Comey's Book

[bex]

Who's reading it? Thoughts?

[bex]

I finished it last night and I actually liked it a lot more than I had expected. Yes he's a bit self-righteous in it, and I can't decide if that's just how he is or if that's to match the overall theme of the book. A lot of how he described his leadership style at the FBI matched up with how others described him though.

I found his dislike of Hillary to be palatable, which surprised me. I mean I figured he wasn't a fan, but I thought it was different from how he talked about Trump. I got the impression he considered Trump a dangerous joke, a caricature of himself, and incompetent, but he actually disliked Hillary. Even when he talks about not meeting her when she was a senator - there's something there. And at the end when he mentions "two deeply flawed candidates" for president I was taken aback a bit.

Also, he worked on Whitewater?? I feel like that was not mentioned at all as he was doing his press conferences and such about the emails.

I thought the stuff about Trump was interesting but we have heard most of it before, between his book tour and the memos and his testimony before Congress. What I did find interesting was how NO ONE in the white house seemed to grasp how the FBI and DOJ were supposed to be separate from the White House. I knew Trump and his immediate cronies - Ivanka etc - didn't get it - but it seemed Pence didn't get it, Priebus didn't, etc. Those people who were supposed to help with that aspect - helping Trump learn Washington norms - were unable to do so. the fact that he had a meeting with Reince about keeping the FBI and White House separate that ended with Reince shoving him into the Oval Office - either these people are all just stupid, or they didn't care because they wanted the FBI as their personal investigative tool.

It was clear he thought GWB was okay, kind of a doof but okay, and that he really respected Obama.

So overall - I liked it. The part about the emails enraged me, because that seemed like a witch hunt (all the comments about "well there was nothing there UNLESS SHE LIES TO US" just seemed like they were trying to trap her but I'm sure my bias is playing a role here.) And the whole "speak or conceal" thing also enraged me because....dude...you could have kept your mouth shut. THAT WAS A VALID OPTION. But anyway.

My big takeaway was that he has had a fascinating career, and I would like to read another book from him in maybe 10 or 15 years, that's not just a big lesson in leadership and loyalty. He's been involved in prosecuting the Mob, Martha Stewart, Marc Rich, Whitewater, he was there for Scooter Libby/Valerie Plame, and then the big hospital run for Ashcroft, and then being named FBI Director? I'm sure he has some stories to tell, that aren't all about who he knows that are good leaders (which I know was the point of this book.)

[minzy]

I’m only about halfway through it (and have not yet gotten to any overt discussion of Trump/H. Clinton). I am finding it interesting, quick, and easy to read.

I liked his discussion of the trust the American public has in the Department, made by “hundreds of promises made and kept, and hundreds of truths told and errors instantly corrected, [which] built something [like a] reservoir.” P. 54. And later: “The American people must see the administration of justice as independent of politics, race, class, religion, or any of the many other things that divide humans into tribes. We had to do everything we could to protect the department’s reputation for fairness and impartiality, it’s reservoir of trust and credibility.” P. 71. Of course, the timing of his own actions later put some of that into question, but at the beginning of the book it sounds noble. . ETA: it’s like he’s trying to buttress the reputation of DOJ and the FBI in particular from Trump’s attempts to erode public confidence in the institutions.

I can’t help but notice all the earlier career references to how great, steady, and guided by the truth that Bob Mueller is... Comey seems to be helping set the stage for when Mueller’s report comes out.

Also, (maybe it’s a total coincidence, but) since Comey was somewhat involved in the Scooter Libby case, Trump’s pardoning of Libby (for essentially lying) last week at least appears like a snub at Comey right as this book about truth was coming out...

I’ll be back when I’m done.

[waverly]

I haven’t gotten there yet, so I didn’t know he worked on Whitewater. That explains a lot.

[pitta12]

I haven’t read the book yet but after watching a few of his interviews I am left with the impression that a major factor in the email crap was that he was watching WAY TOO MUCH Fox News. Which says something about his actual ability to be objective and factual, despite his belief that he was.

[bex]

Apr 21, 2018 7:53:16 GMT -5 waverly said:

I haven’t gotten there yet, so I didn’t know he worked on Whitewater. That explains a lot.

He downplays it and says it was only for a few months, but he still mentions it as a reason why Hillary may dislike him. So, I'm not sure how important a role he played in it - my guess is not very - but I still found it interesting and found it interesting that it never really seemed discussed when discussing his career, any potential biases, etc.

[MrsAxilla]

Someone said that Comey is a writer at heart who observes everything and has an interesting way of describing them. what do you think of his style? Is that true?

[bex]

Apr 21, 2018 10:45:50 GMT -5 MrsAxilla said:

Someone said that Comey is a writer at heart who observes everything and has an interesting way of describing them. what do you think of his style? Is that true?

So I was wondering how much was ghostwritten and how much was him. I do think its well written, relatively. I feel like each word was very carefully chosen.

My issue with the writing is that the entire book is designed to showcase that Trump is not a good leader, but Comey tried to be, and here's what a good leader does. So it's full of "sometimes, in Washington, you have to make tough choices. For example, I had a meeting with [insert leader/political figure here]. In that meeting, Leader exhibited X trait. This is a good trait for leaders because of Y. Several months later, I was reminded of this when Z happened."

Rinse, repeat, for most of the book. It becomes very formulaic. That's why I think I will enjoy a future book of his more, if he does ever write “just" a memoir, and not a book with such an obvious agenda. I bet he has some amazing stories to tell.

[waverly]

My H thinks that Comey is doing this book and tour to set himself up for a future run for office. Thoughts?

[hopecounts]

Apr 21, 2018 19:31:10 GMT -5 waverly said:

My H thinks that Comey is doing this book and tour to set himself up for a future run for office. Thoughts?

Possible but I think it’s more about defending his name/reputation.
I think 90% of his decisions are predicated on doing ‘the right thing’ and I think the damage The Clinton e-mail screw up did and his natural response to Trump bashing him made him want to defend himself by putting his story out there.

[bowies]

Apr 21, 2018 19:31:10 GMT -5 waverly said:

My H thinks that Comey is doing this book and tour to set himself up for a future run for office. Thoughts?

He has flatly denied it. I think he envisions a future Cabinet position.

[minzy]

Apr 21, 2018 19:31:10 GMT -5 waverly said:

My H thinks that Comey is doing this book and tour to set himself up for a future run for office. Thoughts?

I agree with hopecounts that his objective with writing this book seemed to be, more than anything, to get his account of events “on the record.” He is very concerned with doing the right thing, and here, letting everyone know he tried to do the right thing. He did mention a few times switching between the public and private sectors at various points because of financial concerns with college costs for his larger family, but as he tells it here, his passion and ambition has seemed to be oriented towards a life in public service. I don’t know that he’d run for office himself, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he resurfaces in some capacity with a future administration.

I think he was stuck between a rock and a hard place with what to do, and when, about HRC’s emails. As he puts it, he had to chose between the “really bad” option (of doubling back to an issue he had said was closed, two weeks out from the election) and the “catastrophic” option (of doing nothing and then, when the inaction inevitably came to light, people losing faith in the FBI), so he went with “really bad.” Of course, the consequences of the “really bad” option also wound up probably (?) causing a catastrophe of their own (the Trump presidency), but I still can’t say his actions were completely unreasonable. I don’t envy the position he was in one bit.

I actually kind of liked the book. I thought it was pretty well written.

[isabel]

I haven’t read the book, but I’ve been really irritated with his whole “woe is me, I had an impossible choice to make” schtick. I’m seeing it brought up in this thread as well. There were many plausible reasons why he could have kept his mouth shut in that couple weeks before the election. He opted not to. He obviously didn’t like her and I can’t believe that this didn’t impact his decision.

And in the end, he got a president who absolutely destroyed the agency’s reputation, so great job, man.

I don’t know if it’s in the book, but I’ve found his talk about his wife and daughter supporting Hillary to be interesting. It feels like there’s some tension there and he’s talked about how he and his wife didn’t discuss it because it would have been bad for their marriage. He claims they never really talked about the election results, which I find very hard to believe. Is any of this in the book? Sounds like it wouldn’t have been based on the subject matter.

[bex]

isabel, every thing he says about his wife is incredibly positive. There's no discussion of tension, but he does mention that his wife voted for Obama and Hillary (he says he "donated to Obama's opponent" so presumably he voted for Romney) and that his wife and daughter went to the Women's March the day after the inauguration.

I also don't think he will ever run for office. His dislike of politicians and "spinning things" is pretty apparent in the book.

[5kcandlesinthewind]

Apr 21, 2018 23:37:35 GMT -5 minzy said:

I think he was stuck between a rock and a hard place with what to do, and when, about HRC’s emails. As he puts it, he had to chose between the “really bad” option (of doubling back to an issue he had said was closed, two weeks out from the election) and the “catastrophic” option (of doing nothing and then, when the inaction inevitably came to light, people losing faith in the FBI), so he went with “really bad.” Of course, the consequences of the “really bad” option also wound up probably (?) causing a catastrophe of their own (the Trump presidency), but I still can’t say his actions were completely unreasonable. I don’t envy the position he was in one bit.

I actually kind of liked the book. I thought it was pretty well written.

He had a third choice: instead of releasing the letter on Friday, he could have had people working through the weekend to get through a bunch of the content to see if it was anything new there and wait til Monday to see if they found anything.  But no. He was so worried about his own reputation and legacy that he rushed it out, all while he knew the Trump campaign was being investigated for much worse crimes.  You don't get to be the director of the FBI without understanding how politics works, so I'm not interested in hearing about the mental gymnastics he's performed in his own head to excuse his part in this bullshit.

[minzy]

Apr 22, 2018 10:00:13 GMT -5 5kcandlesinthewind said:

Apr 21, 2018 23:37:35 GMT -5 minzy said:

I think he was stuck between a rock and a hard place with what to do, and when, about HRC’s emails. As he puts it, he had to chose between the “really bad” option (of doubling back to an issue he had said was closed, two weeks out from the election) and the “catastrophic” option (of doing nothing and then, when the inaction inevitably came to light, people losing faith in the FBI), so he went with “really bad.” Of course, the consequences of the “really bad” option also wound up probably (?) causing a catastrophe of their own (the Trump presidency), but I still can’t say his actions were completely unreasonable. I don’t envy the position he was in one bit.

I actually kind of liked the book. I thought it was pretty well written.

He had a third choice: instead of releasing the letter on Friday, he could have had people working through the weekend to get through a bunch of the content to see if it was anything new there and wait til Monday to see if they found anything.  But no. He was so worried about his own reputation and legacy that he rushed it out, all while he knew the Trump campaign was being investigated for much worse crimes.  You don't get to be the director of the FBI without understanding how politics works, so I'm not interested in hearing about the mental gymnastics he's performed in his own head to excuse his part in this bullshit.

I don’t doubt that he left out some of the details/motivations about the reopening of the investigation into HRC’s emails, but at least in the book (p 194) he says he was assured by top investigators at the Bureau there was no prospect of finishing the review before the election, so if that were true, working through that last October weekend wouldn’t have made a difference. He says they couldn’t use commercially available software to check for duplicate emails, but at some point someone in the FBI’s Operational Technology Division figured it out, which is why the review concluded earlier (Nov 6) than what he originally thought. He addresses alternate scenarios, including to wait and see what they found before alerting Congress, but he thought the prospect for a leak and resulting damage was very high. He admits a reasonable person might have done exactly as you say, though.

ETA: I agree this is Olympic caliber gymnastics to help him sleep at night in the face of everything that came after.

[sakoro]

Apr 22, 2018 9:35:44 GMT -5 bex said:

I also don't think he will ever run for office. His dislike of politicians and "spinning things" is pretty apparent in the book.

I agree. I think he's trying to set himself up as an expert in ethical leadership. He'll do a part-time professorship and lecture/ speaking circuit. I'm only the first third of the way in, but there are several references to biblical passages and mentions of he, himself and his wife attending church activities-- I think to establish himself as a good church-going ethical person. I get the impression that he is the sort of Christian who is into the deep aspects of theology and not into the culture war stuff (gay marriage, abortion, gun rights).

I am not surprised that his political beliefs are different from those of his wife and that he didn't tell her a lot of what was happening behind the scenes. This is common for people with security clearances.  You will know lots of juicy stuff that you absolutely can't discuss with your spouse.