Comey Hearing 'Much Ado About LESS Than Nothing'

Someone should inform the Shakespeare-in-the-Park thespians who are stabbing a Trump-a-like to death in their “modern dress” Julius Caesar that they’ve chosen the wrong play.  What they should be performing is the Bard’s Much Ado About Nothing, a far more accurate vision of contemporary Washington — except, of course, for the comedy’s romantic ending. Nobody’s falling in love with anybody in D.C. these days, but they certainly are wasting time.

That became clearer than ever even before James Comey’s said-to-be-historic testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee Thursday. The former FBI director’s published statement harrumphed for seven pages, but essentially exonerated Trump of collusion with Russia, supposedly the “smoking gun” of the whole enterprise in the first place. Comey acknowledged that indeed he had told the president thrice — to again channel Shakesepeare, in this case MacBeth — that POTUS was not under investigation.  It was all about General Flynn, doncha know, and how Trump had tried to get the director to go easy on the fired NSA because Flynn was a “good guy.”   In other words, Donald was being loyal to a former employee, as he probably would do in business, as many of us would do, actually, and Comey realized it.  Nothing happened.

Except maybe a little chit-chat with Sergey Kislyak. But is there a single major figure of either political party who has not hobnobbed with the Russian ambassador over the years?  He’s been the ambassador since 2008. And is there anyone with a post-kindergarten education who didn’t assume that every word they would say to Sergey would be relayed back to Moscow and was simultaneously being listened to/recorded by our own intelligence agencies? If any of our people didn’t realize both of those things, they shouldn’t be the subject of a congressional investigation.  They should be the subject of an Alzheimer’s investigation.

So what’s really going on here?  “Fear and loathing,” as the late Dr. Hunter S. Thompson would say, mixed with envy, contempt and the unbridled lust for power.  The actors, bad ones in this instance, known as U.S. senators, are grandstanding for the most obvious of reasons — to prevent Trump from governing and getting any of his programs enacted.  This is particularly true of the Democrats who are out to get the president at any cost, even when he is advocating for things that they might have, or indeed have, advocated for themselves on numerous occasions.  That’s how corrupt they are. But it’s worse, because the Democratic scandals like the seemingly swept-under-the-rug misuse of the IRS by the Obama administration are far more dangerous to our republic, not to mention criminal, than any of this who-said-what-to-whom silliness.  That any Republicans are going along with this absurd dog-and-pony show is in itself mindboggling.  But they are. (This should not be forgotten.)

Almost everyone knows this whole investigation is a fraud — that if there were a Trump-Russia connection of any substance it would have been uncovered months ago — but they continue and continue… by any means necessary.

So what you are watching in the Senate hearings on Thursday — if you are watching (and I’m not sure you should) — amidst the unending parsing of words, repetition of questions asked a hundred times before, and tedious media recaps of information readily available last August is an absolute waste of U.S. taxpayer time and money.  Every second spent on this interminable nonsense is a second that could be spent infinitely more productively solving one of the nation’s and the world’s increasingly serious problems.

And ironically this is happening at the moment these problems are multiplying around us, particularly internationally.  Just today, South Korea, allegedly to placate the Chinese, walked back on the Thaad missile defense program given to the South Koreans by the U.S.  Only hours after this was announced, the North Koreans set off a missile fusillade. Accidental?  Not bloody likely. Should the U.S. president be focusing on that provocation by a nuclear power run by a madman or some endless rumor-mongering congressional conclave of no discernible import?

And then what about the Islamic terrorism proliferating around the world, seemingly on a daily basis?  In fact, take back the “seemingly.”

No, according to these senators and the lying (yes, absolutely lying) mainstream media hacks who support them — often basing their so-called scoops on the most questionable leaks or information from nincompoops whose association with our government makes one wonder about the very nature of our intelligence agencies — we should be holding hearings until the proverbial cows come home (and maybe jump over the moon while they’re at it).  Or until Trump is impeached — whichever comes first.

The American people — even and especially those too clueless to realize what is happening — are being dissed unimaginably by their own representatives. Too bad we can’t sue the government, because we certainly have grounds to.

Roger L. Simon is an award-winning novelist, Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and co-founder of PJ Media.  His latest book is I Know Best:  How Moral Narcissism Is Destroying Our Republic, If  It Hasn’t Already.  He tweets @rogerlsimon.