It was close to 10 PM before I read that Trump had fired FBI Director Comey.
Comey hadn't been on my radar for most of his tenure. I probably couldn't have named him before he excoriated Hillary Clinton for her email server. I'll never forget his damning letter to Congress about Hillary days before the election. Just last week Comey screwed up in stating the number of documents Huma Abedin forwarded to her (then?) husband. It wasn't "hundred and thousands of emails." Let's just say, I'm not a fan.
But why fire him now when Comey is leading an investigation into connections between the Russians and their hackers and Trump campaign officials? At a minimum, a bare minimum, this has all the hallmarks of the appearance of impropriety. Unfortunately appearances of impropriety are standard in the Trump White House.
There are so many other things wrong with this...
Is this the 21st century version of the Saturday night massacre when Nixon fired Special Watergate Prosecutor Archibald Cox?
Well, the Trumpians didn't try to hide the firing on a slow news Saturday night but only because they misread how the Democrats would react. They figured that since the Democrats don't like Comey, all would be fine.
***
I was a freshman in college and had just returned to my dorm room. I turned on the TV and the firing was all over news. I didn't really get what it all meant, but I knew it was bad. It worried me. I ended up staying up late and watching The Caine Mutiny. That didn't help: the paranoid Captain Queeg was too similar to President Nixon.
Tonight I'm bothered enough to stay up and post about Comey's firing. I'm not sure what this means. But I'm more afraid than I was back in 1973. Back then, there wasn't such a partisan divide, Back then Republicans had principles. Everything wasn't about tax breaks for the rich.
Every day with this President is a new disaster. I don't know what else to say.
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