Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Political Hack Smears Co-workers

Actually, it is well known in town (Clarice will have all the dope out) that Comey is politically connected. And when something stretched like this, it is. The flip side of the WaPo observation is it is hard to believe someone like Comey would lower themselves to smearing others for personal gain. But DC is a notorious place where people battle ferociously for top positions and will do pretty much whatever it takes to cash in. So I seriously doubt the WaPo has discovered a rare diamond in the ruff. They are just propping up another Joe Wilson-class fibber.

Mr. Comey, a former federal terrorism prosecutor in New York and Virginia, is described by colleagues as a solid Republican but one whose devotion to the law trumped political considerations. Steven R. Peikin, who prosecuted securities fraud cases under Mr. Comey when he was United States attorney in Manhattan, said he found Mr. Comey’s intervention in the N.S.A. program “totally unsurprising.”

“We always joked that Jimmy Stewart’s going to play him in the movie,” Mr. Peikin said. “He’s the picture of rectitude — a charming, engaging, funny guy, but one who set a tone for the office about doing the right thing, not necessarily about winning every case.”

[...]

Former colleagues say strains with the White House began after the arrival in 2003 of Jack L. Goldsmith to head the department’s Office of Legal Counsel. With Mr. Comey’s backing, Mr. Goldsmith questioned what he considered shaky legal reasoning in several crucial opinions, including some drafted by Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo.

Mr. Goldsmith’s review of legal memoranda on the N.S.A. program and interrogation practices became a source of friction between Mr. Comey and the White House.

“He had a strong sense of personal integrity and he felt that the legal judgments of the Justice Department were not being honored,” a former Justice Department colleague said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Mr. Yoo had the strong support of Mr. Gonzales and David S. Addington, Mr. Cheney’s legal adviser. Mr. Comey testified that both Mr. Cheney and Mr. Addington opposed the N.S.A. program changes sought by the Justice Department.

A graduate of William and Mary and the University of Chicago law school, Mr. Comey was a federal prosecutor in New York from 1987 to 1993 and in the Eastern District of Virginia from 1996 to 2001. His bringing of an indictment in the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, which killed 19 American service members, brought him to the attention of the Bush White House.

In 2002, Mr. Bush appointed him United States attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he oversaw the prosecution of more terror cases as well as several high-profile fraud and securities crimes, including the insider trading investigation of Martha Stewart. He was confirmed as deputy attorney general in December 2003, under Mr. Ashcroft and stayed on after Mr. Gonzales arrived in January 2005, but friends say he soon began talking about plans to leave. He became general counsel at the Lockheed Martin Corporation in August 2005.

Democrats who have criticized the N.S.A. program have embraced Mr. Comey, but associates said he was an aggressive, sometimes stubborn prosecutor who opposed neither tough interrogations nor eavesdropping without warrants but wanted them on firmer legal footing.

“Clearly, people were searching for the boundaries of what was legally acceptable,” said Michael E. Horowitz, who worked under Mr. Comey in New York. “Jim was not a prosecutor who was afraid to use all the available tools in serious cases as long as you were doing it within the law.”

I am totally full of shit.