The Talented Mr. Comey

Now that the Comey movie is on Showtime, I thought it a good time to revisit this piece, from 2018. Title is a play on Patricia Highsmith novel.

Who is James Comey??

“Is James Comey thinking of running for president?” The sentence was scribbled, with several exclamation points, question marks, and various punctuations indicating emotional distress, on the notes I’d taken while watching James Comey on the College of William and Mary “Town Hall” last week-end. After weeks of watching interviews, the thought had entered my mind like a Waldo you suddenly find after hours of searching. James Comey is not the keeper of the flame of truth, nor is he just a good man who has made some disastrous errors of judgment. He’s a politician.

Consider: The hedging answers masking as precision (“I don’t remember consciously thinking Clinton would win” but “the environment“ of expectation that Clinton would win “may have” affected his actions) The “Lordy, I hope….” touches of common-man speak (Trump is just “making stuff up.”) The rousing stump speech (which by the Town Hall I’d heard in two other interviews) on the decline of “ethical leadership” and his faith in the next generation. The ostentatious humility alongside the moral high-mindedness: He wrote the book because it “would be cowardly” not to. Come on.