So the memo must have gone out, huh? Within about eight hours, we have the Democratic president of the United States attacking Comey for trafficking in “innuendo,” the Democratic minority leader in the House suggesting Comey’s in the wrong job, and the soon-to-be Democratic majority leader in the Senate issuing his personal vote of no confidence in Comey’s leadership. And all of that comes after the sleaziest liberal of them all, Dirty Harry Reid, accused Comey of having broken the law by daring to update the public on the endless clusterfark triggered by the Democratic nominee’s gross negligence in handling classified material.

It’s demagogues all the way down:

Senate Democratic leader-in-waiting Chuck Schumer said Wednesday he’s lost confidence in FBI Director James Comey over his handling of the most recent disclosure in the Hillary Clinton e-mail investigation — a tough rebuke to a man Schumer has long admired. “I do not have confidence in him any longer,” said the New York Democrat, who has criticized as “appalling” Comey’s decision to send a letter to lawmakers 11 days before the election disclosing the bureau’s new review of e-mails potentially pertinent to the investigation of Clinton’s private server. “To restore my faith, I am going to have to sit down and talk to him and get an explanation for why he did this,” Schumer said in an interview.

Neither he, Pelosi, nor Obama used the word “resignation” but it’s the clear import of these attacks. They’re each essentially accusing Comey of being unfit to lead the Bureau. Draw your own conclusions about what the next step should be. The near-term strategy in all of this is to keep barking at Democratic voters about how angry they should be at Comey until they’re itching to vote next Tuesday, to stop the FBI from supposedly stealing the election for Trump after they, um, gave Hillary a completely free pass on violating 18 USC 793(f) this summer. It’s the left’s version of Trump’s anti-establishment shtick. A demoralized base won’t vote; an outraged base will. They’re feeding the outrage.

But I think there’s a medium-term strategy too. Even if Hillary wins on Tuesday, Comey will still be there on Wednesday with 650,000 emails in his possession from Huma Abedin’s computer. If he finds a smoking gun, it’ll be within his power to singlehandedly wreck President-elect Clinton’s administration before it begins by recommending charges against her. Nudging him towards the door now is thus a win-win for Dems. By discrediting him, they’re laying the groundwork to be able to argue later if charges are filed that it’s nothing more than a political vendetta. Maybe Comey, feeling his agency’s impartiality is again under attack, will bend over backward — again — to find a way not to charge Clinton even if something turns up in the new emails. That way he’ll have “proved” his and the FBI’s neutrality. Or, maybe, Comey really will resign after being knifed in the back today by his boss in the White House, in which case Hillary Clinton will be free to nominate a new FBI chief to her liking. One, say, who won’t be as troubled as Comey was by mishandling classified information.

Here’s your daily reminder that if this guy had simply read the statute as written, prohibiting mere gross negligence in mishandling classified material rather than intentional malfeasance, Hillary 2016 and Emailgate would be a distant memory and we’d be spending our days wondering how large Joe Biden’s margin of victory next week would be. Oh well.