All Politics is Local (except the money)

We have a saying in this country that all politics is local.  Maybe everyone in the world could agree with that, since even the most strictly controlled countries have some dissent among their own populations.  People naturally grumble and too tight of a lid on that can lead to revolutions of various types.  Law Enforcement usually intervenes, the smoke clears, and a few leaders end up in jail.

But, as we find today in the Wall Street Journal the law enforcement may be part of the problem when it fails to be independent and honest.  This case involves the same Governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, who was involved with the Chinese in funneling money to the Clinton Campaign, which is still being investigated by the FBI.  They may have difficulty being objective.  

The Journal article tells a tale of political support for the wife of a Deputy Director of the FBI.  He just happens to be the one leading the investigation of Hillary Clinton's emails.  The FBI and the political hacks that oversee it at the Justice Department have stepped into something here that will not go over well with the electorate.  Though it is too late to influence the outcome of the campaigns, politics is not a game the FBI should play.  That is why we have an independent national law enforcement entity to deal with political corruption.  

One of our political parties selected the wife long before anyone knew her husband would be leading the investigation, but the appearance which will dominate the news for a day, is one of corruption of the major law enforcement agency in the US.  That is on top of the appearance of a leadership in the Justice Department that will go to the end to make sure there is not a prosecution of the reigning nominee.  It is appearance, not facts of any nature, that make political revolutions. 

However this turns out, it will not be good for the FBI which relies on its independence to do its investigations fairly.  The FBI has always been a place where that appearance was important to the leadership and to the agents that do the work in the field.  Allowing a person whose wife has just run for a major political office to participate in the investigation was clearly bad judgement, at the least.  She was selected by the party and asked to run.  One third of her money came from the party.  The word stupid comes to mind here because we would hope that it was just a miscalculation and not politically motivated.  I vote for stupid.  No pun intended.