Don't You Want to Tell James Comey to "Shut Up"?

@WoodyAq [quote]He was put in a difficult position by Democratic attempts to politicize justice.[/quote]

There was a way out.

It's called, "resignation."

@beckyromero Sure. He made some poor decisions, probably because he has an inflated sense of his "mission".

Having said that, he's got a strong sense of the greater good.

I respect him for that.

@WoodyAq but he wasn't the judge nor the jury. Ginormous overstep on his part.

@abe182 True. But the problem he identified was a real one, and nobody else was dealing with it properly (either then or since).

I'm not letting him off the hook, but he didn't cause the problems, nor was he the only person responsible for mishandling them. And I think his diagnosis of the problems was correct, as were his intentions.

@WoodyAq what problem are you referring to?

@abe182 Hillary did something improper, and Obama's justice department was acting in a way that made them vulnerable to the charge of cover up. At the same time, they had to investigate Russian interference on behalf of Trump.

It would be quite easy to spin that as politicized law enforcement rigging the system if Clinton had won. (Trump is still trying to do it, although much less persuasively.)

Being vulnerable to that accusation would have undermined US institutions. In a way, what Comey did was an inoculation.

@WoodyAq I'm still not following you. Hillary had several huge crimes she was facing. She needs to be on trial for those.

@abe182 They weren't [i]huge[/i] crimes. They were misdemeanors, like the ones Ivanka is guilty of.

@WoodyAq OK. This is where I leave the conversation

@abe182

The government, as a whole, has done a pathetic job in transitioning to the electronic communications era. "Pathetic" being an understatement.

Hours before the attack on Pearl Harbor, General Marshall was afraid to pick up and directly phone General Short's headquarters in Hawaii to warn against an possibly impending attack because the Army was concerned that the Pacific telephone cables weren't secure.

(A huge mistake, to be sure, but that was a failure to act. Not a failure of acting.)

Today, we've had multiple Secretaries of State using unsecure email systems, Presidents using unsecured cell phones, the VA and the Pentagon losing laptops with millions of veteran's personal records stored on them. And I can go on and on and on.

Jailing people isn't the solution.

Changing the culture about secure communications in government is!

Certain computers need to be disconnected from the internet.

Some memorandums needed to be printed and hand-delivered, not emailed.

@abe182 Or you can explain what you think these huge crimes were. Any mention of Vince Foster's death or uranium, though, and I'll race you to the door.

@WoodyAq Benghazi

@abe182 Ah yes. Republican Congress ran 7 investigations about that after it happened (as opposed to half an investigation about massive ongoing Russian espionage).

Can you elaborate on the conclusions of any of them?

@WoodyAq sir. I said the conversation was over. Try to listen better.

@abe182 Yeah, I thought so. Great use of taxpayer money, those investigations...

@abe182 Condescension when you have no answer makes you look a real prick. Just sayin'.

@RodionRomanovitch when the fuck was I being condescending?

@abe182 Three replies above this one.