We are coming to another Jim Comey moment: his book is being released -- and it is scathing in its portrayal of Trump and his presidency -- and Trump and the RNC and Fox News are mounting an assault of discreditation upon him.
Democrats are understandably less than fully enthusiastic about Jim Comey, since his inappropriate handling of the Hillary email affair was almost certainly the difference between a President Clinton and a President Trump.
We can hate him for that, or simply see the flaws in the man that contributed to his making such a serious misjudgment. But regardless, all that is irrelevant.
In the context of the current battle -- the testimony of Jim Comey versus the dishonest smear job waged in behalf of this lying and lawless President -- all that matters is whether or not James Comey is truthful.
And none of those faults we might find with Comey regarding his misjudgment in the Clinton matter has any bearing whatever on the credibility of Comey when he gives serious testimony. As in this book.
Everything in the man's history -- and his fastidious habits of contemporaneous note-taking, combined with immediate briefing of his core team-- says that James Comey is a straight-arrow, whose dependability for truthfulness is likely way at the top of the spectrum.
Some of these law enforcement guys have a thing about truthful testimony, and Comey is one of them.
Meanwhile, on the other side, everything we've seen of Donald Trump says that he can be counted on to lie, and to hurl false accusations, against those who tell the truth about him, or threaten him in any way.
So that's where the focus should be in the current battle to see that this corrupt President will be held to account and be defeated:
The issue of straight-arrow truth-teller versus continual-liar should be kept at the center of the conflict.
The case for believing Comey and rejecting the Trumpites' smear of Comey is so clear, it can strike well if it is kept in the foreground for the American people to see.
This isn't something that we do in support of Comey, whom we can feel whatever we want to feel about. Comey has weaponized himself, to convey the truth about Trump, His testimony is one potentially significant blow in the battle for the hearts and minds of the American people, and thereby for upholding the rule of law.
And while we're at it, there should be a loud denunciation of the Republican Party apparatus for the indefensible role they are playing in trying to convince people that Comey cannot be believed.
So Trump is not the only one who should be flogged. There's also the Republican Party.
As Jim Comey administers to Trump the flogging he deserves, other voices should be raised to flog the Republican Party with the truth about the sordid and corrupt role it is playing in all this, most recently with the RNC's wholly dishonest smear campaign to obstruct the rule of law.
The conduct of the GOP should be exposed to the American people to cultivate their disgust and wrath against a Party that has betrayed the nation.
This Comey moment is presenting us with one battle that needs fighting-- a battle for the soul of America. And for that battle, Comey has made himself into a weapon that he has put into our hands: the searing testimony of a highly creditable witness.
We should make the most of it.