Throwing Garlands

Yesterday, the House actually did something!  On the other hand, what they did was pass a resolution of contempt of Congress against Attorney General Merrick Garland and recommend him for prosecution by the Department of Justice which he runs.

The vote was 216-207.  Every Republican present voted for the measure except for David Joyce of Ohio.  "As a former prosecutor,” he said, “I cannot in good conscience support a resolution that would further politicize our judicial system to score political points."  One other Republican and seven Democrats did not vote.

So much for the whole MAGOP “outrage” about the weaponization of government…yet again.  Not only do Republicans love to use the government as a weapon – for goodness sake, just listen to their party leader rant about how he’ll rain revenge on his opponents if he wins – but we’ve gotten to the point where without weaponizing government, the MAGOP party might not have any weapons at all to convince the public to vote for them.  It’s a big hurdle to start, after all, when you like to paint yourself as the “party of law and order” (sic) when your party leader is a convicted felon, has been found liable by two juries for the equivalence of rape, and found guilty of business fraud.

So, you vote to pass contempt of Congress against the U.S. Attorney General and recommend his own Justice Department prosecute him – because he refused a subpoena to release audio recordings of an interview with President Biden and instead followed department guidelines not to do so.  Guidelines that exist to protect subjects, witnesses, and what might be needed in future investigations.  That said, Garland did release a full transcript of the interview. 

And more to the point, make this vote all the more ludicrous (which given how ludicrous it is at its foundation is saying a lot) is that President Biden asserted Executive Privilege over the audio recordings, which not only means Attorney General Garland couldn’t release it – but is added reason by the DOJ wouldn’t ever prosecute him.

Adding whimsy to it all is that the Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan refused a House subpoena to appear before the January 6 Select Committee.  Along with Republican House members Scott Perry, Andy Biggs, Mo Brooks and then-House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy.  All, just because they didn't want to.

(Current House Majority Leader Mike Johnson said the two situations were "apples and oranges."  This is true, though only if your standard is citrus fruits.)

And just to add even more whimsy to this all – the very same day that House Republicans voted a contempt situation against the Attorney General, “outraged” by what they see is his disregard for the law, Senate Republicans blocked a bill for creating ethics standards for the Supreme Court.

It should be added that at the foundation of all this is that the interview was conducted by conservative Special Counsel Robert Hur, who at the end of his investigation recommended that President Biden should not be prosecuted for mishandling classified documents.  Unlike former Republican President Trump who has been indicted for mishandling classified documents.

I completely understand why the MAGOPs in Congress want to create as much smokescreen and mirrors to obfuscate attention on their party leader being a convicted felon, also adjudicated for rape and fraud.  What I also understand is that they all swore and oath to protect the Constitution, not undermine democracy and the rule of law.

The shame is that they don’t understand it.  Or care to adhere to it.