of his moral content from a disgruntled ex-employee of his (yes…I said that correctly; the FBI Director is hired by the Chief Executive and serves at his pleasure).

While the careful and professional investigative report of the IG is largely ignored, the critically important abuses of power that it exposes are simply skipped over by the media for the more salacious flavors of Donald Trump’s past romps with centerfold playmates and porn queens.  That we, as a nation, are obsessing with one of these revelations over the other is a very telling moment.  Partisanship is a fever that has forever fueled our two-party political system in America.  It is critical that we have two strong and vital political philosophies to serve as a governor on the other.  But when partisanship reaches the stage at which it now resides, permeating every aspect of our culture, with no one in either party showing the ability, or the courage, to stand up and call out the fever for what it is…then we have reached a very sad place indeed.  We deserve the government we elect.  We have elected a poor choice as President whose many flaws are barely exceeded by his choice of wise policies and qualified appointees.  The Democratic Party has devolved into a pathetic, writhing blob of bitching, moaning, and classless criticisms.  The Republican Party, having achieved a brief moment of supreme political positioning, has forsaken the principles which he has espoused for decades in return for a spineless, unprincipled quest for some type of public image and the paths of least resistance.  Our recently-fired FBI Director is hawking his tell-all book on the street corner, we are bombing a middle-eastern government into oblivion, the Democrats want to impeach our Republican President for eating the wrong cereal at breakfast, the Republicans in Congress continue their athletically-challenged exhibition of tripping over themselves, the federal budget expenditures continue to balloon far beyond expected revenues with no thought towards the hole we are digging ourselves, and…the beat goes on.  This is what we have become.