Comey-o, Comey-o! Wherefore art thou Comey-o?

Former FBI Director James Comey

Well it looks like as early as next week James Comey will begin to testify before Congress and the American people. I feel like I'm back in college, sitting with my roommate Brad, watching Senator Sam Ervin run the Watergate Hearings. They were broadcast live, gavel to gavel on both TV and Radio, by PBS.

Sam Ervin was a racist. He was not alone in that philosophy. Back then people were more open about it because large swaths of the country were openly racist.

Sam Ervin was also a hero.

Born in 1896 in North Carolina, he served and was decorated in World War I. But that isn't what made him a true hero.

He was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1922 and also served as county attorney for Burke County, when a black man was wanted for the killing of a white girl and was declared a "outlaw" under state law, which meant any citizen had the right to kill him on sight. The man, Broadus Miller was shot and killed before any arrest or trial, and this certainly did not make Sam Ervin a hero.

What made Sam Ervin a hero was his dedication to the Constitution as he chaired those important hearings. It was what he said on May 17, 1973:

"We are beginning these hearings today in an atmosphere of utmost gravity. The questions, that have been raised in the wake of the June 17th break-in, strike at the very undergirding of our democracy. If the many allegations made to this date are true, then the burglars who broke into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate were in effect breaking into the home of every citizen of the United States.

If these allegations prove to be true, what they were seeking to steal was not the jewels, money or other property of American citizens, but something much more valuable—their most precious heritage, the right to vote in a free election. Since that day, a mood of incredulity has prevailed among our populace, and it is the constitutional duty of this committee to allay the fears being expressed by the citizenry, and to establish the factual bases upon which these fears have been founded.

The Founding Fathers, having participated in the struggle against arbitrary power, comprehended some eternal truths respecting men and government. They knew that those who are entrusted with power are susceptible to the disease of tyrants, which George Washington rightly described as "love of power and the proneness to abuse it." For that reason, they realized that the power of public officers should be defined by laws which they, as well as the people, are obligated to obey.

The Constitution, later adopted amendments and, more specifically, statutory law provide that the electoral processes shall be conducted by the people, outside the confines of the formal branches of government, and through a political process that must operate under the strictures of law and ethical guidelines, but independent of the overwhelming power of the government itself. Only then can we be sure that each electoral process cannot be made to serve as the mere handmaiden of a particular Administration in power.

The accusations that have been leveled and the evidence of wrongdoing that has surfaced has cast a black cloud of distrust over our entire society. Our citizens do not know whom to believe, and many of them have concluded that all the processes of government have become so compromised that honest governance has been rendered impossible. We believe that the health, if not the survival, of our social structure and of our form of government requires the most candid and public investigation of all the evidence.... As the elected representatives of the people, we would be derelict in our duty to them if we failed to pursue our mission expeditiously, fully, and with the utmost fairness. The nation and history itself are watching us. We cannot fail our mission."


THAT was what made Senator Sam Ervin a hero. The Constitution. Truth, justice, and the American way.

Or as Benjamin Bradlee the editor of the Washington Post told Woodward and Bernstein:

"You know the results of the latest Gallup Poll? Half the country never even heard of the word Watergate. Nobody gives a shit. You guys are probably pretty tired, right? Well, you should be. Go on home, get a nice hot bath. Rest up... 15 minutes. Then get your asses back in gear. We're under a lot of pressure, you know, and you put us there. Nothing's riding on this except the, uh, first amendment to the Constitution, freedom of the press, and maybe the future of the country. Not that any of that matters, but if you guys fuck up again, I'm going to get mad. Goodnight."