Down the Rabbit Hole

Republicans still are a few months away from officially taking control of Congress, but they just can’t help themselves.  And yesterday, they laid out the foundation of their agenda.  But no, it wasn’t policy issue that will deal with inflation or help the public in any way.  It was just – investigations.  And not just investigations of anything substantive or meaningful, but delusional.

In fact, in just three sentences, Rep. James Comer (R-KY), who will be chairman of the House Oversight Committee summed up what the country could expect from the GOP in a nutshell.  Comer had made a statement and began taking questions from reporters, but he wasn’t getting the questions he wanted, because reporters were trying to focus on…well, things that actually matter.  So, he said --

"If we could keep it about Hunter Biden, This is kind of a big deal we think. If we can keep it about Hunter Biden that would be great."

And there you have it.  Today’s Republican Party not yet in charge telling you what is most important to them.  “If we could keep it about Hunter Biden… If we can keep it about Hunter Biden that would be great.”

Republicans know how disastrous the Midterms were for them, where extremists got pummeled.  That’s not a guess, they’d said as much, publicly.  And knowing all that, here they are setting their agenda -- they want to impeach President Biden, Vice President Harris, Attorney General Merrick Garland, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.  And they want to investigate Nancy Pelosi, the Department of Justice, the FBI, Hunter Biden and Dr. Anthony Fauci.  And even more, they want to hold up the debt ceiling and shut down the government.

This is the GOP death spiral we are watching in real time and in full public view.

Man, they still won’t be in control for another two months, and their obsessive delusion is already taking them down a very dark, deep hole for the party that will cause many problems for the GOP, on so many levels. 

Putting aside the impeachments and investigations of government personnel and organizations -- which is a massive amount to put aside, you’d need several football fields full of warehouses to store it even just temporarily – if you just look at those 11 words, “If we can keep it about Hunter Biden that would be great,” you know this is a group of lemmings following the lemming in front of them and tumbling off the cliff.  Hunter Biden??  It’s not that Hunter Biden was, in fact, investigated by the FBI and all they found was that, at most, he may be at risk for a tax issue of not declaring all his income, and providing false information when purchasing a gun, period.  It’s not even that Hunter Biden is just a private citizen, and Republicans leading the U.S. Congress investigation him is going to be a Really Bad Look to the American public – at any time, but especially with inflation still here and still during a pandemic.  It’s that they don’t seem to grasp that holding hearings to investigate Hunter Biden will only serve to raise questions and shine a light on of payments made to Trump's own children and family who were actually high-ranking advisers of his administration with official White House responsibilities-- not private citizens.  Questions like about son-in-law Jared Kushner getting  $1 billion from Saudi Arabia while working in the White House…and an additional $2 billion investment just months after leaving the White House, and daughter Ivanka being granted 41 trademarks by China – while in office!

But don’t take my “guess” that the GOP obsession with investigating not just most leading Democrats, but the political non-entity Hunter Biden will shine a light on the TrumpKids – here is the headline of Newsweek article yesterday after the Republican press conference:  “Jared Kushner's $2B Saudi Deal Resurfaces as GOP Targets Hunter Biden”.

And the very first sentence is --

“A $2 billion Saudi deal involving Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law and former adviser, resurfaced on Thursday after the GOP announced a plan to investigate a possible connection between President Joe Biden and the alleged finances of his son, Hunter Biden.”

Gee, who couldn’t see that coming?!  Clearly, the House Republicans.   The same day!  They didn’t even get any breathing room to revel in their stupidity.

And that’s just Hunter Biden.

Now, go back to that warehouse and throw in everything else.  When Trump got impeached (twice) he fomented an Insurrection and tried to shakedown the president of Ukraine for personal political gain.  Joe Biden?  He – okay, that’s all I’ve got.  After Republicans impeached Bill Clinton, his approval skyrocketed to 73%, the highest in his presidency.  I know we live in a different political climate – but keep in mind that Bill Clinton didn’t do anything during his impeachment other than get impeached.  And his approval went up to 73%!  Because the public hated that Republicans impeached him for no impeachable reason.

So, yeah, let’s do that and then top it with additional, rumored impeachments of VP Harris, Garland and Blinken.  And investigate Nancy Pelosi, the DOJ, FBI and…Dr. Anthony Fauci.  Quite literally a laundry list of their political enemies.  Which is oh-so such a fascist thing to do.  I'm only shocked no Republican has yet brought up Hillary Clinton's emails.  Yet.  Who knows if they’ll do it all, but given that they’re even considering it is nuts.  And with today’s conspiracy-minded, obsessive, delusional, fascist Republicans, I don’t put a lot of this past them doing as much of it as they can.

And I certainly don’t put it past Republicans to refuse to raise the debt ceiling and shut down the government.  And if the American public hates it when you impeach a president for no reason, they tend to be furious when you shut down the government.

And by the way, let’s just include a reminder what raising the debt ceiling is.  It’s not spending more money to put the country in greater debt – it’s authorizing the money to pay for the debt of what you already owe!  It’s like getting your credit card bill, not having enough money in your checkbook and calling out, “Honey, I’m going to transfer money from our savings account to pay our credit card bill, okay?”

And after seeing the results of the Midterm elections where Republican extremists got run over, and knowing it for certain, and talking about it in public and calling for new leadership in the party, this is how Republicans want to squander their policy-making opportunity when they can show the country what they can do when in charge of the House???

I do not use “delusional” lightly.

But if that’s what Republicans want to do, if they want to head down into a deep, dark hole, it’s their decision.  Y'know, personal choice and all that.   Go for it!  It couldn’t happen to a more deserving group.