When In Doubt, Rely On The Rhodes Scholar

By Zamboni

We cats are proud that we helped Hillary Clinton carry Virginia on Election Night 2016, and we were crushed when we lost. Yes, we partially blame James Comey for that. We'll never forgive him for talking publicly about the FBI investigation into her email server while keeping quiet about the Bureau's investigation of Trump and Russia. And we've yet to see an interviewer get Comey to clearly explain why.

So you can imagine how we've wrestled with the fact that despite all of this, we find Comey's demeanor appealing. Is it because we know he's continuing to drive Trump crazy? Or because he tends to speak in short, complete paragraphs and then stop when he's done, which throws a fair number of interviewers off their game? Is it because he's six-foot-eight? Or a good writer? Or that back in 2004, he stopped Alberto Gonzales — the worst Attorney General before Jeff Sessions got the job — from subverting the Constitution? All of the above.

Which means we were wondering if, by making less-than-dignified stops on his book tour, Comey was starting to seem susceptible to the Trumpsters' charge that he was nothing more than a "publicity hound." Parrying embarrassing thrusts from a surprisingly ineffective Jake Tapper and the ever-unqualified Meghan McCain wasn't helping.

We needn't have worried. Last night, Rachel Maddow yanked Comey out of the cheesiness and restored him to a much-needed higher plane with an incredibly intelligent TRMS interview.

Rachel, who has a PhD from Oxford, would have been great no matter what. But whatever GOP lamebrain chose to leak the Comey memos just before airtime did her a huge favor. It meant that she and Comey were able to pore over the memos together, which was frankly kind of adorable. It also meant that she was able to break some news — for example, that Trump had told Comey he was thinking of suing Christopher Steele over the dossier. "Yeah, that does ring a bell," Comey said, leaning over the printouts that Rachel shoved his way.

Our only gripe was that she didn't ask why he stayed mum on Trump during the campaign. In our minds, only Rachel would have been able to pull an unambiguous answer out of him.

So... maybe we, Rachel and Comey can arrange to meet at a bar soon, and continue the conversation? We cats will even spring for the red wine in paper cups. That would make us PURR.