First, if you missed Sen. John Fetterman’s reaction to the news of the House impeachment inquiry, here it is.
Yesterday, Bess Levin wrote at Vanity Fair:
Earlier today, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced that Republicans will move forward with an official impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, despite the embarrassing fact that, as House Freedom Caucus member Ken Buck told MSNBC on Sunday, they haven’t uncovered a single piece of evidence “linking President Biden to a high crime or misdemeanor.” Also deeply embarrassing? The tantrum Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene is now having over not getting the credit she thinks she deserves for calling to impeach Biden first.
Greene—who commemorated 9/11 one day earlier by calling the president’s policies “traitorous” and suggesting states should secede—was apparently triggered by a post from Congressman Matt Gaetz, who wrote, “When @SpeakerMcCarthy makes his announcement in moments, remember that as I pushed him for weeks, [Fox News host Brian Kilmeade] said I was: ‘Speaking into the wind’ on impeachment. Turns out, the wind may be listening!”
That didn’t sit right with Greene, who has been absurdly calling for Biden’s impeachment since he took office in 2021—and she needed to make sure everyone knew that. Taking to the platform formerly known as Twitter, she responded: “Correction my friend. I introduced articles of impeachment against Joe Biden for his corrupt business dealings in Ukraine & China while he was Vice President on his very first day in office. You wouldn’t cosponsor those and I had to drag you kicking and screaming to get you to cosponsor my articles on the border. Who’s really been making the push?”
Yes, it’s always fun when our elected representatives act like preschoolers. Last night Chris Hayes commented on Matt Gaetz, “That guy’s bark to bite ratio is like ten thousand to one.” Greene, too. But how’s it going to work when these people are banging all their pots and pans about their impeachment inquiry while failing to meet the end-of-September appropriations deadline? At some point one would think that even their own voters might notice what wastes of space they are. But I guess there are people who cannot be underestimated, or there would be no Trump supporters.
I understand it’s significant that McCarthy announced the inquiry without taking a vote. It’s likely he wouldn’t have gotten the votes. The entire point of the exercise is to take up space in the news cycles and allow House Freedom Caucus members to publicize insinuations and suspicious about President Biden to hurt his re-election chances. It’s also to please Supreme Leader Trump, who has been pushing the impeachment with House members.
Televised impeachment hearings could also act as counterprogramming to the initial Fulton County, Georgia, RICO trial expected to begin on October 23. However, given the embarrassing mess the Hunter Biden House investigations have been so far, televised House hearings may not have the effect the Freedom Caucus intends.
Most Senate Republicans admit there is no evidence linking President Biden to corruption, and they’d rather the House got serious and passed appropriations bills. Because most Senate Republicans, with a few exceptions, understand that what the House Freedom Caucus is doing is political poison .
But the FCs have already let it be known that getting an impeachment inquiry does not change their nutjob demands for the appropriations bills. Maybe Kevin McCarthy will keep his job — why he wants it is beyond me — but he’s gotten nowhere with trying to keep the problem children from playing with matches.
In other news: Mitt Romney won’t seek another term as senator. Do the Dems have a plausible candidate to run for his seat?
In more other news: Lauren Boebert and date were booted from a theater during a performance of the musical Beetlejuice.
Brian Kitts, director of marketing and communications for Denver Arts and Venues, said the patrons were talking loudly, vaping and using cameras during the performance. They were warned during an intermission, but the behavior continued into the second act, at which point the two were asked to leave.
As they were being escorted from the property, the two people said “stuff like ‘do you know who I am,’ ‘I am on the board,’ (and) ‘I will be contacting the mayor,’” according to a security incident report obtained by The Sun from the city through an open records request.
The incident report said there were “multiple complaints” about the two people during the performance.
No class.
Update: At Pollitico, A House GOP attempt to advance abortion measure backfires in funding fight. The House is a bleeping mess.
But how’s it going to work when these people are banging all their pots and pans about their impeachment inquiry while failing to meet the end-of-September appropriations deadline? At some point one would think that even their own voters might notice what wastes of space they are.
They think the gummit is evil, the fewer things it does the better, and so they’re all behind the antics. That is, until their government checks stop arriving or government services they depend on are halted. Or interest rates shoot up (because the US can’t be counted on to pay its debts) and everyday items become more expensive.
And this is the end-game for the oligarchs – when the country’s debts are skyrocketing because of interest rates, the government is forced to cut back – drown it in a bathtub, to quote Grover Norquist. It’s been their plan since at least the 2017 tax cuts.
But it’s losing those government services and checks is what it will take for their dimwit constituents to begin to wake up. And even then, many of them won’t connect the dots. Biden will be to blame, somehow.
These are the same idiots who gasped their last breath in a hospital, there because of the coronavirus, all the while denying they have COVID.
They’re like stupid teenagers playing chicken in a car, that someday will get them killed, and we’re all stuck in the back seat.
The Boebert surveillance video is worth watching. She’s obviously high, doing pinwheels as she leaves the venue. Total Karen act: “Do You Know Who I am?!!” or at least that’s what the article reported.
Romney is running for President. He may not depending on things, but I think he's going to skip the primaries and go into the convention the senior seasoned candidate not unlike President Joe did in '20. He's a copy-cat: copied Reagan with Benghazi, copied Hillary's National Health Plan, it's within his pattern to copy President Joe. And I think Haley his likely VP choice: a woman of self-proclaimed color from the Confederate states with some actual experience
Could work, if No Labels stays out of it. Though my bet would be if he got the nod Trump would run third-party …
Joe Biden didn't skip the primaries in 2020. It was the South Carolina primary that made him the front runner, as I recall. These days I don't believe a candidate with no primary votes at all can go into the national convention and get the nomination. The rules have changed from the old days, when the nominee was decided in backroom deals.
OT: Out of jail in DC following protest at WH today re Climate Emergency!
You were in jail?
Yeah, cuffs and holding cell for a few hours. Released without bail. Was intended or at least considered that we'd provoke arrests. Not as big or as organized as I'd like but they're adapting to the needs of a larger movement trying to get global warming moved up on the list of priorities.
And so the Republican Party begins its perhaps final death spiral. When you elect a menagerie of grade schoolers who think recess is the only class there is, and that there are no consequences to behaving like snarling infants, this is what you get. If you added all the IQs of Republican "congressmen", you would struggle to reach even two figures.
This is of course the result of Trumpism, which is not an -ism but the profane howl of spoiled brats. When their constituents call by the hundreds demanding performance, they will be silent. They know only how to deliver what no one wants, including abortion bans and free ammo.
Save the babies. They'll be needed for target practice.
On topic: McCarthy did not put it up for a vote because it would have failed. Maha pointed that out. I don't think McCarthy was guessing. He counted. A bunch of House Republicans are not on board if they got nothing.
So after the inquiry, they still got nothing. Trump will demand impeachment anyway and McCarthy can't deliver. So the vote will fail and the GOP members have one defense. That there was and is no evidence of an impeachable offense.
From a Commenter at the NYT:
That sounds rational, but could McCarthy have gotten elected speaker without the nutjob vote?
Probably not, but once in, he could've reached across the aisle (or wherever) to marginalize the nutters. I don't know if what I just said is realistic, but it's pretty obvious that McCarthy just isn't that bright, and didn't do what is needed to secure his position.
What is a mystery is why he'd want the Speaker role – at any cost – in the first place. Did he ever game out what would happen if he were kicked out?
I don't believe Gaetz's outrage is real. It's all theater, scripted nonsense. They want McCarthy to seem sort of in the middle, for cnn, it's all PR. They are creating a show to distract from the complicated narrative of 91 felony charges. This will be much easier for our corporate media to cover without losing viewers.
I think you're right about Gaetz's faux outrage. Althought I do think Gaetz has a fratboy mentality that gets off on humiliating people in vulneable positions. It seems to be his nature. It's kind of funny how McCarthy fired back by alluding to Gaetz's unresolved romp with minor and the accusations of his drug use. If it is all scripted whoever wrote the plot has done a fine job of it.
The MAGA base is loving it. Not so much that Kevin is getting personally battered, but more to the idea that the power that the Speaker normally holds is being castrated by the crazies. That's their overall objective..tear down the government.
I hadn't heard about McCarthy's retort, I'll have to look that up. Maybe your right that would be one hell of a script? I just don't believe anything that comes from the GQP these days, it's all nonsense?
“That guy’s bark to bite ratio is like ten thousand to one.”
Yet Hayes feels he needs to amplify Gatez's nonsense. They don't act like assholes because they don't want Air Time. Tucker is only interested in eyeballs, who cares. I'm not impressed with Fetterman though at least he is saying something? Where is Chuck Schumer, Amy Klobuchar, Tim Kaine, moderates in the senate, house? The radical magats have been signaling impeachment for months, has anyone seen or heard from Chuck? The narrative that Joe is too old has been allowed to take root by his own party, impeachment will allow the media will air all the salacious bullshit about Hunter that we already know about. It’s all bullshit. But they only want to sway a few thousand votes in Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, Nevada, this is how it is done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSwqjoVBfc4
Just because you haven't personally seen reactions from Schumer et al. doesn't mean they didn't react. https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5083800/senator-schumer-calls-house-gop-impeachment-inquiry-president-biden-absurd
Your right I hadn't seen that clip. I just think the democrats have been sitting on their hands while the GQP and our corporate media build a narrative against Biden to get the horse race they want next year. IMO they (the democrats) need to put the moderates in the party out more to counter the lunacy on the right? Though given the MSM's penchant for tabloid scandal maybe they would just get ignored anyway?
Democrats do have a long standing habit of not being nearly assertive enough in calling out the Republicans, and it's also the case that media have a long standing habit of covering the squeakiest wheels and freakiest personalities, which tend to be Republicans. Chuck Schumer just doesn't go viral no matter what he does. Well, if he showed up in the Senate naked, maybe.
Very OT. Got an email for an event at the Pasadena Civic Theater – Jon Stewart & John Mulaney (Stewart formerly of Comedy Central, I've never heard of John Mulaney). (I'm now several hundred miles east of Pasadena, so I won't be going).
But this is what caught my eye:
Thank God somebody gets it. From the Guardian:
Would I be wrong to assume that you have Lauren Boepert in mind while making this comment?
I wanted to comment on your comment about Boepert's disruptive behaviour in Denver the other day. I noticed that she seems to be quite proud of her globes. She appears to take good care of them and makes sure that she gives them get plenty of fresh air.
Your comment caused me to do some "research". Seems Bobo not only proud of her "globes" but her date that night also got a handful in the theater, and she appears to be getting a hand on something? It's really something that a sitting member of the US congress gets kicked out of a theater for acting like a sex crazed teenager and it barely makes a blip on the media screen! The age of Stump!
If they would just settle for their fifteen minutes of "fame" and retire we might have a government that actually governs. It is truly amazing that the guys who hate drag most are the biggest drama queens.