OPINION:
Enough of the smirking already.
When Peter Strzok, shamed FBI agent, sat before Congress with his smirky, smug expression and gave smirky, smug answers to valid questions voters wanted answered, seriously now, was there anyone in America, save the anti-President Donald Trumpers and hard-core leftists, who didn’t want to slap his face?
OK, maybe not really. But just about. Democrats, of course, didn’t see it that way; they thought Strzok worthy of the Purple Heart for his bravery, believe it or not, and defended him fiercely from the big, bad Republicans on Capitol Hill.
But truly, there is nothing like a sneering, snarking, condescending, arrogant public servant that sets off — rightfully so — the taxpaying base. Simple fact is when taxpayers pay for someone’s salary, the least they should expect in return is courteous service. Humble, even.
Forthright, too.
Strzok, who still draws his salary from taxpayer pockets, fell far short of that expectation.
“Peter Strzok’s Arrogant Smirking Sneering Smug Face” is how one YouTuber put it.
“Peter Strzok squirming and smirking like a psychopath during the #StrzokHearing” is how Mark Dice on Twitter put it.
And from Rep. Louie Gohmert, who dared during the recent congressional hearing to ask Strzok about his ability to deceive his wife daily about his ongoing affair with former FBI lawyer Lisa Page — this: “And it was just that look, the smirk, like [he was saying], so what, that got to me that I thought, you know, dad gum, you’ve gotten so good at this probably from all the hundreds of times you lied to your wife,” the Texas congressman explained, the Washington Examiner reported.
Exactly. It was the smirk that cut to the core.
It was Strzok’s smirk that’ll be remembered, long after his testimony’s forgotten.
Just what is it about some in the so-called field of public service that they think it’s proper public service to crawl atop a high horse and look down on those who pay their salaries?
America just suffered similar sanctimony from James “the boy scout” Comey; from his right-hand man, the now-fired Andrew McCabe; from the former CIA top dog, James Brennan, via his pretentious anti-Trump Twitter rants.
That was after suffering months of campaign hubris from Hillary Clinton, who used her public platform to slam those in America whose votes she still courted — whose tax dollars she still would’ve taken — as “deplorables” and second-class citizens.
And that was after suffering eight long, very long, years of Barack Obama, King of Hubris, running down America every which way he could, every which way his apology tour wound.
Now? Now we’ve got the Bernie Sanders’ socialists of the country crawling out of the woodshed to come ’round and tell and sell the idea that American ingenuity, American rugged individualism, American greatness, are all figment of America’s past imaginations and that Big Government is the way to go — that only politicians, not the little people, can solve problems.
Arrogant? To the core.
But apparently, this is what our public servants have become — sneering, smirking, condescending, patronizing balls of self-pride who think themselves superior in intellect and deed to the average American. And nothing captures this essence of poor leadership like a Strzok smirk.
So here’s an idea to slap back the smugness, while simultaneously showing support for humbler servants: Conservatives should plaster this man’s face on some campaign buttons for distribution.
If Democrats want to defend Strzok in his hearing, let them defend his smirk and all it stands for at the ballot boxes, too. It’s a gold nugget moment for the GOP.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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