Don's Tuesday Column

           THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson  Red Bluff Daily News   4/17/2018

                Dinner, candidates; Comey perfidy

Thoughts on the Republican Red, White and Blue dinner honoring Tehama County agriculture: The better-than-expected attendance—and support evidenced by the generous response to the many auction items and bidding for the full-size cutouts of our Republican leaders—warmed our collective hearts and buoyed our spirits. It is always the one event each year where we in the super-majority get camaraderie with fellow ideological brothers and sisters, while having the chance to shake hands and converse with nearly all of our local officials and representatives.

There were candidates galore, seekers of offices from the District Attorney to Tehama County Sheriff to judges; our humble county event drew 2 impressive candidates for Governor: John Cox and Travis Allen. While a reality check mitigates against “irrational exuberance” for the seeing a Republican governor in Sacramento, there is cause for hope that the November contest will at least see our party represented against a Democrat rather than 2 Dems; thank the wacky, ill-advised law giving the top two slots to those who got the most votes in the primary. Impressions left me encouraged; I generally like what I saw and heard. I’m reserving judgment until later in May.

Here are some takeaways about the insufferable egotist, former FBI Director James Comey, whose book you couldn’t pay me to read and whose interview with Mr. “$75,000 Clinton Foundation contributor and former Clinton political tool” George Stephenopoulos, was upstaged by the PBR bull riding contest and reruns of Murdoch Mysteries. Comey doesn’t think Democrats should impeach President Trump; let the voters render judgment in 2020. I didn’t see that coming—I agree.

Then there’s my chagrin over Comey and former Obama Attorney General “just grandkids talk with Bill Clinton on the tarmac” Loretta Lynch, throwing each other under the bus. It grew from Comey’s cryptic book comment that he felt obligated to take more of a personal role as the public face of the Hillary Clinton email investigation rather than deferring to Lynch due to a “development still unknown to the American public to this day.” Sounds ominous enough that Lynch had to issue some blather to refute it.

Apparently, in addition to being against impeaching Trump, Comey has moved past the “Russian collusion” issue; maybe because there isn’t, nor was there ever, any actual collusion, coordination, conspiracy, etc. between Trump and Russia. How else to interpret Comey mentioning “collusion” only twice in the interview while saying “obstruction of justice” 13 times. He just can’t accept that it’s another “dry hole” due to Trump having every right, as President, to direct his DOJ and FBI officials in their inquiries, as well as to hire and fire them “at will.”

You’ve likely heard that Comey admitted to using his awareness of the polls showing the near-certitude that Hillary Clinton would win to determine whether to reopen the email investigation. Apparently, he believed that if it came out that he declined to reopen it after icky pervert Anthony Weiner’s computer was found to have Clinton emails, it might make Hillary look tainted in her glorious win. If the contest was close or if Trump was ahead, he wouldn’t have done it. So, to this beclowned lawman, justice would only be pursued if…polls?

Not asked by the one-time Clinton “war room” operative, George S.: Why didn’t Comey do the honorable thing and just quit, telling America why in the process? Why would a man with Comey’s fine-tuned moral compass illegally leak classified information via his memos given to a professor? How was it not deeply corrupt to leak them and want them published, to bring about the appointment of his buddy Mueller to investigate? Since he now professes to want the electorate to have the last word in 2020, why the illegal efforts to overturn the 2016 vote?

Trump’s tweets, blasting former FBI Director Andrew McCabe for serial lying, were shown, by the DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz to be spot on. McCabe lied 4 times in interviews, 3 times under oath, over his role in leaks to the Wall Street Journal.

Re: that FBI raid on Trump’s lawyer’s home and offices: If judge Kimba Woods rules on the merits of the issue and finds that much of the material seized is protected by attorney/client privilege, it means that agents had no business or basis in their raid. They were obligated to use standard subpoenas as is customary with a cooperating party, which describes Cohen. It was wrong.

“Mueller and his gang have weaponized the criminal justice system. These no-knock raids that were done on his personal lawyer’s house and offices—those are the kinds of tactics reserved for dope dealers and for terrorists…They’re using the grand jury in a terroristic way, in order to frighten people, to intimidate people and to try to influence the conduct of the president of the United States. It’s disgraceful…an embarrassment to the Department of Justice. They have determined that they want to take him down” (“Toensing and deGenova Rip ‘Anti-Trumpers’ for Using ‘in Terrorem Tactics’”).

“And then there’s the business of how this Russia investigation started: opposition research that turned out to be specious was used as evidence to wire-tap a Trump associate who ticked off the number two at the FBI (McCabe). So the FISA system was used to harm political opposition—the leadership of the FBI, DOJ and the FISA court were used as ‘insurance’ against Trump” (Spectator.org). It all makes Nixon’s Watergate look like a walk in the park.

By the way, the CBO has revised its projection of revenues and deficits and found that (I’m shocked, shocked), due to several predictable results of Trump’s tax cut bill, the economy will grow, employment will rise, less funding of non-workers will be needed, and (watch Dems and liberals do “spit takes”) the 10-year tax cut deficit, from reduced revenues, will drop by 65 percent.