Careless Nest

"Would some power the gift tae gie' us,
To see ourselves as others see us." -- Robert Burns.

"If you can keep your head while all about you,
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you ... " -- Rudyard Kipling

   FBI Director James Comey called Hillary Clinton and her State Department "extremely careless" in their use of commercial email systems, charging that they "should have known" of the likelihood of others hacking into their accounts.
   The fact that the FBI found few solid examples of sensitive material stolen from government email accounts does not excuse the free-wheeling use of commercial systems for government business.
   It only says they were lucky.

   The FBI investigation did not turn up enough solid, strong evidence to warrant successful prosecution, Comey noted. There were only a handful of the many thousands of documents checked that were compromised and could be deemed sensitive in varying degrees. But that did not excuse the carelessness by Clinton and State Department staff when she held that Cabinet post.

   Carelessness explains. It does not excuse.
   But carelessness is a human condition, especially among politicians.
   Consider Bill Clinton's chat with Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who oversees the FBI, at an airport last week, just as the FBI was finishing its investigation of Hillary Clinton's email practices and whether security was breached. 
   Just as Hillary "should have known" better than to use a commercial system for secret government business, Bill should have known that chatting in a very public place with the supervisor of the agency probing Hillary's activities would be prime grist for the political gossip mill.
   Lawyers in general know better than to talk publicly about pending investigations. Hillary and Bill Clinton are both lawyers.
   
  Some folks react to discoveries of their carelessness by attacking the discoverers. They deny that any such careless incident ever happened, or they claim that if it did, they did not know about it. They did not know that their staff were doing anything questionable or illegal, and they accuse journalists who expose the alleged carelessness of being vindictive. All the while they defend themselves and blame others.
   
   Questions: Did the former President and the current Attorney General talk about the FBI probe during their chat on an airport tarmac, and did Bill try to get the FBI to back off?
   Both deny it, and insist the meeting was only a social chat. We will never know for sure.

   In any case, the FBI's label of extreme carelessness is an indictment of the way Hillary Clinton handled her communications. And her opponent is sure to predict this same careless behavior will continue if she becomes President.
   At the same time, if past behavior is an accurate predictor of future performance by whoever is the next resident of the White House and commander in chief of the American military ... 
   But he may not want to mention that.
   Unless he too is careless.