Doing Right is Not the Same as Doing Nothing Wrong

This is just how bureaucracies function:

Indeed, beyond Horowitz himself, the report is emblematic of how even seemingly apolitical appointees (Horowitz was appointed under Barack Obama) and members of the bureaucracy routinely bend their duties toward those in power.

If they didn't function this way, they would be eliminated with every change of government, and the institutions of government we rely on would grind to a halt and never restart.  Indeed, it's indicative of how unimportant the White House is to daily life, in and out of government, that we can change the entire population of that building every 4 or 8 years, and hardly notice the difference.  We can even endure 4 years of a President who has nothing on his public schedule from day to day, and barely notice the problem (it's more what he does that is the problem).

But change the rules about how the citizenship status of some people overseas on behalf of the federal government, and everyone notices.  That decision may come down from the White House, but it took almost 3 years to get to the stage of execution by a bureaucracy which must routinely bend its duties toward those in power.  Some plans, like dropping nukes into hurricanes, never get past the asking stage, again thanks to bureaucracy knowing when not to bend.

And if that bureaucracy was openly hostile to every occupant of the White House, every President in the Oval Office and her staff, what benefit would that be?  An Inspector General can just as easily tilt an investigation against a President as in her favor.  Would we then praise that bureaucrat?  Well, whose ox is being gored?

I think Comey did the right thing, if not entirely for the right reasons.  But an IG is not really the person to be excusing such behavior because the one violating rules he agreed to be bound by is describable as a "whistle-blower."  That would be rather like Robert Mueller deciding in his public testimony before Congress:  "Fuck the rule of law!  There are no chains on me anymore!  Donald Trump is guilty!  That's guilty, guilty, guilty!"  Might be satisfying to some, but it wouldn't really advance the rule of law; and isn't that what Trump is doing?  Not advancing the rule of law?

Comey won't be prosecuted.  That doesn't mean he's innocent.  At most, it means he's not guilty of violating a law.  That's all the system provides.  It's that system that members of the bureaucracy routinely bend their duties toward.  It isn't meant to serve those in power no matter what; but neither is it meant to undermine them, no matter what.

Justice is mighty demanding, when you get down to it.