WASHINGTON, D.C.—Something largely had been lost in the deafening chorus of The Volga Boatmen ringing from every corner of the news media, and drowned out by the roaring avalanche of horse-hockey set loose by the confirmation hearings starring the various hirelings of El Caudillo del Mar-A-Lago.

(What was your favorite dung patty? Jeff Sessions, arguing that his prosecution of civil-rights leaders actually was a blow against voter suppression, or Rex Tillerson's contention that Exxon Mobil's position on levying economic sanctions against Russia was merely an advisory opinion? After a while, believe me, you just get numb.)

Nevertheless, we should note that James Comey, the director of the FBI, has had a pretty bad week for himself. As part of the examination of how and why the Russians finagled the 2016 election, Comey's role in mucking the thing up is getting another look, and it hasn't been flattering. On Thursday, it was announced that the Inspector General of the Department of Justice had opened an investigation into Comey's conduct during the campaign, including his misbegotten July press conference regarding Hillary Rodham Clinton's e-mails and his letter, 10 days before the polls opened, about a new cache of e-mails, an event that probably transformed the results as much as anything else did.

In addition, when it was revealed that Comey was aware of the now-famous oppo document regarding alleged Russian influence over the president-elect, the congressional Democrats howled that Comey clearly had put his thumb on the scale. On Friday, as The Wall Street Journal called for his resignation, Comey met with Democrats from the House of Representatives.

It did not go well. Via The Hill:

"I was nonjudgmental until the last 15 minutes. I no longer have that confidence in him," Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), ranking member of the Veterans Affairs Committee, said as he left the meeting in the Capitol. "Some of the things that were revealed in this classified briefing — my confidence has been shook." Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), senior Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, delivered a similar condemnation. "I'm extremely concerned — extremely," he said. "I'll just — I'm very angry," echoed Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.).

It has been a very long drop for Comey, who came out of the swamp that was the Bush administration DOJ as one of its few heroes. In 2006, after The New York Times revealed that administration's illegal domestic wiretapping operation, administration officials went to the hospital room of ailing Attorney General John Ashcroft to get him to legalize the program. According to Jack Goldsmith's memoir, it was Comey, then the acting AG, who shortstopped the bureaucrats at Ashcroft's bedside. From The Washington Post:

The sickbed visit was the start of a dramatic showdown between the White House and the Justice Department in early 2004 that, according to Comey, was resolved only when Bush overruled Gonzales and Card. But that was not before Ashcroft, Comey, Mueller and their aides prepared a mass resignation, Comey said. The domestic spying by the National Security Agency continued for several weeks without Justice approval, he said. "I was angry," Comey testified. "I thought I just witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very sick man, who did not have the powers of the attorney general because they had been transferred to me."

Why Comey got so tangled up in the e-mail nothingburger that he couldn't extricate himself without helping to monkeywrench a political campaign remains something of a mystery. None of his answers so far, especially concerning his last minute October Surprise letter to Congress, has been remotely satisfying.

Alex Wong Getty Images

It began with his extraordinary press conference last July 5, when he announced he would not be prosecuting HRC, but then went on to outline a fairly compelling—and not a little damning—bill of particulars against her. This set the flying monkeys of the right aloft, in and out of Congress. (Democratic politicians were unhappy, too, but they're Democrats, so nobody cared.) The smart money insists that Comey was so shaken by the reaction to his announcement that he ran scared through the rest of the election. This makes some sense, but Comey took far more heat from that same quarter when he stepped in front of Ashcroft. Maybe that event marked him but, however it happened, he clearly was running scared in only one direction throughout the summer and fall of 2016.

In fact, he may find himself out of a job, but he has one great ace in the hole. As angry as the Democrats may be at him, the idea of Donald J. Trump appointing the director of the FBI is completely terrifying to a great number of them. (Rudy Giuliani? Joe Arpaio? Sheriff David Clarke? The Nuge?) And I'm not entirely sure that the Trump team is willing to stand the gaff for firing him, or that they particularly want to at this point, since Comey has made it plain that he's not going to be the fall guy for any attempts by the president-elect or his staff to get out from under the famous oppo document.

If there is an independent congressional investigation into the Russian involvement in the election, Comey undoubtedly will be one of the star witnesses. Might want to stay on his good side for a while.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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