Save us Comey Garland!
By
I should know better than to place my faith in America’s elites, but apparently no trolling can be too obvious for people not to fall for it:
Merrick Garland as FBI director would avert what could be a long national nightmare. Trump should propose. Dems should insist.
— Lawrence H. Summers (@LHSummers) May 12, 2017
I suppose Mr. Legend’s response is adequate:
@LHSummers No, no, no. You’re smarter than this
— John Legend (@johnlegend) May 12, 2017
But, seriously, how can you not see you’re being set up here? Sure, let’s trade a life-tenured seat on the second most important court in the country for an FBI director who will obviously be fired at the first sign he’s trying to do his job. Can’t see any flaws in this plan!
And yet, I shouldn’t be surprised, because exactly the same unsquarable circle was also evident in round 1, “James Comey will save us!” You’ll remember the logic:
- Trump’s utter indifference to constraining rules and norms is a major threat to the country
- James Comey’s fiercely independent integritude will be a check on this threat
- Trump will, despite his utter indifference to constraining rule and norms, allow Comey to independently investigate him
This never made a shred of sense. I could see not thinking Trump would fire Comey if you shared Corey Robin’s view that Trump is just an incompetent but otherwise garden-variety Republican without any particular authoritarian tendencies, but for this most part Wittes et al. thought Comey was critical exactly because Trump presented a unique threat. But the logic instantly collapses on itself — someone who serves at the pleasure of the president can’t check the president’s authoritarian tendencies.
Still, to come back for round 2 after you’ve already seen what happened to Comey is kind of amazing, and not understanding why Republicans are floating Garland in particular is even more so.