In many ways he’s everything Trump is NOT. And Andrew McCabe’s book, The Threat, is the opposite of everything Trump and his protectors say about books that don’t put Donald in a marvelous, saintly light. It’s methodical, not all about the president and certainly no “hit job.” Indeed not that much is about Donald Trump. He starts with what you have to do to even apply to be in the FBI. I know that all too well: right out of college I tried to apply. Among all one has to provide I had to know the exact date I started living at a location, and exact date I left. Having had multiple college apartments, lived with friends, lived with my soon to be wife’s parents, that was impossible. And I was just considering being a clerk, not an agent.
 Mr. McCabe talks about cases involving both Clintons and others that highlight procedure. He shows how they worked 9/11. While not getting so specific it would reveal sources, Mr. McCabe spends a lot of time explaining how the FBI works on their cases v. what other law enforcement agencies do. The purpose is obvious; to show how the Russian investigation wasn’t all that different and no “hit job” or all the other self serving claims Trump trumpets like a 6th grader who plays the trumpet so poorly he’s kicked out of the band.
 So far we don’t have that option.
 The Threat, as to be expected these days, is just the opposite as Trump and his sycophants claim. He gets to Trump, mostly, towards the end. The experience of going to see Trump: being called into the White House like a servant and having to listen to him going on and on with lies; like claims not only did many FBI personnel hate James Comey and called the White House directly to say so. (No phone calls noted.) Mr. McCabe points out this would be an incredible, unthinkable, breach of protocol. It went way downhill from there: Trump’s insistent ‘it’s all about me’ rants essentially demanding he agree. When that didn’t work Trump insisted Mr. McCabe tell him who he voted for in 2016. All of this is offensive and un-presidential because contact between the two is limited precisely to keep justice independent.
 Mr. McCabe writes a lot about all the respect, even love, for James Comey at the FBI, and the shock at the firing. He also challenges Mr. Comey’s partisan comments about E-mails just before the election, though he also explains quite well what led to James Comey making that decision. The left assumed it was a hit on Hillary. According to Comey, no matter how misguided, it wasn’t: it was a determination of duty.
 Need I point out that James Comey and Andrew McCabe are Republicans?
 When Trump grilled McCabe about who he voted for in 2016 Andrew responded that he DIDN’T vote because he didn’t want the appearance of prejudice in any cases he would have to oversee. Oh, Trump and Company found it anyway. In classic partisan hatchet jobs so frequent these days much was made of his wife being a Democrat and running for office, getting money from classic Democratic sources so she would be able to run.
 Yes, if a spouse does something that makes him guilt by association. How “American,” is that? Sometimes way too damn much, unfortunately. However, if we’re so damned concerned about such things nationalize election funding, no funding from special interest groups or corporations. We pay for our own elections: limit the time, provide coverage via public TV and radio including any debates: make it part of their license, their public service.
 However I celebrate Mr. McCabe and his wife’s differences: this is the way we should be as a country; able to get along even in marriage, despite our differences. People should be able to car pool to work, be neighbors, members of clubs, etc. The whole nation shouldn’t be ruled by some Trumpian sense of partisan loyalty “or else.”
 While brief, the portrait of the president is devastating and undeniable. Andrew McCabe doesn’t spend any amount of time doing the 10 year old bully name calling the president does so poorly, that Donnie substitutes for the kind of class and presence any person actually worthy of being in that office should have. No, he leaves it to pundits like me, and I suspect he might not approve. Setting the stage on his principal’s office like visits is a huge map all must face before having a meeting: a huuuugggggggggggge-guh map of all the states he won. Donnie is president and most who visit are his sycophants. Who the hell is he trying to convince? Greeted by rants about Trump’s claims about all his FBI support and then asked to confirm Trump’s bragging, what is a professional interim director supposed to say except skirt the issue, oh, so lightly? Apparently Donnie has no sense of conversation, just a sense of beat down with grandiose self serving opinions and not so subtle attempts at demanding loyalty.
 Mr. McCabe’s responses were polite and when evasive on the level of, “I will look into that.” Not good enough for any authoritarian, oligarch, wannabe. They knew Andrew McCabe was about to retire and they waited until the very last moment and fired him.
 Leaving little doubt who “The Threat” is.

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 Inspection is a column that has been written by Ken Carman for over 40 years. Inspection is dedicated to looking at odd angles, under all the rocks, and into the unseen cracks and crevasses, that constitute the issues and philosophical constructs of our day: places few think, or even dare, to venture.
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