The Party's Over

I think I'll be able to keep this reasonably short, because the point of it all is pretty blunt and clear.

I was going to watch the Senate hearings yesterday morning about the Inspector General report, and Senate Judiciary chairman Lindsey Graham’s opening statement sickened me so much that I walked away from the TV after three minutes.  I walked back a half-hour later...and he was still going on – but to MSNBCs credit they had actually cut away from him and only had him on silent in split-screen.  That’s how repugnant he was.  In fact, watching him in silence, all I could tell was that he was waving his arms and looking around so much that I wasn't sure it was even his opening statement, but I thought maybe it was a break in the proceedings, and he was just putting on some sort of gesticulation circus.  So, I scrolled back thanks to the magic of DVRs, and yes, that was in fact still part of his opening statement.

I didn't hear much from him -- as I said, I walked away after three minutes -- but one statement of his stood out just fine for what was so reprehensible about his words.  And that's because he began with a faulty premise, which means everything that followed was baseless.  He had contended that if a Democratic president had done the exact same things as Trump, news headlines about the IG report would have addressed how all the issues with the FBI, not that there was no political bias.  The huge flaw in his argument is that if this had been a Democratic president doing the exact same things as Trump...he would have been impeached and convicted two years ago.

With that as the opening statement starting point, it made most of the day's Senate hearings close to unwatchable for me.  I did watch some of it later on and thought Amy Klobuchar was wonderful.

The other reaction I had for the day concerned another Republican Judiciary committee chairman, this House Judiciary chairman Doug Collins.  I thought his head was going to explode, in full frantic dervish acolyte mode.  And among his rants was his wild charge that Adam Schiff should be tried for obstruction of Congress.  I wrote a note to him:  "I hope you're well. When I saw you wanted to charge Adam Schiff with 'obstruction,' though, I got a little concerned, so if you need someone to talk to, here's the link to the National Institute of Mental Health. You're welcome.  Best wishes.  nimh.nih.gov/index.shtml."

Which brings us to our final summary.  If these are the two GOP committee chairmen who set the agenda and tone for their party members, then reality, duty and decency has taken a Republican holiday.

As I have long-written, this is not about Trump, we know who he is.  This is about the elected members of the Republican Party, who enable him and are complicit.  It has long-since stopped being the Republican Party.  It is now full-blown fascism.