Trump’s ouster of FBI Director James B. Comey, amid an investigation of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election that Trump won, reeks of self-serving political ma­nipu­la­tion, no matter how hard the president and his minions spin it as an attempt to redeem the FBI.

What’s also troubling, from the perspective of consensual governance, is that Democrats’ objections to the firing are themselves less than principled — unavoidably so, given their own grudge against Comey for rekindling the email investigation of Hillary Clinton in the final days of the campaign.

The essence of the predicament is that Comey did, indeed, play a part in the election, a fact that itself guaranteed that the winner, whoever it was, could not deal straightforwardly with him.

Imagine if it had been Clinton: What would she have done with Comey — if he didn’t resign and trigger bitter GOP resistance to the person she chose to replace him?