Let the personal attacks begin, since they cannot address substance.
This morning, the Washington Post digs up former assistant attorney general and head of the office of legal counsel to Reagan and George H.W. Bush, Douglas Kmiec, for the kind of hard core personal smearing we are accustomed to from the present administration.
Below the fold, see why the troll's mission will fail. Blockqoutes below are from Kmiec's "hit" opinion piece.
Kmiec: Comey behaved like a dramatic little girl.
James Comey's Senate testimony on Tuesday was staggeringly histrionic.
Histrionic sounds close enough to hysterical to make the probably intended point of the smear; that Comey was not "man" enough to deal with whatever "presidential necessity" the White House was pushing, nor fraternal enough to keep his mouth shut. Greek- hystera for womb; from the Greek notion that hysteria was peculiar to women and caused by disturbances of the uterus. (Merriam-Webster). It is a common Republican attack point to question the "manliness" of male critics (and for that matter, to attribute excessive "manilness" to female critics.) Disgusting.
Only problem with this characterization is that it is absolutely misleading. Comey was neither histrionic, nor hysterical. More importantly, unlike other DOJ witnesses before him, he had an intact memory and was not obfuscating or lying. Comey came across as sincere, honest, and devastatingly sober. Everyone in this country should watch Comey's testimony. I think we need to pool money to make a commercial consisting of nothing but Comey’s testimony, and play it on every channel during prime time.
Kmiec: No crime was committed
First, the comparison to Watergate is wholly inapt. Watergate involved a real crime -- breaking and entering, with a phenomenally stupid coverup that also fit the definition of criminal obstruction. And the underlying motivation for Richard Nixon's demise was raw politics. Comey's tale lacks crime and this venal political intrigue.
Firstly, it may be an attempted crime. Knowingly obtaining the signature of an incompetent man is egregiously unethical, if not illegal. Further, if the documents were pre-dated to reflect a time when Ashcroft was officially Attorney general, this could be forgery. When Gonzales and Card, at the president's direction, tried to strong-arm the signature, Comey was acting AG.
The cover-up may be a crime. Gonzales gave congressional testimony that no one in the administration had issues with the program that was ultimately approved by the president. We need to know the details to determine if he lied. He certainly engaged in clumsy cover-up when he prevented Ashcroft and Comey from giving testimony requested by Specter on earlier occasions.
This is certainly venal political intrigue.
Sparring between the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) and the White House, and apparently even within the OLC, over the legal basis for this program in wartime is leagues different from burglary for purposes of political dirty tricks.
Gangsters sneaking around in the night? We don’t know who they wanted to spy on, and why Comey, Ashcroft, and Mueller were ready to resign. Political tricks may be the order of the day. But keep talking….
Even if OLC attorneys had been unanimous that the president lacked the legal authority to conduct the kind of military intelligence-gathering that every other wartime president has pursued, that would hardly warrant the conclusion that the president had "broken the law."
But is sure as heck raises the question. Time for an independent prosecutor.
To his credit, Comey resisted this characterization four times when pressed by Specter.
But wait a second, I thought Comey was supposed to be histrionic?
“To his credit” Kmiec acknowledges the craziness of the nocturnal signature mission...
Gonzales was obviously wrong to think that the signature of a man who recused his office because of illness would have any legal purchase, and why he would pursue it from an official under sedation -- if that is what was intended by his trip to the hospital -- is mystifying.
But then again, back to attacking Comey:
However, Comey was equally mistaken to think that withholding his signature had to be the final act -- when that is necessarily the president's call.
Unless the program was so outrageous as to be illegal. We, and I am assuming you, do not know the specifics of the program, and do not know why so many government officials were willing to resign if the president and his henchmen got their way.
It is time for an independent counsel to investigate the actions of Gonzales, and ultimately, the President.