Disgrace (James Brien Comey, Jr.)

#resist

And then there is this.

President Donald Trump abruptly fired FBI Director James Comey Tuesday, dramatically ousting the nation’s top law enforcement official in the midst of an FBI investigation into whether Trump’s campaign had ties to Russia’s election meddling.

In a letter to Comey, Trump said the firing was necessary to restore “public trust and confidence” in the FBI. Comey has come under intense scrutiny in recent months for his role in an investigation into Democrat Hillary Clinton’s email practices, including a pair of letters he sent to Congress on the matter in the closing days of last year’s election.

Trump made no mention of Comey’s role in the Clinton investigation, which she has blamed in part for the election result that put him in the White House. But in announcing the firing, the White House circulated a scathing memo, written by deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, criticizing Comey’s handling of the Clinton probe, including the director’s decision to hold a news conference announcing its findings and releasing “derogatory information” about Clinton.

(Pace)

The Ted Cruz Show (Michelangelo Fist)

It is, as we have recently observed, easy enough to pick on David Brooks but then along comes Charles Hurt to remind why meandering desperation in lieu of useful analysis is still a better option than attending a hardline conservative posturing as some manner of serious mind. While the New York Times endures Brooks, Mr. Hurt’s résumé is a proper slime trail leading from the New York Post on through Breitbart, Newsmax, FOX News, and the Washington Times; just to make the point he picked up a gig with Drudge. For The Hill, however, Hurt attempts to explain “The problem with Ted Cruz”. It’s a doozy:

While the media attention has focused entirely on the exuberant and entertaining traveling carnival nature of the Trump campaign, this overlooks another, deeper problem conservatives have today: Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas).

In the past eight years, no one has captivated the realistic hopes of conservative constitutionalists the way that Cruz has in this election. On every single issue of importance to conservatives, Cruz is right. He is a walking, living, breathing Supreme Court dissent, masterfully articulated and extensively annotated on paper.

Then, he opens his mouth. And people scream. They run for the exits as if their hair is on fire. They want to take a shower.

We might fixate on the phrase, “captivated realistic hopes”, all day, and never figure out what the hell the author intends. The nearest thing to a realistic hope we might project for these “constitutional conservatives” is to somehow elect Ted Cruz, watch him get crushed by Congress and Court alike, and spend the next twenty years like they have the last, complaining about evil gov’ment and the usurpation of democracy just like they’ve been mewling at least since Romer v. Evans.

Still, though, Charles Hurt is a conservative; it is unfair to expect that he should make sense according to reality.

No Reason to Go Setting Our Hair on Fire

And why not?

Some Republican House members are looking for a few good members — who don’t want to get nuked.

Republican Reps. Trent Franks of Arizona and Doug Lamborn of Colorado, leaders of the Missile Defense Caucus, sent a “Dear Colleague” note with this message: “If your boss is fine with being nuked by Iran and North Korea, ignore this e-mail.”

(Gangitano)

Alright, before we go setting our hair on fire over this little Beltway vignette from Roll Call, it would behoove us to recall one simple point.

That is to say, this is Trent Franks and Doug Lamborn.

Arizona Eight and Colorado Five, in case it matters, and especially with that latter, it kind of does. Mr. Franks is hawkish near to paranoid, and Mr. Lamborn stupid to the point of infamy. Colorado’s Fifth Congressional District is similarly notorious. In its context, tinfoil missile shield advocacy probably isn’t the worst these two could come up with.

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Image note: The U.S. Capitol building stands surrounded by scaffolding in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, 28 October 2015. (Detail of photo by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Gangitano, Alex. “Calling All Members Who Don’t Want to Get Nuked”. Heard on the Hill. Roll Call. 3 March 2016.