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‘Fort Pelosi’ Hits Rock Bottom
As an 18-year-old high school graduate a couple of weeks from starting college, I remember holding the microphone from my cassette recorder to my parent’s stereo in our small Oklahoma town to record President Richard Nixon’s August 8 resignation address to the nation.
Afterward, I stepped outside our home’s front door, gazing upward towards the cloudless blue sky on a beautiful summer evening to let the history of that moment settle in. I still have that cassette tape. I can still quote key phrases from the speech from memory. I had just made my first trip to Washington a month earlier, on my way to Canada as part of an International Air Cadet Exchange Program. I’d seen how the final throes of Watergate had gripped the nation’s capital. Tumultuous times.
For two years, America would slowly become gripped in the drama that began with a “third-rate burglary” at Washington’s Watergate complex into gripping Senate hearings led by Democrat Sam Ervin (D-NC), along with ranking Republican Howard Baker (R-TN). Lead counsels Sam Dash (Democrat) and Fred Thompson (Republican) became household names. One later became a famous actor and US Senator. I recall watching the House Judiciary Committee’s dramatic roll call vote on three articles of impeachment. A future boss, then-freshman Rep. Trent Lott (R-MS), voted no on all three articles. Nixon, of course, chose to resign instead of facing certain votes for impeachment and conviction. He, again, spared the nation a prolonged crisis.
I also remember 1997, watching then-House Judiciary Chair Henry Hyde (R-IL) and colleagues present articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton to my immediate successor as Secretary of the Senate, Gary Sisco. I admit to being a little envious.
Whether you believe Nixon and Clinton were guilty of their transgressions, the congressional investigations and hearings were a modicum of gravity and due process.
Fast forward to January 6th. You know the story. Perhaps not the real one, however. For that, you should consult Julie Kelly at American Greatness. Instead of a serious, bipartisan, exhaustive investigation into all aspects of what happened on that horrific day, we are getting something different. It is best described by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
I served 20 years in the House — 16 in the minority and four as speaker of the House.
Before I was elected, I watched the Watergate hearings about former President Richard Nixon.
As speaker, I authorized the investigation and trial of former President Bill Clinton.
What I saw on Thursday night was a show trial worthy of Josef Stalin. As the leader of the Soviet Union, Stalin would try people in public (with the verdict predetermined). All testimony would be distorted to provide the conviction. As his secret police chief, Lavrentiy Beria, once said, “Show me the man and I will show you the crime.”
Thursday’s Stalinist show trial proved that the Nancy Pelosi Democrats and their Republican co-conspirators have completely lost touch with the American people.
There is a sense of fairness and due process that is central to American freedom and independence. The Jan. 6 committee has violated every aspect of due process, the presumption of innocence and the impartial search for truth.
And it’s not just the violation of due process that makes this a Stalinist show trial, but the manipulation of evidence and the refusal to investigate the Capitol Police’s planning and actions before and during January 6th.
Due process violations are highlighted by a House Speaker’s historic refusal to allow the minority to choose their members and staff of the Special “J6” Committee. That makes it a kangaroo court (with apologies to kangaroos) and, by definition, illegitimate. In January, we will determine how future Speaker Kevin McCarthy chooses whether and how to continue that horrific precedent. Revenge, indeed, is a dish best served cold. Several Democrats may find themselves deplatformed from certain committees. Russia collusion hoaxer, J6 Committee member, and US Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) comes to mind.
The J6 Committee has refused to interview the now-departed Sergeants at Arms for the House and Senate from January 6th. Both reportedly declined offers from the Trump Administration, which authorized up to 20,000 National Guard troops on January 4th. Reportedly, 1,000 guardsmen were ready for deployment at DC’s National Guard Armory, a little more than a mile from the Capitol, on January 6. Was Speaker Pelosi consulted about the offer for troops to help reinforce the Capitol? We don’t know because the J6 Committee has declared Pelosi’s office and records “off-limits.”
Instead, we were feted with some 25,000 mostly unarmed National Guard troops and three square miles of fencing and concertina wire for several months afterward. The Capitol is just now slowly reopening to visitors.
We also benefit from an internal Capitol Police “After-Action” report from Justthenews.com, which noted several sweeping security and intelligence failures by Capitol officials.
Remember the stories about pipe bombs being placed outside the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican National Committees on the night of January 5th? Julie Kelly:
The FBI also appears to have lost interest in the so-called “pipe bomber” who allegedly planted explosives outside the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee on the evening of January 5. News of the bombs prompted the first evacuation of adjacent House buildings and set off panic in the city and news media. The FBI claimed it would conduct an investigation and offered a reward for the bomber’s capture. Nearly 18 months later, not only has the suspect not been caught, the FBI refuses to release any information pertaining to an investigation. Further, the pipe bombs have not been mentioned by committee members or the focus of any public hearings.
FBI Director Christopher Wray has yet to testify before the J6 Committee and refused to respond to reports of FBI informants being among the protestors.
Meanwhile, we get propaganda and hypocrisy on steroids, from hiring a network news producer and continuing to claim falsely that the event was an “insurrection.” That is a legal term whose definition was not met that day when Trump spoke at his ill-advised “Stop the Steal” rally. No firearms were carried into the Capitol by protestors (who carries out an insurrection with no guns?).
Projection also seems to be high on the show trial’s agenda. While the Committee excoriates President Trump and a few around him for believing “debunked” conspiracy theories concerning the 2020 election, they are engaging in a few of their own. Even the Capitol Police Chief, J. Thomas Manger, slapped back at Chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and co-chair Liz Cheney (R?-WY) at accusing US Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) of conducting a “reconnaissance mission” at the Capitol on January 5th. He was giving a tour to constituents and never entered the Capitol building. Cheney also accused colleagues, specifically US Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), of seeking a pardon from Trump after the events of J6. Perry strongly denied and denounced the accusation. Cheney has yet to provide evidence.
Most of my professional career evolved within and around the US Capitol. It holds special meaning to my family, me, and many friends and former colleagues. My entire family has served there in some capacity, from House staff to Senate pages. January 6th was a horrific event, more than just a “dust-up.” It should not be minimized. A thorough bicameral and bipartisan investigation into events before and after that day was called for. There was bipartisan support for one. Instead, we continue to be fed a politically-motivated charade for purely partisan purposes—what a travesty.
As bad as the January 6th riot was for Congress and America, the Pelosi Democratic show trial is morally equivalent and possibly worse. Gingrich: “They have debased the House, undermined the Constitutional protections that guard Americans against their government’s power, and further increased public contempt for Washington politicians.” The worst members of the special committee are likely to call for an end to the Electoral College, which would require a Constitutional amendment—not happening and unserious.
We know what’s going on here. Pelosi and her caucus are working overtime to smear and castigate all Republicans as QAnon-linked insurrectionists and election deniers while distracting us from $5 gas, double-digit inflation, and a myriad of policy failures. And they’ve used everything from National Guard troops to millions in taxpayer money in their cause. But their shiny J6 object is fooling no one. Meanwhile, we yearn for the days of serious legislators who understand their job isn’t just to get reelected and perpetuate political power for its own sake or grift off their narcissism. Or both.
Maybe Tuesday’s historic special congressional election in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, where Mayra Flores handily became the first Republican to flip an 85 percent Hispanic district, shows how even Democrats aren’t buying what Biden, Pelosi, Thompson, Cheney, and crew are peddling. And her opponent, Dan Sanchez, was a pro-life Democrat. He may qualify as an endangered species. Flores will be our first Mexican-born Member of Congress. My money is on her to survive a tough reelection campaign against an incumbent Democratic congressman now running in this new district for the general election, US Rep. Vicente Gonzalez.
Flores’ 34th District runs along Texas’ Gulf coast from Corpus Christi to the Rio Grande with a Partisan Vote Index (PVI) of D+10. Every Democratic incumbent running for reelection in a D+10 or narrower district looks increasingly vulnerable to the Big Red Wave in November. Since redistricting hasn’t finished, there’s not a hard number of those districts yet. But there are a bunch.
The J6 show trial demonstrates nothing more than the House has finally hit rock bottom. It’s time for Americans to rescue The People’s House in November.
It’s important.
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I sure hope it happens, either without cheating or with a margin wide enough to overcome expected cheating.
Please correct your designation of Rep. Schiff as a Republican (shudder).
Excellent synopsis. Not only should Schiff be stripped of his committee assignments, so should Swalwell and the entire Squad.
As to the red wave, I will take special joy if the current Rep for my old district in WA state, Kim Schrier, is defeated. She is a useless Pelosi acolyte. That now-purple district is on the target list for both parties.
Anyone with half a brain should have a lot of questions about these:
And, as I have said before, the same people who have tracked down anyone who so much as farted on Capitol grounds on 1/6 cannot seem to hunt down this guy who made sure to get captured by as many cameras in the area as possible and talked on his cell phone while doing it:
A whole lot of dishonesty going on here and they don’t even care to hide it anymore.
OMG that is a horrific error. Fixed.
What the heck, I’ll toss this in again:
The most discouraging words in your post are “Speaker Kevin McCarthy.”
@Barfly, any idea who should take on the job? Really needs to be someone more aggressive and much better at handling the media (a la DeSantis).
T R U M . . .
Well, SotH DJT would certainly be more aggressive and better at media relations. He’s not a good judge of people, and probably not good at herding Congressmen. What about Jim Jordan?
Kinda neat that we take the idea seriously. So many impossible things have happened in the last two years, that maybe one more …
The GOP should hang the whole J6 mess on Pelosi.
If she makes it to Congress, how about Sarah Palin for Speaker? As payback for the disgusting treatment she got while running with McCain for VP.
And the real “purpose” of the J6 Star Chamber was, and is, to get Donald Trump, and put him and anyone close to him out of action for good.
And the best part would be, after impeaching Biden and Harris, wouldn’t Trump become POTUS?
She has the brass.
It would be nice if Palin got to VP or even POTUS but a shame that McCain isn’t still around to be humiliated by it.
Well first, it’s not a trial.
Andy McCarthy of National Review did point out that what the committee is missing is cross examination, and the result is that the equivalent of defense lawyers in these type proceedings is missing. In other words is not our traditional adversarial system that most congressional commitee investigations do observe.
A Stalinist show trial generally ends with the defendent (and there is no defendent attending this select committee) confessing — perhaps after being tortured, his family being threatened, or both — at which point he’s taken to a jail cell where an execution takes place with a bullet to the head.
This isn’t a Stalinist show trial.
It’s not even a show trial.
It’s just a show.
And it’s a waste of time for the people on it, because it won’t have its intended affect in the end. There won’t even be a trial, at least not with Donald Trump as the defendent.
“a modicum of gravity and due process” – surely you mean “model”, here.
I don’t think there is any moral equivalence between the actions of protestors on Jan 6th and the actions of the committee members and staff: the latter are clearly worse. While the people involved in the former are accountable to the most powerful (and, it would seem, uncontrollable) force the world has ever known – the US executive branch (and a complicit DC judiciary) – the latter have legal and, in this world of gerrymandered districts, electoral, impunity. The most violent protestors availed themselves of zip ties and pepper spray. The committee has the limitless resources of the state at its unaccountable beck and call and does not hesitate to wield them against its political enemies. The protestors were open, if possibly confused, about their motives – to right a perceived wrong. The committee lies and lies and lies. And through their lies they corrupt. The protestors inflicted, at most, a scratch on the body politic. The committee is a cancer.
Eww, “the committee.”
Ever seen “A Boy And His Dog?”
“A young man and his telepathic dog wander a post-apocalyptic wasteland.” “[A]n R-Rated rather kinky story of survival.” No. But I’m keen to learn what “the committee” is.
The committee was like McGoohan’s “The Village” but they wanted something other than information to be extracted from captive young men.
A few places on youtube appear to offer it for free.
The only Democrats I know are going to vote against any Republican. The folks in charge will arrange massive cheating. They got away with it and were exonerated without serious investigation. I think we have to be prepared for a stolen election and deal with it. Trump has to be free to run then toss his support to one or more of the excellent candidates so his strong supporters vote. Not because he couldn’t win, but because it makes cheating easier to accept from Democrats and some pretend Republicans. It will not be an easy win. The Texas win was for a few months and they’ll have learned form it. These people are totalitarian and nothing embarrasses them. By Presidential election time the military will be prepared to deal with the military split necessary to pull states and pieces of states to form a new Republic. Failing that it’s over. The Chinese will guarantee it even if some begin to drift. We’ll know in November.
“Due process violations are highlighted by a House Speaker’s historic refusal to allow the minority to choose their members and staff of the Special “J6” Committee”
I believe that Kevin McCarthy was offered 5 seats on the Committee but three of them were rejected as people that voted to deny the election results so he took his ball and went home refusing to name any replacements. So the lack of meaningful opposition is entirely his fault.
Here in South Carolina, I saw a lot of McCain/Palin bumper stickers with the McCain portion ripped off . . .
I agree with this. Newt Gingerich is too smart to actually believe the bit of hyperbole about a “Stalinist show trial”.
I read the Harlan Ellison story and watched the Don Johnson movie. Johnson was very young at the time. It was playing as a midnight movie in Orlando while I was in Nuke school
Wrong!
Goose, gander. I recall Sen Boxer and Rep Tubbs Jones becoming pariahs after this. Not.
Speaking to the serious of this, I remember an interview with a freshman member of that Judiciary Committee after Trump’s first impeachment. He said that within three hours of the articles being passed they walked them over to the Senate. Pelosi sat on hers for how long? There was no serious attempt to remove Trump. Like these hearings, it’s all for show.
I agree completely. Pelosi thought (I believe incorrectly) the Democrats’ self-interest was best served by keeping DJT front and center for as long as possible. She had no incentive to send over articles that would ultimately lead to an acquittal ending the matter.