FBI Director James Comey must have spent a lot of the last 36 hours contemplating the meaning of the phrase "Some days you get the bear; some days the bear gets you." Right now he's in the dog house with Democrats who have accused him of trying to sway the presidential election by renewing the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's use of private servers and devices to send and receive emails, contrary to federal government policy and the laws regarding the sharing of classified materials.

When Comey announced earlier in the year the FBI would not recommend the Justice Department take action against Clinton despite the fact she had been "extremely careless" in her handling of classified materials, he was a hero, a citadel of justice and integrity who had put an end to a partisan witch hunt. Now that he's told Congress the investigation is continuing – apparently because of some 650,000 Clinton emails found while looking for dirty texts sent by former Rep. Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Clinton's principal factotum Huma Abedin – some very powerful people are suggesting (and the media echo chamber is repeating) it is Comey and not Clinton who may have broken the law.

That, of course, is nonsense. The Hatch Act, which Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid accused Comey of breaking, is intended to prevent federal employees from engaging in partisan political activities. It is not in any way meant to keep law enforcement officials from doing their jobs because an election is at hand. Does anyone remember Reid and other liberal malcontents who are now screaming the loudest about political dirty tricks speaking up in outrage when Lawrence Walsh, the independent counsel investigating the Iran-Contra business, indicted former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and said George H. W. Bush had lied about what he knew about it four days before America went to the polls in 1992?

Of course you don't, because it didn't happen. The indictment put an end to a last-minute surge by Bush in the polls, turning what might have been a nail-biter of an election night into a plurality win for Bill Clinton.

Whatever Hillary Clinton is facing she brought on herself. She knew the rules – or would have if she'd bothered to sit through any of the mandatory security briefings all employees of the executive branch are required to take. As we are reminded again and again, she somehow thinks the rules are written for someone else; they don't apply to her. It was true with her health care task force in the 1990s and will likely be true of her presidency if she wins the election.

It's not clear whether the recent email news is enough to deny her victory in the upcoming election. She's dropped precipitously in the polls – either that or the sampling and weighting in the public surveys is being adjusted to match what the electorate is going to look like on Nov. 8 rather than the Democrats' dream it's been up to now. The point is she's on the ropes once again and may never have been off them.

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One person who could settle this all is President Barack Obama, who could put an end to it by giving her an unconditional pardon. He could say about it whatever he wished – that any violation of the law was unintentional, that she has suffered enough at the hands of partisan persecutors who thus far haven't been able to prove a thing, as long as it was plausible enough that the Clintonites in the media like ABC's George Stephanopoulos and David Muir and NBC's Chris Matthews and others like them could repeat it with a straight face. The president's power in this regard is absolute, even if his action subverts the course of justice and lets the guilty go free.

Whether the acceptance of a pardon would help or hurt Clinton in the election is not clear. It would probably help dispel the dark cloud that is sure to hover over her inauguration and make her first months in office (if she gets that far) somewhat smoother than they might otherwise be. It might also be arranged in such a way that anyone who received or sent her secure, classified materials through unsecured means might also be let off the hook, whoever they might be.