Former G-man shows he’s truly bigger man than prez

Before he utters a single word on Capitol Hill this morning, fired FBI Director James B. Comey has already accomplished two critical things with the release of his statement yesterday afternoon. First, he got the jump on our Twitterholic president. Second, and more importantly, Comey’s eloquent and unadorned recollection of Donald Trump’s desperate requests underscore not just the glaring difference in their height … but in their character as well. “I need loyalty. I expect loyalty ,” Trump told Comey during a dinner at the White House one week into his presidency. What The Donald was really asking for is what every craven, ego-driven political hack asks for and demands … blind obedience.

“You will always get honesty from me,” Comey told Trump.

To which our president coyly replied, “Honest loyalty.”

“It is possible we understood the phrase ‘honest loyalty’ differently,” Comey writes, “but I decided it wouldn’t be productive to push it further.”

I have to believe that right here is where James Comey knew his days were numbered. The 6-foot-8 former G-man was not stooping to placate an anxious president, who had no choice but to worry as he looked up at him.

Besides loyalty, of course, Trump hoped he could schmooze Comey into letting Mike Flynn, his ludicrous choice for national security adviser, off the hook of a full-scale FBI probe.

“I want to talk about Mike Flynn,” Trump tells Comey. “He is a good guy and has been through a lot. I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go.”

This was the Donald Trump who was going to “drain the swamp.” This was the blowhard candidate in the red hat who promised rally crowds that he alone could “Make America Great Again.”

Now, as president, he was imploring his FBI chief, like a Washington pol hip-deep in the swamp, to lay off “the Russia thing.”

He wanted Comey to forgive and forget about the ties Flynn had with Vladimir Putin and Russia and the small fortune he pocketed from that connection.

If James Comey couldn’t promise to get Mike Flynn off the hook, Trump was hoping that the least he could do was to get the stink of Russia off him. Obviously, Comey was never quite able to lift the Russia cloud from his stooped shoulders. So he had to go. James Comey may no longer be our FBI director, but he still stands a full 6-foot-8-inches tall.

On the other hand, our pre-dawn Twitter-holic in the White House seems to get smaller by the day.