This morning we took a brief look at the RNC meeting in Salt Lake City... but, I admit, it was a kind of opening act for the hilarious Jonathan Pie video for the NY Times. So there were some serious issues inherent in the RNC story that went unexplored. Such as, who does Señor Trumpanzee hate more, Ron DeSantis or Mike Pence? (Wait a few moments for that.) And, how much of a jump has it been for the RNC to basically declare the 1/6 insurrection an act of patriotism? For that second question, let's turn to Wisconsin conservative firebrand Charlie Sykes' The RNC Joins the Insurrection.
He wrote this morning that the timing of the resolution to censure Kinzinger and Cheney is notable, "coming just days after Donald Trump dangled pardons for the insurrectionists who tried to help him overturn the election, and just days after he threatened mass unrest if prosecutors try to hold him accountable. It comes the week we learned of Trump’s push to have the government seize voting machines, and got more details about his plan to use faked and forged electoral vote certificates to force Mike Pence to overturn the election. And it comes as Trump continues to ratchet up his lies about his electoral defeat. But at the RNC meeting there was, of course, no discussion of censuring the former president for any of this. That never came up. Nobody even thought of it."
Nor was there even the slightest suggestion that perhaps the party should distance itself from the bizarre bigoted rantings of MTG, or Paul Gosar, or Lauren Boebert, or Madison Cawthorn.
The purge came only for Cheney and Kinzinger. Because, of course, this Republican party now has one standard, and one standard only: loyalty to the exiled Orange God King and his ongoing obstruction of justice.
Originally, there had been some thought that the RNC would call on the House Republican Conference to expel the the two dissenters, but that move was watered down to a censure resolution that manages to be both meaningless and revealing.
Today’s resolution is strictly symbolic-- a performative act of groveling to the defeated, disgraced, twice-impeached former president.
Given the party’s reflexive obeisance to the former president it feels like an homage to Groundhog Day. How many times will they censure the dissenters; how many excommunications will be issued, anathemata hurled, or wrists limply slapped?
So nothing was accomplished and nothing changed. Except . . . it all turns out to be worse than you thought.
This is how the Republican National Committee will describe the investigation into the violent attack on the Capitol that left at least five dead and hundreds-- many of them police officers-- wounded: “Representatives Cheney and Kinzinger are participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse….”
Nota bene: “persecution.”
“Ordinary citizens.”
“Legitimate political discourse.”
That’s bad enough. But they go on to broaden the condemnation by declaring that they are also helping “to mask Democrat abuse of prosecutorial power for partisan purposes.”
So let’s not put too fine a point on this: The Republican National Committee is fully embracing the Trumpian retconning of Jan. 6th as a peaceful protest and, in the process, has gone all-in on the insurrection itself.
It is decisively not “moving on,” from 2020, or Trump’s obsession relitigation of his defeat.
Here’s the actual draft resolution, which passed unanimously in the RNC’s resolutions committee yesterday:
Unanimously; that's pretty impressive. Think about what that says about the Republican Party-- and anyone who still identifies with it. Anyone and everyone. Anyway... DeSantis vs Pence-- who will Trump destroy more brutally... and in which order? Nancy Ohanian certainly got the DeSantis piece of this right when she did this sweet little drawing a couple of weeks ago:
Trump has been using Pence as a punching bag for some time now and there was talk today that Pence might have the temerity to defend himself-- at least subtly-- when he addresses the RNC today. If he wants to be taken seriously as a presidential contender-- when Trump announces he's not running-- he had better figure out how to do this. I mean, can this, from the mouth of the orange orangutan, be left unanswered?
So pathetic to watch the Unselect Committee of political hacks, liars, and traitors work so feverishly to alter the Electoral College Act so that a Vice President cannot ensure the honest results of the election, when just one year ago they said that “the Vice President has absolutely no right to ensure the true outcome or results of an election.” In other words, they lied, and the Vice President did have this right or, more pointedly, could have sent the votes back to various legislators for reassessment after so much fraud and irregularities were found. If it were sent back to the legislators, or if Nancy Pelosi, who is in charge of Capitol security, had taken my recommendation and substantially increased security, there would have been no “January 6” as we know it! Therefore, the Unselect Committee should be investigating why Nancy Pelosi did such a poor job of overseeing security and why Mike Pence did not send back the votes for recertification or approval, in that it has now been shown that he clearly had the right to do so!
