The GOP, in the persons of President Trump, Representative Nunes, Speaker Ryan, and a number of others, hold the top of a hill in their war with the FBI. Normally, you’d expect those in a commanding position to win such a war, even second-raters like this bunch. But Eugene Robinson makes an important point – this is the FBI:
Presidents don’t win fights with the FBI. Donald Trump apparently wants to learn this lesson the hard way.
Most presidents have had the sense not to bully the FBI by defaming its leaders and — ridiculously — painting its agents as leftist political hacks. Most members of Congress have also understood how unwise it would be to pull such stunts. But Trump and his hapless henchmen on Capitol Hill, led by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), have chosen the wrong enemy. History strongly suggests they will be sorry.
The far-right echo chamber resounds with wailing and braying about something called the “deep state” — a purported fifth column of entrenched federal bureaucrats whose only goal in life, apparently, is to deny America the greatness that Dear Leader Trump has come to bestow. It is unclear who is supposed to be directing this vast conspiracy. Could it be Dr. Evil? Supreme Leader Snoke? Hillary Clinton? This whole paranoid fantasy, as any sane person realizes, is utter rubbish.*
The asterisk is for the FBI.
And it’s quite the valid point. Let’s leave aside my constant, and no doubt annoyingly predictable, assertion that the Republicans are a pack of second-raters. Neither the President, an incurious man who doesn’t appear to have learned the primary management lesson that a boss should always employ people smarter than himself, nor his toadies in Congress, have the sheer resources to do the sort of investigating, collating of information, and out and out snooping which is the day-to-day business of the FBI. Nor do they have the professionalism, the discipline, and what appears to be the devotion to truth which should be, ideally and perhaps in reality, the attributes of the FBI. Not that I am deluded into thinking the FBI is run by angels, but it appears the current leaders, past and presence, are strongly bound by honor, and they’re certainly backed by one of the strongest information gathering and analysis organizations on the planet.
I suspect if President Trump and his allies want to play power politics with the FBI, they may lose a few appendages in a long, drawn out war. And while they’re distracted by the maelstrom, former FBI Director and current Special Counsel Mueller will be coming in from another tangent.
We can only hope the institutions of the United States will not be severely damaged while this Faustian drama plays out. And perhaps the FBI can also pull in a few outside players of whom we may not be aware.
Or, to return to the metaphor, President Trump may be beating his chest on top of that hill, but he picked a hill without a water source …. and the FBI will surround it soon enough.
