There has been a lot of chatter recently from our buddies on the lunatic left, comparing the firing of James Comey to the Saturday Night Massacre in the Watergate scandal.  Those "brilliant people" on the lunatic left who really think the two are comparable are living in some type of alternate universe. 

For those of you too young to remember, the Saturday Night Massacre occurred when President Nixon ordered then-attorney general Eliot Richardson to fire the first Watergate special prosecutor, Archibald Cox.  Richardson refused and resigned.  Nixon then asked Deputy Attorney General William Ruckleshaus to fire Cox.  Ruckleshaus also refused to fire Cox and then resigned.  Nixon then went to Solicitor General Robert Bork, who agreed to fire Cox.  Bork had wanted to resign after firing Cox but was asked to stay on by both Richardson and Ruckleshaus, both of whom were ethical and decent public servants who had a disagreement of opinion with Nixon. 

Since I was alive and remember very well the events of the Saturday Night Massacre and remember the angst that many of us felt in 1973, let this be a teachable moment for our dear friends on the intellectual left on just how these two incidents are not at all comparable.

1. The Office of the Special Prosecutor was formed after the forced resignation of then-attorney general John Mitchell.  And as part of his confirmation process, the new attorney general, Eliot Richardson, had to promise to allow Archibald Cox (the first Watergate special prosecutor) to finish his work undisturbed by the Nixon administration – meaning that only Richardson could fire Cox, something Richardson or an acting A.G. could do but refused to do.  A federal judge named Gerhard Gesell ruled that the firing of Cox was illegal absent a finding of impropriety as specified in the regulation that formed the special prosecutor's office.  Sadly for the Democrats, pretty much everyone agrees that Trump has the right to fire Comey, including Comey himself – other than, of course, their lapdogs in the mainstream media.  Oh, and this manufactured controversy does give the Democrats' favorite lapdog, John McCain, freedom to criticize the Trump administration.

2. The Saturday Night Massacre was more than just the firing of Cox.  The Massacre included Nixon ordering FBI agents to seize evidence they had legally obtained, under the guise of sabotage by Cox's deputies – something that occurs only in third-world banana republics, the old Soviet Union, and today's North Korea.  Given the evidence at the time, it looked to a reasonable observer that Nixon was trying to circumvent the law to save his presidency from Watergate.  In contrast, all that occurred with Comey was one bureaucrat who had committed some mistakes being relieved from his job.  There has been no seizing of evidence or breaking into any offices or anything else. 

3. The USA is a country based on laws, not based on men or women.  And in our constitutional representative republic (remember: we are not a democracy), the system is set up so that if one person either dies or is fired or has to leave office for unforeseen circumstances, then there is another person ready and waiting and able to do the job.  With that being said, does anyone really think that if the FBI had something on Trump, firing Comey would stop the investigation?  To the contrary, if the FBI had something on Trump, Trump would want Comey to stay in charge so he could shut down the investigation by owing his job to Trump.  

Let's be honest here: the Democrats were for Comey (July 2016) before they were against Comey (November 1, 2016) before they were for Comey again (May 10, 2016).  And to quote Washington, D.C. radio talk show host Chris Plante, if it weren't for double standards, Democrats would have no standards at all. 

John Massoud is the head of the Freedom Caucus of the Shenandoah County GOP, is a local District GOP chair in Shenandoah County, is a local businessman in Northern Virginia, and is an occasional contributor to the American Thinker.