The Enemy of My Enemy
We are in August, or more exactly, the “silly season.” We are waiting; waiting for the results of the Mueller investigation, waiting for the verdict of the Manafort trial, waiting for the November elections. We are impatiently looking for some “action.” So we are drawn into the nonsense.
Just because someone is “the enemy of my enemy” does NOT make them your friend. Let’s start with Omarosa. She recorded Chief of Staff Kelly firing her, she recorded President Trump consoling her, and she probably has more recordings that will embarrass the White House. “Resistors” will take pleasure in the squirming, but don’t forget that this is the same Omarosa who owes any fame she has to Trump, and who, with shining eyes, told us what a great President he would make. She has only one interest, and it’s not necessarily the “good” of the country.
Next is the prospective candidate for the Democratic nomination for President, lawyer Michael Avenatti. We have enjoyed watching him ride circles around the Trump and Cohen lawyers, and we have marveled as he revealed secret information to forward the Cohen investigation. He has proved his openness to society, standing shoulder to shoulder with porn star Stormy Daniels, demanding that she receive due process. He is a “shooting star;” taking his legal advocacy onto the cable networks, going to the border to reunite families, and expanding his role as a leading “resistor” to the Trump Presidency.
But don’t mistake his legal adeptness and articulation as qualifications for President. He demands that we find a candidate that can go toe-to-toe in our new “reality show” politics, and that he’s the one. And while I agree that he is a true “reality show” hero, I don’t believe that makes for a qualified President of the United States. We are living with the results of one reality President, that experience should lead us to find a different set of qualifications, not just the opposite of the same thing.
Yesterday Peter Strozk was fired by the FBI. Strozk is the flawed hero of the 2016 Presidential investigations; the one that opened the Trump campaign probe but kept that information from the press during the election cycle. Strozk has been the leader of some of the most successful counter-espionage investigations of the last two decades, and he was a leader in the Clinton email search as well. It is easy to make him another “martyr” to the Trump corruption, along with Comey, McCabe, and the rest.
But keep in mind, Strozk also was the highly trained agent who decided to have an affair using government owned phones. He put thousands of texts, critical of all sorts of candidates for President but particularly Donald Trump, on devices owned and controlled by the US government. It was a stupid mistake, one made out of hubris, a disbelief that anyone would ever investigate the investigator.
Had he made them on a personal device, his argument that he was simply exercising his 1st Amendment rights would carry a lot more weight. As it is, he embarrassed himself, and his agency, and did serious damage to the search for the truth. He inadvertently gave aid and comfort to those who want to discredit the entire investigation. While we may argue about the technicalities of the FBI Professional Responsibility office recommendation of a lesser penalty, Strozk’s behavior certainly earned him getting fired.
So as we wait for the next “shoe to drop,” don’t fall into the trap. The enemy of your enemy may be fun to watch, and may even further your cause, but she, or he, is NOT necessarily a friend, or a future President.
