Gene Robinson hammers Comey the God!

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2016

We know what he wrote last summer: Gene Robinson hammers Comey the God in today's Washington Post.

He hammers Comey for the recent, off-and-on coup plotting which started on October 28. But he also hammers the god for what he did last summer:

ROBINSON (11/8/16): Back in July, Comey and his investigators decided that “no reasonable prosecutor” would seek to bring charges against Clinton in connection with her private email server. That should have been the end of it. A one-sentence announcement would have sufficed.

Instead, Comey took the extraordinary step of releasing a lengthy statement that chided Clinton for being “careless” and generally raked her over the coals. This was unusual, if not unprecedented—and extremely unfair. The FBI director, who occupies a nonpolitical post, was meddling in politics by treating Clinton differently from others who are investigated but not prosecuted. At a time when Americans’ trust in their institutions is at a modern-day low, he made the FBI look like just another self-interested power center with its own agenda.

That was Comey’s original sin. He compounded it grievously with his “October surprise” announcement about the newly found emails...

Robinson raked Comey over the coals for what he did last summer. The analysts were cheering wildly—but then, we issued an assignment:

What did Robinson say about Comey the God last summer? The youngsters rushed to their study carrels, eager as always to learn.

Their finding? In real time, Robinson treated Comey like the powerful god he was.

It was on Tuesday morning, July 5, that Comey "took the extraordinary step of releasing a lengthy statement that chided Clinton for being 'careless' and generally raked her over the coals." (Just for the record, Comey actually said that Clinton had been extremely careless.)

Comey was "meddling in politics," Robinson says in his current column. His conduct was "very unfair."

Two days later, Comey appeared before a House committee and continued the unusual onslaught on the extremely careless Clinton. The very next day, Robinson wrote a column about what Comey had done.

Had Comey committed a sin? In that column, Robinson praised the glorious Comey for his moral greatness:

ROBINSON (7/8/16): What were [House Republicans] thinking when they hauled FBI Director James B. Comey to Capitol Hill to challenge his decision about Clinton and her emails? Did they expect Comey, a very tough nut, to crack under their withering interrogation? Did they believe they could somehow make him change his mind? Did they not anticipate that he would stand by his decision and back it up with facts, precedent and logic?

Thursday's hearing—called on an "emergency" basis, no less—was effectively over just minutes after it began. House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) asked Comey the bottom-line question: "Did Hillary Clinton break the law?"

Comey's reply: "In connection with her use of the email server? My judgment is that she did not."

At that point, Chaffetz should just have thanked the witness, pounded his gavel and sent everyone home. Instead, Republicans went on at length in a vain attempt to challenge Comey's knowledge of the law and his personal integrity. In the end, he suffered not a dent, not a nick, not even a scratch.

[...]

The hearing was a pretty sorry spectacle. Comey's would-be inquisitors could not come out and call him a compliant Democratic toady because clearly he is nothing of the sort. Comey served as deputy attorney general in the George W. Bush administration. As is proper for someone who occupies the office of FBI director, overseeing an agency he described as "resolutely apolitical," he is not now registered as a member of any party. But for most of his adult life, he testified, he was a loyal Republican.

[...]

I'm certain that some Republicans sincerely believe that Bill and Hillary Clinton are the greatest master criminals of our time. But an unimpeachable authority figure and a team of FBI investigators have decided that Hillary Clinton's handling of her emails—which, as I have written, was wrong—was not a crime. Deciding otherwise, Comey said, would be "celebrity hunting."

Today, we're told that Comey took an "extraordinary step" that week. His behavior was "extremely unfair." He had the FBI "meddling in politics."

In real time, we were told no such thing. Instead, we were told that Comey was "an unimpeachable authority figure" marked by "personal integrity."

Judging from the Nexis archives, Robinson never revised or extended those judgments until today, at least not in the Washington Post.

On July 28, Robinson mentioned Comey, but only in passing, in a short post which criticized Candidate Trump. (We can't find a link.)

On August 29, he mentioned Comey again, but he was still Comey the glorious God. On this occasion, "the Clintons" were at fault:

ROBINSON (8/29/16): Much of the criticism of Hillary Clinton over her emails and her family's foundation is unfairly harsh. But the Clintons themselves invite such scrutiny and suspicion.

First, the emails. Months of investigation turned up essentially nothing worthy of being called a scandal. Unless you doubt the integrity of FBI Director James B. Comey—and I don't—any mishandling of classified information was so minimal that "no reasonable prosecutor" would seek to pursue a case. And the FBI found no evidence, Comey said, that foreign adversaries or anyone else ever hacked their way into Clinton's emails.

That's the bottom line, no matter what critics might claim. Ordinarily, such findings would put the whole matter to rest. But they didn't, largely because of Clinton's own actions and words.

According to Nexis, that column only appeared on-line.

Comey wasn't mentioned again until October 28. On that occasion, Robinson trashed Rudy Giuliani for disagreeing with the god about the email matter. But after that, the deluge!

That afternoon, Comey intervened in the White House race with his cryptic note about Anthony Weiner's emails. (Funny last name, Rachel said.)

Up to that time, Robinson hadn't said a discouraging word about what Comey did last summer, at least not in the Post. (Rachel hadn't even mentioned his name. She took the same standard approach when Susan Rice was thrown under the bus as Benghazi was being invented. Based on appearances, the TV star enjoys conning us rubes while looking out for herself. People, use your heads!)

We aren't saying that Robinson's conduct has been right or wrong. We're saying that this is the record.

In our view, it does tend to show the powderpuff way our bravest, most famous corporate-owned liberals tend to behave at such times. The other side has fought very hard about such matters basically since the dawn of time. Our team tends to play the game this way—although, in fairness, Comey the God was a powerful god, admired by insider establishment forces.

Robinson is fiery—today. The analysts looked a bit glum after their research was finished.

"We'll go without our soup tonight," one of the youngsters said.