Official White House Photo by Molly Riley
Christine Flowers: While little will change at DOJ, better that Bondi is gone
It’s not like he replaced her with a more qualified woman.
It’s not like the man he scavenged from the dwindling heap of loyalists is marginally better than she proved herself to be.
It’s not like there’s going to be a noticeable change in competence or temperature at the head of the Department of Justice.
But I’m smiling nonetheless. Because even though the successor won’t be very different, at least a truly awful female will be ousted from the office she obtained through ovarian merit.
Which is to say, she’s another lady who said the things President Trump wanted to hear, and he rewarded her richly, if temporarily.
Pamela Bondi, former attorney general of Florida, former personal attorney of the formerly impeached former and current president, former a lot of things, is now former attorney general of the United States.
And that’s because she was simply terrible. There is no way to make this political.
Conservatives must admit, even those MAGA loyalists currently battling one another on the “Israel Is The Problem” vs “We Need To Vanquish Iran” battleground, that it’s a blessing she’s gone.
Nothing that Bondi did, absolutely nothing, was noteworthy.
She looked like an idiot toting the Epstein binders. She was combative and unprofessional before an admittedly hostile Congress.
She eviscerated protections for immigrants with a heavy hand in regulatory decisions and was a frequent defendant in habeas petitions won by immigration lawyers, including yours truly.
Bondi, whose lineage, like my own, includes the pride of Italy, just couldn’t hack it.
And it’s a shame, because in her former incarnation as a state prosecutor, she wasn’t half bad. In fact, she was excellent.
But when she became President Trump’s personal avenger, initiating prosecutions against his former political enemies with little to no basis, and when she made it quite clear that the White House was her client, not the aggrieved citizens of the United States and not noncitizens who were still entitled to protection under our Constitution, she became another footnote like former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
But that’s not really fair. I remember when Bondi was picked after Trump was justifiably attacked for nominating former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz for attorney general.
I actually posted a few things praising her, and breathing a sigh of relief that the oily gator with the young girl problem was being kicked to the curb.
And I still believe she was the better choice, in the way that lethal injection is preferable to electrocution. There was at least a scintilla of quality there, and she had no history of sexual misconduct.
I also believe that her current partner eschews women’s clothing.
Which brings me to why I’m angry.
Trump prizes loyalty. He believes that this is the most important quality of all, and I suppose it derives from his early tutelage by Roy Cohn and then the revolving door of employees during his first term.
I prize loyalty as well. But when I am a public official paid by public monies and charged with protecting public rights or executing public duties, loyalty is to the, um, public.
It is to due process, the Constitution and our institutions and if that puts you in your supervisor’s crosshairs, you choose your ethical duties, not your boss’s high opinion.
Sadly, Pam couldn’t figure it out.
Neither could Kristi, who engaged in cowboy cosplay for Trump and nearly destroyed DHS with her incompetence.
Neither could the slew of U.S. attorney wannabes like Alina and Lindsey, who are better suited to Mar-A-Lago than Marbury v. Madison.
I am a woman and a professional. I am an American citizen. I am a conservative who believes that laws are meant to be obeyed, not considered suggestions.
The thought that these women were chosen for their looks and their gender as opposed to their resumes is as repellent to me now, when it’s done to advance so-called conservative goals, as it is when liberals started the whole DEI crap.
Trump has appointed some great women, including Amy Coney Barrett. Ironically, she has provoked the ire of Trump and his loyalists by not using her judicial vote as a “get out of jail free” card for him often enough.
And that’s why she is head and shoulders above the motley crew in his current cabinet.
So I’m not weeping for Pam. I’m sure the president will find another X-Men-sounding job for her as he did for Kristi, something like “Guardian of the Everglades” or “Duchess of the Dow.”
And to my Italian sister, I say, with affection, ciao.
This article originally appeared in the Delco Times.
Christine Flowers can be reached at cflowers1961@gmail.com.
Are you saying Trump is unique in hiring people that share his vision, agenda and purpose? Do you have any pro-life or anti-immigrant favoring people on your staff? Do you have a staff? So many questions…
Here’s the reality. Trump has no vision that he can clearly lay out. Trump has no purpose or agenda other than to enrich himself and his friends and family.
Pam “the Dow is at 50,000” Bondi was a typical Trump hire – incompetent but looked good on TV and loyal to Trump. But the loyalty is a one way street. We’ve seen it time and time again. He kicks “the best people” to the curb and acts like someone else hired them.
Newsflash – Trump is a poor leader who never gets blamed for his poor decisions. The MAGA blames everyone but poor old Donny. He’s too stupid (and they know it) but he’s their useful idiot.
Christine got Roe overturned so her vote for Trump was worth it. But with it came the incompetence and mistakes and moral failings in so many other ways. Trump is a means to an end, even if it means others suffer. Christine has said nothing of the girls school in Iran the US bombed, but she has time to write about Pam Bondi. Because in the end, Christine only cares about a few things, and is willing to throw Bondi under the bus and be mum about the girls school, because criticizing Trump is out of bounds. Because really, is it really his fault he hired this moron?
AB: Here’s Trump’s agenda: America First. Plain and simple, even for you. Say it with me: AMERICA FIRST.
No “1,000 points of light”, No “New World Order”, no “Yes we can”, no “Green Agenda”, No “Open Borders”. He’s done more in 3 months than Biden did in his entire career in DC, especially in reversing the runaway inflation and open border. The problem with Pam and Kristi Noem is that they couldn’t keep up. They had tough jobs that faced major opposition from activist judges and democrat and rino congress members. The Swamp can be a very unforgiving place, especially when you start messing with their wanton fraud waste of taxes, kickbacks and voter certifications, or start digging into the illegal decisions made by Comey, Brennan, Schiff, Artic Frost, etc. and the rest of the lawfare group. I’m not sure that you have any reason to call Bondi a moron – unless you’ve cured cancer or are commanding Artemis 2 right now – she has a law degree and was a State AG for 8 years in Florida.
Cry more, FedUp. As usual, TDS is the belief that Trump can do no wrong. It’s Comey, Brennan, the boogyman, Keyser Soze, Santa Claus, the list goes on and on. Poor, old Donnie can’t figure out how to outstmart these people. He must be a real dummy and a real loser if he can’t win against these people. I thought he was a winner…are you saying old-man Donnie is really, a loser?
Did Trump hire Bondi, yes or no? Did Trump start a war with Iran that caused gas prices to go up, yes or no? Did Trump say we can’t fund Medicare and Medicaid because he started a war, yes or no? Did Trump hire Elon Musk and DOGE, who apparently failed to root out all this fraud, waste and abuse, yes or no?
Face it FedUp, Trump has failed so many times. It’s your TDS that can’t see that Trump often gets it wrong.
There’s no crying here – and I think you don’t understand the meaning of TDS, either – because you got it. Musk uncovered plenty. 1 month of work uncovered over $65 billion across federal gov. departments and USAID programs. Oh he’s winning all right – you can tell by the wailing and gnashing of teeth by the democratic congress government shutdowns for reasons that they already lost in the Big Beautiful Bill. GDP up. Unemployment down. Inflation down. Factory output and manufacturing up. We have an ‘almost’ Nuclear foe on the ropes whose been terrorizing us for 50 years and is about to lose their entire footing in the Middle East with no support from their neighboring counties except Lebanon. Trump is the only one tom take them on. Obama, Bide and Kerry instead sent them pallets of cash and Biden left them billions in arms and equipment when he and Kamala surrendered A’stan. The Southern border closed; 200,000 deported, 700,000 arrested, 600,000 detained ion 3-4 months, and the liberals and squealing dem congress can’t stop it. We removed a major drug supplier and freed a socialist country of a brutal dictator that is now sending us 250,000 gallons of oil every day. GAS PRICES RIGHT NOW ARE STILL LOWER than Biden’s highest prices, and we’re bombing a rogue world terrorist nation who controls the Hormuz strait. THAT is WINNING. China is on the ropes and nobody’s even paying attention to Russia/Ukraine. Now – you got any facts you want to share? I see we have another pigeon chess player spouting nonsense.
When FedUp calls you out for hypocrisy, you know Christine has lost the discussion.