James Comey: Another J. Edgar?

Is FBI Director James Comey another J. Edgar Hoover?

Politico's Riley Roberts has written a fascinating profile of the current FBI director, which goes to great lengths to separate Comey from Hoover, except in the exercise of power:

On the surface, there are few direct parallels between Comey, a widely respected former prosecutor, and his most infamous predecessor. Where Hoover was pugnacious and inscrutable—lurching, hunched and furtive, between power and paranoia—the 55-year-old Comey is affable and open, with a reputation for honesty and a well-known aversion to politics. Yet there is a growing consensus that Comey has wielded the powers of the directorship more aggressively than anyone since Hoover—to the consternation, and even anger, of some of his colleagues.

Since taking office, Comey has repeatedly injected his views into executive branch deliberations on issues such as sentencing reform and the roots of violence against police officers. He has undermined key presidential priorities such as crafting a coherent federal policy on cybersecurity and encryption. Most recently, he shattered longstanding precedent by publicly offering his own conclusions about the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email.

While the profile does go into the Hillary email investigation and Comey's subsequent announcement not to prosecute extensively, Roberts fails to explain why Comey would come out and say that anyone else doing what Hillary did would have faced "sanctions" (Comey's word)?

Roberts' profile portrays Comey as some kind of maverick at the head of the FBI, but Comey is also a wise political creature who knows which way the wind is blowing. My speculation: Comey chose not to prosecute Hillary because any court case could have run into a Clinton presidency. Prosecuting your future boss is never a good idea. There is no doubt his boss, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, reminded him of this (after her meeting with Bill Clinton on her airplane).

Comey didn't get to where he is without some political sense. Painting him as some kind of a more reasonable J. Edgar Hoover gives him far too much credit. Hoover pulled strings, whereas Comey lets people pull his strings.