WASHINGTON – Great American political dramas always have characters who rivet our attention.
We may cheer them or jeer them, but they are often the flash points, the ones that trigger the political combustion. Think John Dean in Watergate, who helped topple President Richard Nixon, or Monica Lewinsky in the Whitewater scandal, whose role was crucial in the impeachment of President Bill Clinton
This year's star player is James Comey, the former FBI director fired by President Donald Trump ostensibly for pursuing the investigation into whether his campaign colluded with Russia to try to influence the 2016 election.
He has a reputation as a straight shooter who wears his sense of personal integrity as a badge of honor, perhaps a little too outwardly, his critics say. His prepared testimony, released 24 hours earlier, was praised by many as tour de force, a dramatic account of four months of dealing with Trump, replete with detail and damning conversation.
His actual appearance Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee revealed a cagey, politically adept Washington insider who knows the merits of the long game.
Indeed, Comey early on, with what he likely knew about Trump and the inside story of the election, might have seen this day, seated before a star chamber of lawmakers, in his future.
If Trump was playing checkers with his FBI director before ultimately firing him, whispering praise about keeping him on, clearing the Oval Office of top officials for a private one-on-one, demanding political loyalty over dinner, tweeting a threat about alleged tapes of their conversation, then Comey was playing chess.
Comey's moves started back in January, if not before, during a meeting to apprise the then-president-elect of damaging allegations contained in a dossier about Russia's role in the election prepared by a former British spy.
