Countdown to Extinction: The 2016 Presidential Election

[Parsifal]

A rare Trump move which I don't take issue with, until I start to imagine who he will pick as a replacement. A former head of the FSB, perhaps?

[amw]

Based on his track record so far, I would expect a ex-military, former Goldman Sachs employee who is now a Republican House member and has a questionable relationship with women.

[Parsifal]

It's coming to me, Giuliani! 

[drogulus]

     It's a no no for the President to fire the investigator who is investigating him. What will the Repub tools do? Nunes and Chaffetz are gone, the Evil Elf recused his sorry ass, so will Trump run out of flying monkeys? Maybe not, given what Repub has come to mean.

     I suppose it's premature to say, once again, "this time he's gone too far". That presupposes Repubs have the same instincts for too far-ness and survival as they did in the Nixon era when he went on his firing binge.

     When they are ready Repubs will pull the plug. What will make them ready?

[Gurn Blanston]

A rare Trump move which I don't take issue with, until I start to imagine who he will pick as a replacement. A former head of the FSB, perhaps?

  I could have written this myself (it is why I came to this thread!). Long, long overdue, although I think using the excuse of how screwed up he was in the Clinton investigation is pretty lame. Nonetheless, he had to go, but like you, I wonder what sort of manic zealot he will put there now? 

[Karl Henning]

Just let Ivanka do it!  She is as qualified for that, as for anything else she's futzing with.

[drogulus]

     Supposedly the decision to fire Comey was bottom up and from the Deputy AG through Sessions to Trump, and the justification was the handling of the Clinton matter. That's just about impossible. The IG hasn't issued its report so Rosenstein wouldn't do it and if he did it wouldn't come with a letter filled with Clinton campaign points, it would have legal reasoning based on the results of the IG investigation. This is top down from Trump through Sessions, and the preposterous justification is necessary because the slightest reference to Russia would mean Rosenstein and Sessions could have no part in it. Trump fired the investigator over the Russia investigation and only that. But Sessions and Rosenstein can't do it if it's Russia, so it isn't. Comey was bad to Hillary and bad about Hillary all at the same time. I'm sure the remaining unrecused flying monkeys agree.

[BasilValentine]

  I could have written this myself (it is why I came to this thread!). Long, long overdue, although I think using the excuse of how screwed up he was in the Clinton investigation is pretty lame. Nonetheless, he had to go, but like you, I wonder what sort of manic zealot he will put there now? 

No, he didn't have to go. Comey was exactly the right person to be leading the Russia investigation and that is the only reason he was fired — obviously. (I trust no one here is naive enough to believe the ludicrous justifications.) Comey's own redemption and personal pride were on the line, which is why he was especially dangerous to Trump. He didn't want the cloud hanging over his interference in the election to be the lead line in his biography, as it now will be, and he was busy working to forestall this outcome. Pride is Comey's deadly sin, pride in his precious rectitude, which he values above all else. His obsessive concern with his reputation was what motivated his ham-handed blunder in October, and it is what was driving his probe into the Trump campaign's sordid sleazing.

[Parsifal]

I have no doubt that derailing the Russia investigation was Trump's goal, but Comey politicized the FBI, calling into question its standing as a nonpartisan law enforcement agency, and did great damage.

[Karl Henning]

I have no doubt that derailing the Russia investigation was Trump's goal [...]

Then, yet again, he doesn't know what he's doing 

[Gurn Blanston]

No, he didn't have to go. Comey was exactly the right person to be leading the Russia investigation and that is the only reason he was fired — obviously. (I trust no one here is naive enough to believe the ludicrous justifications.) Comey's own redemption and personal pride were on the line, which is why he was especially dangerous to Trump. He didn't want the cloud hanging over his interference in the election to be the lead line in his biography, as it now will be, and he was busy working to forestall this outcome. Pride is Comey's deadly sin, pride in his precious rectitude, which he values above all else. His obsessive concern with his reputation was what motivated his ham-handed blunder in October, and it is what was driving his probe into the Trump campaign's sordid sleazing.

You should be careful throwing around words like "obviously". There are some "obvious" things out there that are just so much bullshit. Of course, Trump is an idiot, can't be helped, but if indeed the 'obvious' thing is just what you believe it to be (and don't bet your life on it) then the backlash from this whole thing will not aid in covering up anything at all, it only makes the curious people more curious. And we all know what curiosity did.

Comey, in fact, is no more dangerous to Trump as an individual than any other person doing that job with any level of assiduity. What will happen now, obviously ( ), is that Trump's old and new enemies will insure that there actually IS a Special Prosecutor, so appointing Barron Trump as the new FBI Director won't help a bit. Meantime, Comey was damaged goods. No matter how you interpret his various roles, he has served his purpose and needs to go while the FBI is still a viable entity.

[Karl Henning]

Just let Ivanka do it!  She is as qualified for that, as for anything else she's futzing with.

[Gurn Blanston]

IMO, the perfect candidate for Special Prosecutor is Preet Bharara. He is brilliant, dedicated, and absolutely not beholden to Trump...

[Todd]

And we all know what curiosity did.

Yes, it made Mike Pence president.

[amw]

To be fair, it's totally possible Trump fired Comey for non-Russia-related reasons e.g. Comey publicly contradicted Trump's claims Obama wire tapped him, or Comey was just getting way too much attention on TV and Trump wanted the spotlight back. This is Trump after all. Competence in carrying out a meticulous conspiracy is not really his métier. Trying to protect his brand and image, much more so.

[Gurn Blanston]

Yes, it made Mike Pence president.

So you're saying "lose::lose"? 

[drogulus]

     Comey could have been fired on day one and not much of a fuss would have been made. And though it's utterly irrelevant to the present situation, just after Comey asked for more resources for his Russia probe, there are good reasons for Comey to go, even recent ones like his preposterous "silence is concealment" testimony. Rosenstein would be justified in writing an honest memo about it on his own! All of that macht nichts and all of everyone knows it.

[Gurn Blanston]

     Comey could have been fired on day one and not much of a fuss would have been made. And though it's utterly irrelevant to the present situation, just after Comey asked for more resources for his Russia probe, there are good reasons for Comey to go, even recent ones like his preposterous "silence is concealment" testimony. Rosenstein would be justified in writing an honest memo about it on his own! All of that macht nichts and all of everyone knows it.

Comey should have been fired on Day 1. The Trump Agenda is strongly reliant on doing everything, whether important or not, but especially if it IS important, at the worst possible time so that he ends up almost flaunting what is either gross incompetence or overt criminality. Since you can't really decide (despite what you said) which is which, he gets the least resistance. General bitching isn't resistance, impeachment by his own party is more along the lines I have in mind. That would also satisfy Todd's need for Washington gridlock, so win::win. 

[snyprrr]

Now that Hillary had FINALLY made Comey the scapegoat, he gets fired. LOL OF ALL LOLZ


I for one will just come out and say THERE WAS NO RUSSIAN NOTHING IN NOTHING- at this point I would go after every organ of the SoreLoserites and fire and prosecute and whatever else.

WHEN IN HISTORY has such Loserism tried to foist itself on a society and try and screw up that society (worse than it is) because they didn't get their way?

SHUT THE GUB"MINT" DOWN AND LET THE PARASITES WORK RETAIL!!!!!

[Zeus]

And watch who gets hit the hardest when their government checks stop rolling in – rotund redneck red state Republicans !!!

Good.  They deserve it too, for being gullible enough to foist this senile lunatic crybaby swindler on the rest of us.

The left coast should secede. I'd be for it!

PS - Trump definitely paid Russian prostitutes to pee on Obama's bed. You can't make that stuff up!