The entertainment arm of the Republican party is not ready for prime time. Witnessing the shenanigans of Jim Jordan admonish potential witnesses for being out of compliance with a subpoena from the Weaponization of the Government committee fell flat. Seeing him taken to task by Rep. Eric Swalwell ( D-CA) was illustrative. “I think that it is quite rich that we are talking about subpoena compliance under a chairman of the full committee who was absolutely out of subpoena compliance in the last Congress,”Swalwell said. Of course, Mr. Swalwell was referencing Jordan’s defiance of the January 6 Committee. Swalwell went on to say, “[Jordan] was asked over and over, ‘You were a witness to a crime ― you were a witness to the greatest crime ever committed, with the most criminals indicted in America. Will you help your country; will you comply with that subpoena?” With the befuddled Jordan looking on, Swalwell added,“No compliance. Crickets. Absolute defiance of the subpoena.”
Time after time, while Republicans drove the car perilously close to the cliff’s edge, Democrats would grab the wheel of democracy to help save our republic. Rep. Stacey Plaskett cornered Mr. Jordan for hiding information from the Democrats on the committee. Journalist Matt Taibbi admitted to Rep. Gerry Connolly(D-VA) that former President Trump’s blatant attempt to censor Chrissy Teigen was conveniently omitted from his Twitter files exposé. In response to questioning, the authors of the Twitter Files acknowledged Ms. Teigen’s taunts of Mr. Trump were swiftly responded to with a call from the White House to Twitter. [The White House]after Teigen had her email [sic] about the President, which was pejorative that the White House called Twitter to try to take down the content. You were[aware] of that, Mr. Taibbi?”Connolly asked.“No, I have not seen an exchange from the Trump White House…,”answered Taibbi.
Feeling upstaged, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy(R-CA) joined in on the GOP legislative branch frivolity. In January, President Biden announced he would release his budget on March 9. The Biden administration released a proposed budget yesterday, true to his promise. In response, Mr. McCarthy said, ‘We’ll analyze this budget, and then we’ll get to work on our budget.’ Speaker McCarthy has been aware for two months that the President would present a budget and had no counter. The simplest of negotiating tactics dictates both parties enter the room with proposals.
We have lived through this before with Republicans. The American public has waited thirteen years for the GOP alternative to the Affordable Care Act. The GOP has long given up on legislating. Infrastructure became a weekly joke under the Trump administration. Paid Maternity Leave, Repeal and Replace, and a Mexican Border Wall were all failures under GOP leadership.
Where is the committee on crime and inflation?
Banning books, women’s rights to comprehensive healthcare, and denying history are at the top of the Republican wish list, most of which are nowhere near issues that would solve the angst of American finances, safety, or climate woes. So instead, they have cast their lot on culture wars, nationalism, and race because it distracts from the fact the GOP has few answers but lots of anger.
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