Joe Conason: Now House Republicans Hate The Rules They Made

[babylonsister]

https://www.nationalmemo.com/now-house-republicans-hate-the-rules-they-made/?fbclid=IwAR1U9kr25JMo_ZS5NY5HdELRLIaSXrZLZQG42wHeHuu_vcieMTW9JFn7Xi8&cn-reloaded=1


Congress Editor's Blog Featured Post Impeachment
Now House Republicans Hate The Rules They Made
Joe Conason October 24, 2019

snip//

According to the Democratic members present in those closed hearings, the Republicans on the relevant committees hardly ever show up. Whenever they do drop in, most of them waste time on conspiracy theories and other nonsense — which isn’t doing the president any favors, but fully displays their intellectual laziness.

What the Republicans also know — but aren’t telling their bamboozled voters — is that the Democrats are conducting the impeachment inquiry under rules that the Republican majority approved in January 2015.

For instance, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), today insists the impeachment inquiry shouldn’t proceed unless the Republicans are permitted to issue subpoenas — but the rule that awards subpoena power exclusively to the majority is precisely what he and his cronies approved four years ago. Minority Whip Steve Scalise compares the inquiry’s closed hearings to “the Soviet Union,” a bit of demagoguery in which he conveniently forgets his own role in approving that rule.

No doubt McCarthy and Scalise can recall, but hope everyone else will forget, how they used those rules in 2016 to engineer an inquisition into Benghazi that was — as the dim McCarthy admitted on television — designed to drive down Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers. As the last in a dozen inquiries into that Libyan tragedy, it could have had no other purpose.

They may also recall how Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), chairing the committee that handled the Benghazi inquiry, abused those secrecy and subpoena provisions in an ugly attempt to bully one of Clinton’s advisers, the journalist and historian Sidney Blumenthal. Although Blumenthal volunteered to testify, Gowdy sent armed federal marshals to his home with a subpoena. When Blumenthal did testify, Gowdy held the deposition behind closed doors — and then selectively leaked and distorted portions of the transcript in an attempt to smear the witness and Clinton.

Gowdy’s behavior was so prejudicial that the late Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), then the committee’s ranking member, apologized personally to Blumenthal. The Republicans never agreed to release the complete transcript of his testimony, despite repeated requests from Blumenthal and his attorney. They seemed to fear Gowdy, Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., and other Republicans on the committee would look very stupid when their interrogation techniques were revealed.

And now they whine about a process they created while the president and his aides urinate on the Constitution. How do these fakers rise up every day and act out their hypocrisy?

[flibbitygiblets]

1. Minority Whip Steve Scalise compares the inquiry's closed hearings to "the Soviet Union"

So, now Russia is bad? Or only when it's convenient?

[maxsolomon]

5. No, the SOVIET UNION is bad.

A kakistocracy composed of mobbed-up oligarchs who launder money through Republican businesses is A-OK.

[flibbitygiblets]

6. Thanks for clearing that up!

[maxsolomon]

8. I like your DU name, flibbitygiblets.

Flibberdigibbets is one of my favorite terms for the low-information American Voter.

[mopinko]

2. and have any of them actually asked their chairs to subpoena someone?

i'm sure if there were a legit witness they wished to speak to, it could be worked out.
of course, there isnt.

[tblue37]

3. K&R for visibility. nt

[Andy823]

4. Every democrat that goes in front of a camera

Should be pointing this out. It should be a major talking point. The hypocrisy of the republicans should be a major issue, and the media should be asking every republican politician why are they now upset with the rules "THEY" made?

[flibbitygiblets]

7. Message unity is something Dems really need to get better at

I know, we like to think we're better off focusing our efforts on, you know, legislating and oversight and all that. But those things are of little avail if the other side is better at messaging.

[crickets]

9. Could not agree more.

Every Dem, every time, should be pointing this out and driving the point home, over and over again.

[2naSalit]

10. So far...

since the SCIF shitshow, every Democrat that I have seen has said exactly that.

[warmfeet]

11. They don't care.

This is their endgame. They have nothing else. I have no problem obliging them in service to their ultimate demise. Fuck every last repiglican. Fuck them all!

[Martin Eden]

12. Beyond Shameful

They are toadies for a fascist criminal.