A smoking gun by any other name
A new term, with attendant implications, may soon enter the political vocabulary: Document 34. It's the evidence that shows what James Comey originally wrote about Hillary Clinton's handling of classified documents and how it was changed by staffers (presumably Peter Strzok).
Hence, a Document 34 emerges as a smoking gun proving conspiracy and cover-up of a serious federal crime. This term may in fact replace "smoking gun," which dates back at least to Watergate, as the designation for a decisive piece of evidence.
Document 34 in this case makes a difference of up to ten years in prison compared to what Hillary could have faced without the wording change from "gross negligence" to "extremely careless" handling of classified documents.
Serious, serious business. Crime. By the "nation's top cop," using all the considerable resources of government at his disposal, the trained minds, the inside connections, the law itself, to plan and carry it out.
Ah, what might have been. Comey, Comey! You and your ersatz Rough Riders rode roughshod over everything: the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, federal codes, professional ethics, decency, nice-guyness. And after all those years of always keeping your back perfectly straight, every movement decisive, pushing yourself up to your full 6-foot, 8-inch height to communicate via body language your unimpeachable, infinite goodness and to emphasize that you, Big Brother Jimmy, were watching us out for us.
One imagines the shiver down the spines of all who knew you in third grade. "Jimmy never told a lie, even about the cherry tree." "I would have trusted him with my teddy bear." "Little Jim Comey is not a crook." "What difference, at this point, does it make?"
Will none step forward to insist, in the satirical form Lois Lerner made famous, that James Comey did nothing wrong? It's true that Jimmy himself told us a Jack-'n'-Beanstalk story about a higher loyalty, which we now see was a reference to his head being higher up in the clouds than most can manage.
We almost – but not quite – could wish not to know any more than we already do about this cabal of government weasels, posturing as selfless patriots toiling to ensure liberty and justice for all. Youse can drop the pose. You are unmasked as Stalinists, and there's an end on't.