Coming February 6, 2024 . . .
MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
Pre-order at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop
Coming February 6, 2024 . . . MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE by Michael Wolraich Pre-order at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop |
Representative Kevin McCarthy, the top House Republican, said on Tuesday that he would oppose bipartisan legislation to create a commission to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, denouncing a proposed independent inquiry into the deadliest attack on Congress in centuries because it would not examine unrelated “political violence” by left-wing groups.
The announcement by Mr. McCarthy, Republican of California and the minority leader, suggested that a House vote expected as early as Wednesday to create the panel will most likely be a partisan affair, with much of the G.O.P. opposing the effort to scrutinize the storming of the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob. It is the latest reflection of the party’s unwillingness to grapple with the legacy of the former president’s election lies.
Mr. McCarthy had been pushing for any outside investigation to look at violence by anti-fascists and Black Lives Matter, rather than focus narrowly on the actions of former President Donald J. Trump, who spread the false claims of election fraud that drove the riot, and his supporters who carried it out. Some Republican moderates had already begun signaling they would support the bill.
“Given the political misdirections that have marred this process, given the now duplicative and potentially counterproductive nature of this effort, and given the speaker’s shortsighted scope that does not examine interrelated forms of political violence in America, I cannot support this legislation,” Mr. McCarthy said in a statement.
In rejecting the commission, Mr. McCarthy essentially threw one of his key deputies, Representative John Katko of New York, under the bus in favor of shielding Mr. Trump and the party from further scrutiny. Mr. Katko had negotiated the makeup and scope of the commission with his Democratic counterpart on the Homeland Security Committee and enthusiastically endorsed it last Friday.
It was all the more striking coming just days after Mr. McCarthy had maneuvered the ouster from leadership of his No. 3, Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, because she refused to drop criticisms of Mr. Trump and Republicans who abetted his election falsehoods. Ms. Cheney had made it clear she believed the commission should have a narrow scope, and she has said that Mr. McCarthy should testify before it about a phone call he had with Mr. Trump during the riot.
Comments
Kevin McCarthy Opposes January 6 Riot Commission It’s not Benghazi or anything.
...McCarthy’s putative reasons for rejecting the commission boil down to two main points. First, he calls the hearing “duplicative,” citing an ongoing criminal investigation by the Justice Department and hearings in the Senate Homeland Security Committee. McCarthy has not previously evinced much concern over the damage of duplicative hearings, having supported ten investigations into Benghazi, six of them in the House, the last of which he frankly described as an effort to damage Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers. ...His statement does not refer to the “insurrection” or even the “riot,” but simply calls it “the events of January 6.” .... The events included a frantic McCarthy, fearful for his life desperately pleading with Trump to call off his mob ..
Jonathan Chait
by NCD on Tue, 05/18/2021 - 6:10pm
We think of Hillary's 10 Benghazi hearings as being a waste of time and largely fruitless, but perhaps they were effective in paving the way for the "anyone but Hillary, even Trump" payday, energizing and weapon using the cuckoos, painting her as hopelessly divisive. Again consider the uniqueness of what she had to go through 10 hearings, multiple pearl clutching announcements and hearings about her emails as a full press political hit job, vs a Trump who didn't even have to go through a full hearing with witnesses over Ukraine during impeachment, much less the dozens of other family criminal behavior.
by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 05/19/2021 - 1:40am
Benghazi just showed they could tell any lie and it would work, stoking red hot hate in the base.
The corrupt right wing lie machine may make voting an obsolete and irrelevant sham, as early as 2022, if they don't win.
by NCD on Wed, 05/19/2021 - 1:59pm
I don't know that it was "any lie" - they fine-tuned their recipe for outage - the patriotism bit, the repeat-til-embedded, etc that they'd use with take-a-knee, Seth Rich, etc. - even now they're running with "the Libs are dismantling the country" in blatant defiance if getting caught exposed Jan 6. They werent quite as iutré on Obama - it wasn't so much "he's a threat to national security and the American WY"
by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 05/19/2021 - 2:12pm
I just keep thinking this is all a tremendous gamble, as it's just going to get worse as Trump is assailed with court cases indicating crookedness, graft, selling out the country, etc. NOW OF COURSE the faithful fans will continually think it all a persecution by libruls, a giant deep state conspiracy. BUT do the elected and GOP party regulars really really want to be dragged further into the pit of all things Trumpco? Mitt Romney is right to caution that now it won't win a single voter over. But implicit in his warning is that you will continue to lose more and more voters with a scintilla of reason left, as they become aware of things like irrefutable evidence of selling out the country and avoiding all taxation (the Leona Helmsey ethic won no fans)...
on the other hand, down the road it could mean a whole new type of Republican once those seen as Trumpies are slowly purged?
by artappraiser on Wed, 05/19/2021 - 3:56pm
But they've embraced Leona. They've embraced Russia. So many things that were once a prob.
by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 05/19/2021 - 4:21pm
but whaddya think about this, if he does this? what's the bridge too far?
by artappraiser on Wed, 05/19/2021 - 8:35pm
It's a bridge to nowhere, there will never be a "too far"
by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 05/19/2021 - 11:48pm
They embraced cheating education
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/19/devos-testify-student-loan-forg...
by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 05/20/2021 - 12:03am
by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 05/19/2021 - 2:03pm
CNN: Too Scared: Hear what Republicans are saying about Kevin McCarthy's move and
ANALYSIS The House minority leader's opposition to a commission that would investigate the Capitol riot comes down to two reasons
by artappraiser on Tue, 05/18/2021 - 10:26pm
These 35 House Republicans just voted to have a Jan. 6 commission:
by artappraiser on Wed, 05/19/2021 - 8:26pm
Official Black Lives Matter on January-6-related legislation
by artappraiser on Sat, 05/22/2021 - 6:36pm
edit to add:
by artappraiser on Sat, 05/22/2021 - 6:49pm
by artappraiser on Sat, 05/22/2021 - 10:09pm
by artappraiser on Sun, 05/23/2021 - 8:33pm
by artappraiser on Tue, 05/25/2021 - 2:16pm
Lincoln Project starts #GoToHellMitch campaign on topic:
by artappraiser on Thu, 05/27/2021 - 1:46pm