The lingering surrender of the government to chaos goes on. From CNN:

Trump, who originally nominated Wray after firing the previous FBI director, previously announced he will nominate Kash Patel for the role, although Wray still had three years remaining on his 10-year term. Patel has been meeting with senators to build support for a confirmation vote next year. Wray had wrestled with whether or not to resign given Trump’s stated desire to replace him, sources say, and wants to facilitate an orderly transition. But some in the FBI worried his departure would normalize Trump’s penchant for replacing FBI directors he doesn’t like, as the position is supposed to straddle administrations and be insulated from politics.

There ever has been a kind of ambiguity to anybody who takes a job working for the president-elect. First, anyone who does is prima facie suspect, because who in their right mind would willingly work for the political equivalent of Scrooge and Marley? But then again, there was something rather admirable about people who took those jobs and actually tried to, you know, do them. Wray is at the top of that list. He took the job in the wake of the endless James Comey saga, and he oversaw FBI investigations into his boss that resulted in two federal criminal cases being brought against him. He green-lighted the raid on Mar-a-Lago, a perfectly proper police action that will remain lodged in the presidential craw forever.

Trump, in particular, was unhappy with the FBI’s court-approved search of his Mar-a-Lago resort in August 2022 during the investigation into his alleged mishandling of classified documents. Just this week, Trump said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” that he wasn’t “thrilled” with Wray. “He invaded my home,” Trump said. “He invaded Mar-a-Lago.”

Whatever you think of Wray, that raid may be the harshest penalty the president-elect ever pays for his alleged crimes.

I do wish Wray had forced the president-elect to fire him. He had the right to stay on for three more years, and we clearly can do a lot worse, and likely will, God help us. The FBI is now on the fast track to Upside Down Land.

In a Truth Social post, Trump said Wray’s resignation

Is a great day for America as it will end the Weaponization of what has become known as the United States Department of Injustice. I just don’t know what happened to him. We will now restore the Rule of Law for all Americans. Under the leadership of Christopher Wray, the FBI illegally raided my home, without cause, worked diligently on illegally impeaching and indicting me, and has done everything else to interfere with the success and future of America. They have used their vast powers to threaten and destroy many innocent Americans, some of which will never be able to recover from what has been done to them.

Emphasis mine.

And now, it’s Tool Times.

“I look forward to a smooth transition. I will be ready to serve the American people on day one,” Patel said in a statement Wednesday.

It is imperative that anything that can be done politically to prevent Patel from getting his hands on the FBI must be done. The fight should be a loud and public one. In this case, as in so many others, defeat is a much better option than the surrender we’re living through now.