Here Lies Louie Gohmert

Though this news item is from a week ago or so, the underlying point behind it all holds -- because it speaks to much of what today's Republican Party has become.  Not that that lets the beloved Louie Gohmert off the hook as this month's poster child.  Indeed, in just a few short words, he came to symbolize the GOP as impressively as one can.  The problem with that, of course, is that when you have Louie Gohmert symbolizing  you, you're in trouble so deep that if you drop a coin in you won't hear it hit water.

Indeed, for all his many ludicrous flaws, most iconicly for complaining to then-Attorney General Eric Holder for "casting aspersions on my asparagus," I thought that Louie Gohmert (R-TX) had no further lows.  Whining only the day before that -- after four years of putting people’s lives at risk by enabling Trump caging children, demonizing Asians and Mexicans, calling the press the Enemy of the people, and much more -- he was upset that people didn’t think Republicans had a heart for not caring about endless gun massacres.

But even if he didn't realize he was staring into a camera with a microphone talking on TV, which is a pretty hard thing to miss, that he even thought these words, let alone said them using his outdoors voice is probably a Gohmert low – whining about a supposed two-tiered justice system where “If you're a Republican, you can't even lie to Congress or lie to an FBI agent or they're coming after you". 

Say what??  I mean, seriously, say what??!  I’m gobsmacked.  Yes, yes, I know that mantra “They all lie.”  But even if one accepts that as The Truth, even if one believes “They all lie,” there is one thing that pretty much everyone still grasps – you don’t lie to an FBI agent. 

But even putting that aside, though, lest anyone have even the slightest doubt, this is as good an example of today's anti-democratic Republican Party pushing for authoritarianism.  Louie Gohmert, Republican member of Congress, whining about not being able to lie to Congress and to the FBI!

I should add that Mr. Gohmert is retiring from Congress and announced his run to be Attorney General in Texas, the top law enforcement official in the state.  Saying “If you’re a Republican, you can’t even lie to Congress or lie to an FBI agent.”  Alas for Gohmert, even by Texas standards he wasn’t able to make the cut, and didn’t qualify for the primary’s run-off.

And of course, like all things Republican today, I haven’t heard any GOP official saying that “Louie Gohmert doesn’t speak for the party.  We believe everyone should tell the truth when speaking to Congress or to an FBI agent.”

But no, that’s not today’s Republican Party.  Whose leader had 30,000+ documented lies while in office.  A party whose foundation for the past year has been The Big Lie – that Trump supposedly won the election despite zero evidence to support that.  A party that lost 60 lawsuits trying to claim the lie.  A party that put together slates of false electors.  A party whose leader is under investigation for being caught on tape trying to get 11,870 non-existent votes made up for him. 

Indeed, later in the very same that Louie Gohmert whined about not being able to lie to the FBI, Peter Navarro aide Garrett Ziegler explained he was scared of being indicted like his boss had just been . "The Junta requires complete submission to the regime," he flailed. "They are coming after me.  They want to indict me next"

Meet today's fascist GOP -- where the judicial system of laws is "The Junta."  Where Louie Gohmert said the same day, "If you're a Republican, you can't even lie to Congress or lie to an FBI agent."

Yeah, life is tough.  You lie to an FBI agent or plan a coup to overthrow the government, and there's a good chance they'll want to indict you.

So, of course Louie Gohmert is whining that “If you're a Republican, you can't even lie to Congress or lie to an FBI agent or they're coming after you."  And of course no Republicans are disagreeing with him.  Because that’s today’s Republican Party.  Authoritarian and fascist to the rotten core.

Still, as much I believed Louie Gohmert could say such a thing out loud in public when I read it, I still had to see the video proof.  And, yes, of course, he said it.