Trump's New Hire is Captain Ahab of Clinton Haters

After working with Bossie for several months on the investigation into Clinton's campaign fund-raising, the committee's chief counsel and two other staffers, with the lawyer, John Rowley III, issued a public letter denouncing Bossie's "unrelenting, self-promoting actions."

"Not since Roy Cohn -- the bare-knuckled chief counsel for Sen. Joe McCarthy in the Red-hunting hearings of the 1950s -- has a congressional staffer been so thoroughly demonized by his enemies," Grove wrote. The comparison is particularly striking in retrospect, since post-McCarthy Cohn became Trump's lawyer.

Less than a year later, Burton was forced to apologize to his colleagues and Bossie resigned under pressure, after accusations that tapes of former Hillary Clinton law partner Webster Hubbell had been unfairly edited to exclude exculpatory comments about whether Clinton had known of his phony billing. (She had "no idea," Hubbell said.)

In a closed-door Republican conference meeting, then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich told Burton he was "embarrassed ... at the circus that went on at your committee," The Washington Post reported.

Since then, of course, Bossie, now at the helm of Citizens United, has continued his pursuit, now focused on Hillary. The Citizens United Supreme Court ruling grew out of his 2008 "Hillary: The Movie."

My point is not that the Clintons are blameless -- they aren't -- but that a candidate can be judged by the company he keeps and, especially, the individuals he hires. Trump has shed, sort of, Corey Lewandowski (recommended to him by, yes, Bossie) and Paul Manafort.

Now he has brought on Breitbart News chairman Steve Bannon (recommended to him by, yes, Bossie) as the campaign's chief executive officer, and with him questions about Bannon's voter registration at a vacant Florida house and charges, ultimately dismissed, of domestic abuse by his ex-wife.

The grown-up in the room with Trump -- at least the one who's not related to him -- is campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, who has a reputation as a capable professional but has been praising her candidate for his supposed "pivot ... to substance" and vowing, in regard to Clinton, "we're going to fight her on substance."

Uh huh. Now comes Bossie, lauded by Conway as "a battle-tested warrior and a brilliant strategist."

Scratch, scratch.

========

Ruth Marcus' email address is ruthmarcus@washpost.com.