The Wall Street Journal has long had problems thinking through its editorials and their implications. On August 30, it ran a really poorly thought out piece “Jim Comey’s Higher Virtue” condemning the former head of the FBI for leaking memos that he wrote of his private meetings with Don Trump.

The Justice Department Inspector General had released a report the day before, criticizing Comey’s use of his memos. Under normal circumstances, the Journal would be quite right to support the IG. Indeed, under normal circumstances the issue would not have come up. Comey likely would not have felt compelled to create the memos in the first place.

But he did and the IG reported as it saw fit.

Fine. But, what should the Journal’s editorial have said about the IG’s report and about Comey?

Here’s the Publius challenge to the Journal’s Editorial Board.

Go to Trump’s May 9, 2017 letter to Comey firing him. Translate into English the key sentence:

“While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under (Kremlingate) investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgment of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau.”

Show readers your system for translating Trumplish into English.

Then, take any translation that you wish. There are a few and they all say very different things. To make your lives a bit easier, you can start with the translations in Publius'

Trump Management Protocol (TruMP) only eight days later, on May 17, 2017.

Show readers all the possible translations you have discovered.

Explain what each means for Trump, the nation and Comey.

Explain which translation you have chosen as the correct one and why.

Explain how Comey would have had to react to your chosen translation.

Explain how he would have perceived the risks in his relationship with Trump, the DoJ and Congress.

Then, assess Comey’s actions in light of your chosen translation and evaluate the IG’s report in light of your chosen translation. Especially noting page 224 of the Mueller Report which says that Trump's letter firing Comey, "can reasonably be understood as acknowledging that the FBI's Russia investigations was a factor in Comey's termination."

Then, prescribe your actions if you were in Comey’s position.

Publius guarantees that when you do this, you will be forced to revise your editorial composition processes end-to-end.

Remember, you have been doing this for at least the forty years Publius has been reading your paper. That’s nearly 12,500 editorials to review and one hell of a lot of apologies. Many will be humiliating beyond belief.

Which, of course, is why you will never attempt to meet Publius’ challenge.