In 1604, Shakespeare presented Othello to the world.  The year before, in 1603, the Scottish king, James, ascended the throne of England. 

Othello is an adaptation of earlier stories, but Shakespeare applied his genius to greatly deepen the human drama.  Shakespeare needed to create a villain who was the ultimate evil.  At the time, Spain was England's mortal enemy.  Therefore, the villain must be Spanish.  If the wise, benevolent, and pious James was the epitome of rectitude, why, then, the Spanish villain must be the polar opposite of James.

The name "James" is the Scottish (and sometimes English) equivalent of the Hebrew Jacob.  In Spain, James is "Iago."  Othello's Spanish villain must therefore be Iago – the antithesis of James.

Throughout the play, until the very end, Iago does no physical harm to anyone.  His wounds, deep though they are, are made with words.  Iago lies.  Iago misdirects.  Iago plants false evidence.  Iago is slippery as slime.  In all this, Iago pretends to be everyone's friend and counselor.

James Comey's intentions and methods are remarkably similar to Iago's.  Like Iago, Comey, all along, evidently intended to block Trump's election.  During the presidential campaign, Comey did everything in his power to shield Hillary.  After the election, slippery Comey switched to a campaign to destroy his new boss –President Trump.

Now, Othello is a Moor, an African.  For all his military brilliance, Othello is an outsider – not a member of the club.  Othello is elected by the Venetian Senate to shepherd Venice through an existential crises posed by the army and navy of the Turks.  Many in the Venetian aristocracy must have resented outsider Othello's rise to command.  Iago would likely have many sympathetic friends who would listen to his poisonous thinking.  These people could be easily manipulated, as they are.

Donald Trump is an outsider.  Trump was elected to shepherd our nation through an existential crisis promulgated by his predecessor.  Although he is a phenomenally successful self-made businessman, and therefore exceedingly intelligent, he is not a member of the Washington Club.  The Club has, from the beginning of his campaign, violently rejected him.  Like Othello, Trump must be metaphorically assassinated.

So Comey plans and plots.  He enlists the press with carefully arranged leaks.  In this, like Iago, Comey enlists his friend to do the dirty deed.  Comey lies by commission and, much worse, by omission.  Comey censors information.  He knows that Trump is innocent of any wrongdoing but refuses to tell this essential fact to the world.  President Trump is hung out to dry with the media's fantastical fabrications.

In the end, after he has done the maximum possible damage to Othello, Iago is shown to be a coward.  Comey too, in his testimony before Congress, has shown himself to be a coward – a whining coward.

Shakespeare had deep insight into the many types of humanity.  In Othello, he left us a model to understand what is happening today.  It is remarkable that the same patterns of courage and villainy that Shakespeare knew appear today in different individuals.  James Comey has proven himself a villain in the mold of Iago.  Iago is just another name for James.  I believe that it is appropriate, therefore, to start calling Comey Iago Comey.

May this name stick and bring him everlasting shame.