Yesterday, President Obama nominated Jim Comey to serve as the next FBI Director. One of Comey’s many claims to fame was the dramatic confrontation with White House officials over John Ashcroft’s hospital bed; the New York Times has a compelling account of that episode here. (I was at the Office of Legal Counsel at the time, but the entire incident was, happily, well above my pay grade.) Comey is, by all accounts, an excellent choice for Director of the FBI.