Christopher Wray’s retreat from a confrontation with President-elect Pennywise provides support for Jamie O’s point in his Twilight Of The Institutionalists post. Wray is thinking of himself, not the bureau or the country: institutionalists are on the run. There’s a lot of that going around.

Given the grisly reality that Kash Patel is his probable successor, Wray should have stayed in place and obliged Trump to fire him. The FBI director is in year seven of a ten year term, a post-Watergate reform designed to depoliticize the FBI. By quitting, Wray spared himself some unpleasantness but let down the people who worked for him. There’s a lot of that going around.

The FBI is such a conservative institution that a Democrat has never been appointed to lead it. In the before times, Republicans lauded the FBI whereas Democrats had reservations about mission creep such as J Edgar Hoover’s obsession with Martin Luther King’s sex life. The tables have turned and GOPers jeer the FBI because it had the audacity to investigate the Insult Comedian.

Everything is taken personally by Trump and his followers: that’s why it’s called a cult of personality. Anyone that crosses the dear leader is a bad actor driven by malign motives. It’s a fantasy but millions of people have bought into it. There’s a lot of that going around.

In the last week, the process of normalizing Kash Patel has accelerated. Instead of a weird sycophant with an enemies list, he’s being portrayed as a champion of law and order. It’s some delusional shit, y’all. There’s a lot of that going around.

Christopher Wray gave a stirring speech after announcing he planned to leave office at the end of the Biden administration. If he meant what he said, he would have stayed in place and forced Trump to fire him for cause. Instead, he’s turned the clock back to the Nixon administration with the FBI director as just another political appointee. Wray is thinking of himself, not the broader implications of his actions. There’s a lot of that going around.

Ironies abound in this situation. Nixon was the last president to appoint a political hack as FBI director. Pat Gray was a Patel level sycophant who resigned in disgrace for his role in the Watergate coverup. Gray’s appointment led to Mark Felt’s turning on Tricky and becoming Deep Throat. Bad FBI appointments have consequences.

Tricky Dick famously said this in his resignation speech:

Talk about having it both ways. He said he was not a quitter whilst quitting. Christopher Wray just did the same thing. There’s a lot of that going around.

The FBI mishigas reminds me of an old saying: Winners never quit, and quitters never win. There’s a lot of that going around.

The last word goes to Dr. John: