The most overarching picture of last week’s Senate Intelligence Committee hearings is that Gentleman Jim Comey — the former FBI chief — came across as just another disgruntled ex-employee seeking revenge.

He need not worry, however, because he’s a shoo-in for a multimillion dollar book deal and many high-paid speeches for years to come — especially now that the money guys in downtown Manhattan know he can be bought. So, if he can manage to stay out of prison (which, given that he’s an admitted leaker, may not be such an easy task), he’s likely to come out of this sordid affair with some big bucks in his pocket.

Honesty compels me to admit that I don’t believe Comey is an inherently bad person in the Hillary Clinton sense of the term. It’s just that he’s a very flawed man, his worst flaw being his insatiable thirst for publicity.

You don’t have to be a professional therapist to conclude that Gentleman Jim simply loves being in front of the camera. He would probably make it in Hollywood but for the fact there isn’t a great deal of demand for six-foot-eight leading men.

Movie star potential aside, however, the only “bombshell” that came out of the farcical Senate Intelligence Committee hearings was not anything Comey said about Donald Trump. It was his statement that Tarmac Queen Loretta Lynch emphatically told him to stop referring to the Clinton probe as an investigation and instead call it a “matter.” Hmm … now why in the world would she do a thing like that?

For millions of Americans, her curt instruction to Comey simply underscored what they already assumed — that Barack Obama was seeking a third term by helping his hand-picked puppet, Horrible Hillary, get elected. Even though it was common knowledge that he hated the Clintons, he undoubtedly had so much dirt on Hillary that he knew she would have to obey his orders and carry out his agenda once she took office.

Thus, Obama did everything he could to make that happen, even going so far as to say (as always, with a straight face) that “there has never been a man or a woman — not me, not Bill, nobody — more qualified than Hillary Clinton to serve as president of the United States of America.” Given that Obama loathed the HillBillies, his over-the-top statement made it clear just how badly he wanted a third term that would allow him to finish the job of fundamentally transforming the United States of America.

Notwithstanding his help, however, Horrible Hillary still couldn’t pull it off, which surely must have elevated Obama’s contempt for the Clintons many times over. Being the delusional, arrogant soul that he is, I doubt he ever thought it was possible for Hillary to lose if she had his full support.

By full support, I’m including his ordering Lackey Lynch to tell Comey to refer to the Clinton investigation as a “matter” rather than an investigation. Only a CNN or MSNBC viewer could seriously believe that Loretta Lynch acted on her own.

That’s why a full investigation of Lynch should begin immediately. If she were put under oath, she would have no choice but to deny that she ever told Comey to refer to the Clinton investigation as a “matter.” And that would create a real firestorm between the two.

More important, any serious prosecutor would have to call private citizen Barack Obama as a witness, which, in turn, would force him to lie as well by saying that he did not tell Loretta Lynch to order Comey to call the investigation a “matter.” Which, in turn, might create some tension between the two — as in, which one of us is willing to go to prison for the cause?

One would hope that the fallout from all this lying would lead to an uncovering of at least some of the multitude of crimes that were committed by Obama and his surrogates during his eight years in office. And that would be the “bigger than Watergate” story that the Radical Left has so desperately yearned for over the past year and a half.

As to Trump, the hearings reaffirmed yet again what I have long believed, namely that he has a brilliant business mind and an unmatched relentlessness to get things done. In a perfect world, he might very well have become one of the most successful presidents in U.S. history (and still might), but, unfortunately for both him and America, it is not a perfect world.

For one thing, the Democrats will never — ever — stop trying to obstruct him from doing his job, because his success could literally mean the end of the Democratic Party. Far worse, however, is Trump’s egomaniacal personality, his brashness, and his inability to express himself in a reasonably intelligent, adult manner.

That said, all these investigations into “collusion with Russia” are a waste of time and taxpayer money. But unless Trump can get the key items of his agenda in place (particularly healthcare and tax cuts) in a reasonable period of time and bring a “happy days are here again” mood to the country, the Republicans could lose control of both houses of Congress in 2018 and the presidency in 2020. And that, without question, would be the end of America’s last chance to turn things around.

Which brings me to Mike Pence. As I have said many times, the worst thing that could happen to Democrats — and the best thing that could happen to Republicans — is for Mike Pence to end up in the Oval Office. While it’s true that Trump is amazing when it comes to making things happen and getting his base fired up, Pence has important and admirable qualities that Trump simply does not possess, qualities that make him creditable to an extreme.

Nevertheless, Pence was smitten with Trump during the primaries, so much so that when he appeared on national television to endorse Ted Cruz for president, he began by first thanking Donald Trump for shaking up the system and connecting with everyday Americans. In fact, many felt that his words were more an endorsement of Trump than Cruz.

Pence’s selection as vice president was a stroke of luck for both Pence and the country, because it allowed him to learn things from Trump that professional politicians know nothing about. So, even though I’d like to see Trump succeed, the ideal situation for Republicans would be for Pence, one way or another, to end up in the Oval Office.

It goes without saying that the Dirty Dems would immediately start making false allegations about Pence, but he’s such a Boy Scout that it would strip them of whatever credibility they have left. Actually, they already have no credibility left, but it would be fun to see them continue their apoplectic attacks.

Either way, let’s hope the Dirty Dems keep up the insanity and viciousness, because, as Thomas Sowell put it, Democrats are the best reason to vote for Republicans. If Trump can overcome the onslaught of negativism against him — as well as his own self-destructiveness — more power to him. If not, the Dirty Dems can start welcoming in the Mike Pence era, but they won’t believe what they’ll be up against.

Regardless of what happens, I again want to thank Gentleman Jim Comey for making it possible for the average American to clearly see just how corrupt the Deep State really is. I haven’t talked to Ron Paul in a while, but I’m sure he’s smiling right now and thinking, “I told you so.”