FBI Director James Comey's "aggressive self-righteousness" and his quest to playing "God in politics" displays a thirst for power in D.C. never seen before, New York Post columnist Michael Goodwin writes.
And considering the decades-long power broker of the FBI J. Edgar Hoover, that's saying something.
"Echoing Hoover's attitude, if not his methods, Comey is adept at using innuendo and leaks to remind the powerful that he cannot be ignored," Goodwin writes. "The prerogative to investigate, and the willingness to feed a scandal-hungry media, is close to being God in politics, and Comey plays the role with relish."
Comey stands alone in having investigated two presidential candidates simultaneously. And he made it clear, likely through leaks, that he did not agree with President Donald Trump's assertion that the former president had wiretapped his offices, Goodwin writes.
That's the FBI director flexing for all the world to see.
"Once regarded as an independent straight-shooter, his career increasingly resembles the end of Hoover's," writes Goodwin. "Comey's aggressive self-righteousness makes him bigger than the institution he leads and everybody in Washington knows that crossing him can be dangerous to your career."
President Trump kept Comey on, agreeing to stick with the FBI director for the rest of his 10-year term which ends in 2023.
He might want to rethink that, Goodwin writes.
"In death, Hoover is widely reviled because he is harmless. Let's not make the same mistake with Comey," Goodwin concludes.
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