Trump vs. Comey: Hope Against Hope

As every scrap of James Comey's testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee is pored over and picked apart, one word gleams brighter than any other. It is a common word, employable as both a noun and a verb, and it boasts an extraordinary breadth. We may say, "I hope to catch the 6:42 A.M.," or "I hope the kids don't catch a cold," and, at the other end of the spectrum, Christians are exhorted to pray "for all who have died in the hope of the Resurrection." So where do the hopes that Comey cited yesterday, in his own utterances and in his reports of others' speech, belong? First, we have his homely dictum, which is already destined to wind up on a thousand T-shirts, or in the chorus of a country ballad: "Lordy, I hope there are tapes."