Despite the detractors, Trump doing well

[Dill]

(07-02-2018, 10:27 PM)bfine32 Wrote: I think they've undermined themselves; as has been shown in recent reports, whose purpose was not to do so.

It's absolutely ironic that the left is standing up for agencies such as the FBI and CIA. I also understand that it is equally ironic that conservatives are pointing a finger at these institutions. As for me, my view has never changed: We don't need to look behind the curtain. 

People are supposed to "look behind the curtain" in a democracy. With temporally limited exceptions, there is not supposed to be a curtain. Trust in government is supposed to be founded on rule of law, which requires transparency and the people's oversight, not faith.

Comey and a couple of subordinates made some bad judgments, but that is not an institution "undermining" itself. The remedy for that is not to keep their doings behind the curtain. We don't "stand up" for institutions that are necessary like we stand up for family members or our football teams. When they are broke we fix them.

"The Left" is not standing up for the FBI and CIA.  See here the advantage of stretching that term, Fox style, to cover everyone not on the right, especially not on the far right. Political moderates and centrists--liberals mostly--have always understood the importance of trust in government institutions. If there have been bad leaders or bad behavior, they have always been behind cleaning up the mess and exercising oversight to restore public trust. The (real) Left criticized the CIA as an institution in 1973 for its role in the overthrow of Allende; political moderates criticized Nixon and Kissinger. Same deal with Hoover and the FBI. Now you claim it ironic that "the left" is standing up for the CIA/FBI when political moderates who have always supported these organizations--along with conservatives like George Will and David Frum, who haven't gone back on their principles for Trump--agree with their assessment of the continuing Russian threat to our elections and domestic politics.

It may be "ironic" that many who still call themselves conservatives are, at the direction of Fox and Trump, "pointing a finger" at the nation's premier intel and law enforcement institutions as they investigate Trump, but I would rather call that "inconsistent"--not to mention short-sighted, given Russia's effort to undermine our elections and our Commander-in-Chiefs effort to cover for them.