In D.C., Comey grilling must-see TV
But in flyover country, it’s biz as usual
WASHINGTON — It was 9 a.m., an hour before testimony was to begin, and the line for the “Comey Hearing Covfefe” at Shaw’s Tavern in Washington, D.C., already stretched down the block. I know, because I was in it.
Hundreds of D.C. residents and Capitol Hill staffers joined with the odd tourist to pack Shaw’s Tavern for drink specials ($5 Russian vodka shots), “FBI” breakfasts (French toast, bacon and ice cream) and to watch a bureaucrat talk to some politicians.
As one local told The Washington Post, it was “the most D.C. thing — watching a political scandal, at a bar.”
Yes, it was a very D.C. thing. As in “utterly disconnected from the rest of America.” A bar full of political junkies hanging on every word from a bureaucratic swampcreature like James Comey? The only way this bar scene could be more alien from typical America would be for Obi-Wan Kenobi to show up and cut off someone’s arm with a light saber.
The atmosphere surrounding Comey’s testimony has been compared to the Super Bowl. It certainly felt like it in Washington, where the hearings were on TV screens from the Oval Office to (literally) the lunchroom of the Giant grocery store at 7th and O.
And the media made their best effort to get the rest of America to join in. TV, radio, cable networks — coverage of the hearings was virtually inescapable. (I particularly enjoyed the political insights from the 600-pound Amish person on TLC.)
So why stand in line at a bar to watch something you couldn’t avoid anywhere else? The people I spoke to at Shaw’s Tavern said they were drawn by the spectacle and wanted to share it with others. Several used the phrase “we’re watching something historic.”
Maybe. But I suspect that what passes for historic inside the Beltway strikes many Americans as political hysteria.
The media are making much of Comey calling some of President Trump’s statements about the FBI “lies, plain and simple.” (A comment greeted with a smattering of applause from the D.C. crowd). There was also much pearl-clutching over Trump’s conversations about the investigation of nowfired National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Trump may have even asked Comey for his loyalty (though the president’s attorney denies that part of the conversation ever happened).
In other words, ladies and gentlemen, we have a politician acting like … a politician!
This is “a day history was made”? For most Americans, it’s more like “a day ending in ‘y.’ ”
Democrats, who denounced Comey as a corrupt tool of the GOP just a few short months ago, now declare him a civic hero to be celebrated. Thanks, but I’ll skip the toast to a guy who repeatedly admitted his own cowardice, unwilling to confront either former Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s corrupt attempts to use the FBI to spin for Hillary Clinton during the email scandal (yesterday he admitted Lynch asked him to call the investigation a “matter” thus echoing the Clinton campaign rhetoric); or to truthfully tell President Trump that he’s not entitled to an FBI director’s loyalty.
After listening to Comey describe that creepy oneon-one dinner with Trump at the small oval table, did you think “hero”? Or “Why didn’t you grow a set and get the hell outta there?”
And when asked pointblank if Trump obstructed justice he wimped out yet again: “I don’t think it’s for me to say.”
Not for you to say? Mr. Comey, you were head of the FBI. Your whole job was “to say.”
You certainly had no qualms “saying” Hillary’s classified emails didn’t break the law in a case that looked open and shut to the rest of us. Why not now?
Because saying “Yes, Trump crossed the line” would’ve forced Comey to explain why he didn’t resign right then? Why he instead kept clinging to his cushy federal gig?
This may play as high drama at a tony D.C. bar, but in flyover country it’s just another bureaucrat trying to pass the buck. It’s about as “as usual’ as business can get.