Rex Murphy: American politics is an embarrassing mess thanks to a reality TV huckster, poor loser and scandal-hungry press
Naturally, many of the heroic reporters of this unhinged moment in American polity have the great saga of Watergate on their minds. So many years after poor Tricky Dicky raised his arms and gave the pathetic two-handed victory signal as he was boarding the Marine helicopter about to fly him into infamy, reporters have dreamed and fantasized about another such moment. And if one doesnt show up on its own, they are perfectly happy to manufacture one themselves.
Which is a good account of what brought us to the presumed high-drama of the Comey hearing. It disappointed, and proved, at least to me, only that James Comey is the Forrest Gump of the presidential contest. Pre- and post-election, whenever there is a crisis in the faith of American democracy, somehow James Comey is standing in front of a committee. One day he is sinking Hillarys campaign, the next resurrecting it. Post-election hes played cats-paw to Trumps win. But in it all Comey asks us to take him as the truly lone disinterested, upright actor in the whole surreal drama.
The highlight, for me, of Comeys testimony was his self-declaration that he himself is a leaker. And since leaks of one sort or the other have been the unfailing driver of every story since the election on the Russian influence, and since a primary duty of any FBI director is to chase leaks and identify leakers, the word that Comey himself leaked a memo to the press (via a friend) falls on the ordinary observers head with something of the force of a grand piano coming from a great height.
Talk about projection.
Watergate: "Nixon's fault."
Iran-Contra: "Reagan's fault."
Iraq-Gate: "Bush's fault."
Japanese Internment during WWII: "America must look at within itself and take responsibility for its darkest hour."
Excellent analysis by a disinterested observer.
The Brown Clown? So outta here!
LMAO! This coming from a country that elected the white Obama. I love Canada but they will always be what they are: irrelevant.
True: The fact that socialists agents are tolerated to breath American air is a humiliation.
How nice you noticed.
This wouldn't be do if the press had any sense of fair play.