Why I don’t blame Trump all that much for Christopher Wray
Wray is indeed a disaster. But have you noticed how often these heads of powerful government agencies are out of the same mold: arrogant, mendacious, secretive, elitist, and good with weasel words that say nothing and reveal nothing except their own character or lack thereof?
It’s a type, and it seems to be rampant in government. I’ve seen a lot of it in other fields, too, but government agencies seem to be among the worst offenders. So, whereas a president does often get to chose who will be the head of such an agency, the pool is probably very very homogeneous.
In other words, when you drain the swamp – if such a thing is even possible at this point – is anybody left?
Stephen Kruiser does make a good point in this piece, which is that at the very least Trump should have fired Wray before Trump left office:
As I have said and written many times, it’s stunning to me that Trump didn’t fire this guy as he was on his way out the door. That would have been one small bit of poetic comeuppance. It’s not as if Trump hadn’t grown weary of the FBI head long before that.
But then Kruiser adds this, which is what I’ve long been thinking:
The point can certainly be made that, had Trump fired Wray, his successor may have been equally bad.
I think the answer is not just “may have been” but rather “almost certainly would have been.” There’s probably something about the type of person who rises and get promoted in such agencies that’s baked in the cake. If you look at Wray’s Wiki page you’ll see a typical trajectory: prep schools, Yale Law, clerkship, and then government work mostly in the DOJ working under Mueller and Comey. Then he worked for a while in the private sector and was Chris Christie’s personal attorney; it was Christie who recommended him to Trump.
All these things might set off alarms now, but they didn’t back then. Should Trump have known? Probably. But I think he would have had to have gone way outside the government bureaucratic tangle to have found someone better to head the bureau, and that person would have had a steep learning curve in reforming the FBI. I’m not sure there’s a solution, but there certainly is a problem.
[NOTE: More of Wray’s self-serving, obfuscating testimony.]
Wray is someone without day one as a law enforcement officer, who was put in charge of the FBI. How could he possibly have any idea of how to do the job?
One of my problems though is that Trump appoints these people then down the road when they are awful he attacks them like they just appeared in these positions not that he appointed them.
It has happened so many times as to be ridiculous at this point.
Draining the swamp was a very fine idea; that Trump could not manage this is not really his fault, as the accomplishing of such would make the cleansing by Heracles of the Augean stables the simplest of tasks by comparison.
Given the overwhelmingly corrupt political system that is today’s D.C., even if a President were to find some patriotic, qualified, and honest person from outside the D.C. orbit, why would such a person ever want to work in such a corrupt environment like that, particularly since he would be inserted into an environment in which some or perhaps almost all of the other agency heads are likely to be part of that corrupt system.
It seems to me that unless all of the agency heads can be replaced by fearless, honest, uncorrupt and uncorruptable people, just replacing one or two agency heads would be futile.
we saw what they did to matt whitaker and general flynn, two men of integrity, who were taken out with every means they could design,
Trump had to get Senate Confirmation for nominees, which limited his options.
And Chris Christy vouched for Wray. And thinks the house hearings are unfairly besmirching the Fbi.
Neo, you wrote “But I think he would have had to have gone way outside the government bureaucratic tangle to have found someone better to head the bureau, and that person would have had a steep learning curve in reforming the FBI. I’m not sure there’s a solution, but there certainly is a problem.”
Neo, there are many right-of-center people within the various federal Departments with the experience and solid backgrounds to admirably take on the top jobs. And truly, more than just a handful. As a career State diplomat, I can assure everyone that there are many of us who put up with the bureaucracy, political correctness (now HYPER woke), and the often slow-walked promotions due to speaking out, because we loved the work and loved serving the nation (at least that’s the case at State). That applies to all of the departments, I’m certain. Someone earlier mentioned Mathew Whitaker at the DOJ – he’s a perfect example of this dedication.
The key is seeking us out throughout the bureaucracy. I worked with FBI agents who hated the politicization and obvious partisan bias of the FBI brass, and the same is true of us Career dips. We’re there and anxious for the opportunity to help right this awful trend in the federal government.
I’ve said this before, but State needed (pardon the language) an asshole at the #2 position with carte blanche from the SecState and the WH to clean house. It had to be someone who knew the system from the inside and didn’t care about having or even wanting friends at the Department. Obviously several other Departments (DOJ, FBI, etc) need their own asshole with the same authority.
All of this reform has to start with the voters, and then at the top of the Executive branch, i.e. the White House.
you see how easy its for them to conjure up some figment like the russia hoax, which we now know was sourced from a Russian agent, and it did exactly what Putin would have wanted, to weaken our American system
I think he would have had to have gone way outside the government bureaucratic tangle to have found someone better to head the bureau,
Remember our high hopes for Tillerson and Mattis?
I was active in local politics in my small city in CA. I was a member of a reform group that got some new outsiders elected and cronies thrown out. You would not believe how fast the reform candidates made new friends and became cronies. The reform group disbanded before I left for AZ.
from neo:In other words, when you drain the swamp – if such a thing is even possible at this point – is anybody left?
from Mike K: I was a member of a reform group that got some new outsiders elected and cronies thrown out. You would not believe how fast the reform candidates made new friends and became cronies. The reform group disbanded before I left for AZ.
Between these two comments there’s not much to add. If you drain the Swamp, no, there’s nobody left. The Swamp cannot be allowed to exist because Swamp Things will flock to it and they’re the only creatures that can survive in it. You have to replace the Swamp with nothing.
The Swamp exists because the government takes our money and spends it with its cronies.
When this country was founded there were four cabinet positions: Attorney General, State, Treasury, and War. There was corruption even in those days. Every new role the government took on was an opportunity to extend the Swamp. Every dollar the government spends goes to somebody who now has a vested interest in the well-being of the person who got them that dollar.
The Federal government’s money comes out of the pockets of every American. We don’t need to send money over there to get it spent here–unless of course we want to make other people pay for something that benefits us. Too many of our fellow citizens are aspiring Swamp Things.
i remember a local election in miami dade, which was as fractuous as the taiwanese parliament,
yes the warrior monk was a dissapointment, of course they never seem to have a strategy to carry out the forever war, back when it was less expensive the brits were able to hold out longer,
The thing I do blame POTUS Trump for: not pardoning the J6 political prisoners before he left office.
Inexcusable. Almost enough to be disqualifying in my mind.
He routinely made bad appointments to staff and has disparaged even his good choices. Not sure he’s earned a second grab at the brass ring.
the hub bub about j6 seemed insane then, but so many seemed to following the script of insurrection didn’t they do the stupid 25th amendment gambit around this time, an exercise in progression, the truth was behind a body guard of lies, even mostly now,
One thing the Congress can do is delete the budget item for the FBI.
Yes, Trump could have fired Wray, and Biden could well have simply re-instated him in a triumphant gesture, one that would have been widely celebrated!
Here’s the answer: Disband the FBI. Vivek will do it.
Mike K–
Say the House gets really fed up and mad, and zeros out some office within an Agency, or even an entire Department or Agency, the bill goes next to the Senate for it’s approval, and it won’t pass.
But, even if it were to pass, the President could just veto it.
Thus, zeroing out an agency’s budget would only work if one party had control of the House, Senate, and the White House, and all agreed on this drastic course of action.
The Swamp exists………………..
It exists because the govt. has piles of $$$$$ they obtain through income taxes. There was no federal income tax prior to 1913. The 16th Amendment to the Constitution gave birth to the income tax.
If there were no income tax or other revenue-generating-equivalent federal taxes to stand in its stead , there would more than likely not be a “swamp” because there would not be enough $$$$ to support it.
You can also thank FDR – Uncle Joe Stalin’s good pal – for setting the template of a super-expansive federal bureaucracy.
Members of Congress love the deep state because it allows them to toss the real hard work of making laws onto the lap of federal agencies and allows members of congress to blame unelected, unaccountable agencies for stupid and harmful policies ( as if Congress needs help passing stupid and harmful laws).
There will always be corruption in govt, but it’s clear that the larger the bureaucratic state, the greater the corruption and waste .
It’s possible to reverse a Constitutional Amendment, but re: the income tax, there is a greater chance of one individual winning three Powerball Lotteries in three weeks than undoing the 16th Amendment.
But one can only hope.
Telemachus’s comment is a perfect illustration of why Trump will never “drain the swamp.” He lacks the sophistication to understand that he would have to put “an ******* at the #2 position with carte blanche from the SecState and the WH to clean house,” as well as what would have to be done at every other executive agency to make a difference, and without stirring up parochial issues that would make unnecessary enemies.
Trump’s level of sophistication is nominating Wray because Christie suggested him. That isn’t going to “drain the swamp.” Not by a long shot.
Never is a long time.
Presidential vetoes can be overridden by a sufficient number of Senators IIRC. Checks and balances is a thing.
I wager that Biden would have re-appointed him.
@Bauxite: He lacks the sophistication to understand that he would have to put “an ******* at the #2 position with carte blanche from the SecState and the WH to clean house,” as well as what would have to be done at every other executive agency to make a difference, and without stirring up parochial issues that would make unnecessary enemies.
The people who have this kind of sophistication are Swamp Things who acquired this knowledge in the Swamp, and hence are not going to do it.
This is not going to be fixed by voting for a Republican president (assuming one can get past the fortified Electoral College) because whoever it is will be a Swamp Thing like Romney or an outsider like Trump.
It’s true we tried Trump once and he failed. It’s also true we went with the sophisticated politicians who told us the words we wanted to hear but didn’t do the things, and fifty years of that strategy is how we got to the point that electing Trump seemed like a reasonable alternative.
Bottom-up reform of institutions to build an alternative base of power which can be effective and accountable government is the only thing that will in the end drain the Swamp. The more we focus on primary drama–manufactured for the purpose of distraction from the real work needed–the less likely it ever comes to pass.
And of course Fredrick offers the great wisdom that Republicans cannot solve anything, because, reasons. Uniparty, maybe.
“Bottom up ….., alternative base of power ….., ” logorhea. Unicorn politics.
Neo: “I think the answer is not just “may have been” but rather “almost certainly would have been.” There’s probably something about the type of person who rises and get promoted in such agencies that’s baked in the cake. ”
I couldn’t agree more, having been a federal employee for more than 30 years. Of course there are good, honest, and competent employees [even some who are supervisors], but very few who make into the highest levels.
Trump couldn’t fire Wray, period, end of story, using a cliche. I would not be surprised that Wray was a compromise of sorts, more of an acquiescence, to the Interagency. The Interagency is the Deep State, the unelected bureaucrats and appointed heads that are actually in power. The effin US Army LT Colonel Vindman revealed this.
Our government is not of the people and by the people. Granted, in many ways it was designed that way like the Senate, but today it means something antithetical to anything any of our Founders thought of.
Or, maybe something the AntiFederalists thought of.
Amen, John Tyler!
Mike K.,
“You would not believe how fast the reform candidates made new friends and became cronies.”
That’s hilarious! Humans, they’re very susceptible to human nature.
This writer didn’t invent the famous maxim about politicians, but he expounds it well.
https://www.thethinkingconservative.com/politicians-go-into-politics-to-do-good-and-end-up-doing-very-well-as-did-hunter-biden-and-his-dad/
The presidency especially is a bipartisan wealth-generator, and there are details for both Democrats and Republicans in the 20th-21st century.
There are two exceptions.
Bonus quote:
https://www.thethinkingconservative.com/
“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”
~ Harry S. Truman
“…State needed…”
That person might in fact have been Michael Flynn, which is why he had to be cut off at the pass; ambushed, hog-tied and then drawn and quartered by Obama, Biden, Comey, Brennan, Clapper, Strozk and the rest of that unsavory cabal of goons and gangsters, criminals and crooks.
Oh and—one wouldn’t want to forget—Susan Rice…to ensure that Flynn would be hog-tied and drawn and quartered “by the book”.
(Not that Flynn is an a*****e—far from it: an officer and a gentleman, in fact—but he knew where a significant number of the bodies were buried (so to speak) and was prepared to deal with it; which Obama and his henchmen knew; which is why Obama, Inc. had to stop Flynn cold using any and every possible subterfuge, intrigue and deception.)
The key word here is FEAR.
File under: Fear and loathing on the trail to transforming America into a totalitarian “democracy”…
circling back
https://twitter.com/ChuckRossDC/status/1679500020339335168
Flynn was done dirty by the DOJ (and the judiciary), very dirty. I have no reason to doubt that he is a first rate gentleman. The story I’ve read about his dismissal from the NSA involved Gen. Flynn honorably coming to the aid of a female employee who was the victim of harassment.
I do question Flynn’s judgement, however, and his suitability for draining the swamp. If you’re going to go in to drain the swamp, it may not be the best idea to first become a ubiquitous campaign surrogate, or to repeatedly appear on stage chanting “lock her up.”
The swamp things don’t see themselves as bad people. They see themselves as very good people who are heroically defending the nation from a band of unhinged lunatics. (See James “Reinhold Niebuhr” Comey.) Flynn came into office having just spent months stumping for a man who behaves like an unhinged lunatic, and having engaged in a bit of the lunacy himself (i.e., “lock her up,”). He may as well have had a big red target tatooed between his shoulder blades.
I suspect that there were more than a few civil servants who ordinarily would have shut down or blown the whistle over the shenanigans against Flynn, but stayed their hand because it really looked like Flynn and his boss were a threat to the nation.
It is a shame to me that the only options on offer for the swamp seem to be, on the one hand, the “guns blazing” types like Flynn and Trump who are doomed to failure and, on the other hand, swamp things like Wray. There has to be a third way.
yet they are utterly destroying this country, selling it out to China and Iran, the Ukraine war is a tool in that exercise, Hillary had no right to hold those documents, by any law and Obama could not delegate them to her, but Comey and Lynch were utterly willing to have her break the law,
Thanks for that Chuck Ross link.
He’s terrific!
Two other things on his twitter roll caught my eye.
This on the travails of Peter Schiff, a renowned economist whose analyses are often found on Zerohedge:
” ‘The Government Can Destroy Anyone’: How An IRS-Led Global Alliance Ruined An Innocent American Banker;
“Five governments spent vast resources undertaking a tax evasion probe. They came up empty—then, it seems, they decided to smear an innocent man.”—
https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-government-can-destroy-anyone-how-an-irs-led-global-alliance-ruined-an-innocent-american-banker
…And this, featuring that totally unethical reprobate, Andrew Weissmann:
“The fact that this man recently served in sensitive and senior posts at the Justice Department and FBI is a national scandal….”
https://twitter.com/EliLake/status/1679497298164822018
+ Bonus:
Apparently, bringing charges against the truth-challenged Ray Epps, WRT his very obvious role as agent provacateur in DC on January 6, can work wonders!
The upshot: The January 6th “Insurrection” is no longer…an insurrection…
“And Just Like That, It’s No Longer an Insurrection”—
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/victoria-taft/2023/07/13/and-just-like-that-its-no-longer-an-insurrection-n1710334
Clearly, for the Democrats and their supports, the concept of “shame”—forget about hypocrisy—has been utterly and irrevocably…canceled….
Bauxite, you certainly deserve a Nobel Prize for…EMPATHY!
(…Or should that be, for “TANT PIS”!)
weissman destroyed the lives of 40,000 arthur anderson employees, yet didn’t touch bp or goldman sachs who were enrons real enablers
Generals Allen Mcmaster Petraeus, all honorable men, sarc, the first was caught lobbying for qatar, who was lufts rival client, the second well hired ciaramella, to serve the country team, the last need I elaborate, grizzled war fighters like senior chief gallagher are scapegoated by the jag corps, it’s no longer like the tv show if it ever was, Milley and Austin skate over the utter capitulation to the Taliban,
now general flynn actually had mapped every province in afghanistan for mcrystals counterinsurgency plan, of course the administration through that away and handed the portfolio to biden, any doubt what would be the result, also they let brennan pick the targets they were better off with mr magoo,
Sleazeball Jerry Nadler’s (and fellow creep Adam Goldman’s) slanderous attacks on Kash Patel, WRT the IRS whistleblower, continued:
“EXCLUSIVE: Ethics Complaint Filed Against Congressman Who Slurred Whistleblowers;
“Kash Patel’s attorney filed an ethics complaint against Rep. Dan Goldman and simultaneously sent a referral to the Department of Justice.”—
https://thefederalist.com/2023/07/14/exclusive-ethics-complaint-filed-against-congressman-who-slurred-whistleblowers/
Oops, that should be Dan Goldman (not Adam Goldman).
The career abuse and emotional and financial abuse done to General Flynn is criminal. I believe there were also physical affects on him and/or his wife due to the extreme stress they were put under.
It’s Kafka’s “The Trial” played out in modern America. A national disgrace!
Trump couldn’t have gotten a replacement through the Senate. He could have fired Wray, but Biden would have appointed someone equally bad or worse.
Merrick Garland is an object lesson in a lot of ways. The jurist who was supposed to be moderate, judicious, and responsible turned out to be a partisan hack. Mueller likewise, the figure of towering integrity, turned out to an empty suit. Durham and Weiss also fizzled.
Appointees become the pawns of those below them (and usually of those above them). Having spent time in Washington or the bureaucracy or the Establishment or academia, they are already more than half-way there when they are appointed.
Snow on Pine on July 13, 2023 at 8:44 pm said:
Mike K–
Say the House gets really fed up and mad, and zeros out some office within an Agency, or even an entire Department or Agency, the bill goes next to the Senate for it’s approval, and it won’t pass.
But, even if it were to pass, the President could just veto it.
Thus, zeroing out an agency’s budget would only work if one party had control of the House, Senate, and the White House, and all agreed on this drastic course of action.
_______
According to a friend who had worked in DC for DoD, and had to deal with Congress, that’s not really true. Or is only if you actually zero it out. He says that if there is an impasse on funding, the LOWER number gets used.
So just pass a bill with half the current amount. Then stick to your guns. Of course, that last item is iffy.
One thing I noticed back in the 60s was the way the lefties could discipline their pols. They were perfectly willing to let someone lose who had let them down. (How many pols were to the left of Humphrey?) So it’s a big deal when a Sinema or a Gabbard cuts loose. That doesn’t happen in the Republican party. MOST of our pols are, well, not really ours. And have no fears of loss.
This post, “Telemachus on July 13, 2023 at 5:56 pm said:”
Is the most important one of this thread. If you read Mike Pompeo‘s book, Pompeo had great success at the CIA and the State department by finding people like Telemachus says. Trump’s appointments are the biggest failure of his administration. It is obvious that he made no or very little effort to find good candidates. His successes were when he found someone honest to make suggestions like the Federalist Society for Supreme Court justices. Contrast Trump with Ron DeSantis who has made the bureaucracy in Florida function to his agenda. I will do everything I can to support DeSantis to get the Republican nomination. I do not think that United States will survive a Trump nomination with a sure loss in 2024.
Sounds like post war denazification. Europe needed German industry, and there was nobody left that wasn’t a Nazi to run things, so they were rehired.
Europe needed German industry, and there was nobody left that wasn’t a Nazi to run things, so they were rehired.
==
Rehired by whom, when?
==
About 20% of Germany’s adult population held Nazi Party membership cards in 1945, so it seems a stretch to say there was ‘nobody left’ to ‘run things’.