Since the season ending episode of the J6 hearings last Thursday night, I’ve heard more and more network news hosts and talking heads keep drawing comparisons between the J6 Committee and the Mueller investigation into Trump/Russia.
This is ridiculous, like comparing peaches to kumquats. The Mueller investigation, with Mueller as Special Counsel was designed to operate in secrecy, like a grand jury. From its inception, the J6 committee was set up as a kind of public/private partnership, it was known from day one that at least some of the hearings would be televised.
But the biggest difference is that Mueller lost control of the narrative by Trump’s design. Mueller was required to submit his final report to the Attorney General, Tubby the Ewok, who violated his oath of office by spinning the report for Trump like Belgian lace. Mueller and the Democrats could never get the narrative back.
That is anything but true for the J6 committee, and for a very simple reason. Because Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell are brain dead morons. McConnell because he burned his last bridge with his caucus by nixing an independent commission with equal GOP representation. And Kreepy Kevin because he took his ball and went home when he couldn’t get flamethrowers on the panel, and pulls everybody.
Follow the logic here, because it’s critical when you think about it. Thanks to his Trumpian stupidity, McCarthy has no eyes and ears on the committee, the way he would have if he had been an honest broker. He, McConnell, and Trump have no idea of who the panel is talking to, what they’re saying, or what’s being asked. News Flash! It’s kind of hard to shape the narrative when you have no fucking idea of that the narrative is!
Which is killing the GOP. The J6 committee started out with a splash, with a public hearing featuring 4 DC and Capitol Hills cops that got the shit kicked out of them on January 6th, along with never-before-seen footage of the carnage on the ground. The hearing was a well watched, cold slap in the face that shocked the country back into focus as to exactly what had happened, and what was at stake.
And then the J6 committee public hearing theater went dark. All future hearings and depositions were conducted in closed session hearings. But, wait for it, Here’s the McGuffin. While the J6 committee may have gone dark on public hearings, they by no means went radio silent.
From day one of the start of the closed session hearings, the J6 committee was not in the slightest bit interested in shutting up completely and operating in the dark. Think back. From day one, there was a steady trickle of leaked, or publicly released information as to what was going on behind the scenes. Names of witnesses who had come forward were released, along with names of witnesses who were being subpoenaed. Hell, they even released full or partial transcripts of depositions to show incriminating information, or resistance from some witnesses.
The J6 committee has never lost control of the messaging. And Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney have played the tune brilliantly. As Keith Olbermann used to say, Iz genius I tells ya! Genius. Now you know why the GOP has chosen to try to ignore the revelations from this committee. Because they can’t counter-message it! They have no idea what’s coming, until it breaks, with damning corroborating evidence. And what coherent counter argument can the GOP make? None, because they don’t know what else the committee knows.
The GOP Axis of Evil, Trump, McConnell and McCarthy must have breathed a sigh of relief that changed upper air currents in the atmosphere when they learned that Thursday’s hearing would be the last one until sometime in September. Finally! A 6-7 week respite from the constant bombardment of J6 committee shit being dumped down on their heads. Only it isn’t going to work out that way. Because Thompson and Cheney learned the old adage Nothing breeds success like success.
The last J6 committee hearing was on Thursday, right? And today, on Monday, J6 committee member Elaine Lauria from VA tweeted out a link to never-before-seen deposition footage of people trashing Trump. Jared Kushner saying he didn’t know why his father-in-law had stricken various lines that condemned the rioters from his January 7th speech. And more testimony from Ivanka, saying that the Sharpie written changes to the speech appeared to be in her father’s handwriting.
Guys, forget about it, okay? As legendary boxer Joe Louis once said, Once you step into the ring, there’s nowhere to run, and nowhere to hide. The J6 committee is gleefully bragging that every day brings new information, new documents, and new witnesses, and that new subpoenas may be on the way.
And I’d bet my left arm that Thompson and Cheney have absolutely no intention of letting the American public move on to other issues while they’re on public hearing hiatus. Elaine Luria’s tweet today was the first drip from the spigot. On Sunday, Liz Cheney said on a Sunday morning show that a subpoena for Ginni Thomas is not out of the question if she didn’t come in voluntarily.
This is not going anywhere. Not today, and not for the next 6 weeks. Think of it as the release of a new Star Wars movie. The teaser ads with scenes already in the can start months before the movie’s release date. And that’s exactly what the carefully timed leaks between now and September will be, teasers to keep the audience engaged for Episode 2 of the new J6 committee hearing schedule in September. There is no rest for the wicked.
Kevin & mitch turned out to be allies. Thanks guys!!! It’s nice when your heartless evil & soulless corruption work for the common good. Guess if there’s an ultimate being behind all of this, then I guess they do work in mysterious ways. Keep it up boys.
The comparison of the Mueller Investigation (peaches) and the J6 Hearings (kumquats) is rather tame. To me a more apt comparison is peaches to hot peppers. Perhaps in the latter case not as hot as say the Carolina Reaper (typically rated by Guiness as the hottest) but still a variety that makes you chug glasses of ice water!
Another thing. Mueller’s Trump/Russia investigation might have gotten the coup de grace from Trump’s choosing Bilirubin Barr as AG (with a mandate to go ahead and do what Barr promised Trump to get the job – wrap up and then whitewash the final report) but it was SABOTAGED from the outset by Rod FUCKING Rosenstein! It’s really a tragedy that Barr was able to put Mueller’s final report into a legal version of a brain-dead human being on life support when everything was teed up (despite Rosenstein’s best efforts) to prosecute Trump and others for Obstruction of Justice. However there’s something else far more sinister in what went on. Rosenstein’s initial memo put everything under Mueller’s control – then he drafted a second and still carefully redacted memo altering Mueller’s mandate!
The upshot was that Mueller was told to pass over stuff that tied Trump and that campaign to Russian interference – just forward it and the FBI counter-intelligence would pick up the ball and run with it. However, Rosenstein told FBI Director Chris Wray that Mueller’s people would run down all that stuff! Catch-22 and Rosenstein knew EXACTLY what he was doing. Keep in mind Chris Wray is one of those Fascist Federalist Society Fuckwads that have been so carefully groomed and placed into positions of high authority. It’s not like Wray would keep a close eye on that particular matter, especially with Rosenstein hinting if not outright assuring him that Mueller was on the Russia collaboration angle!
Someday I hope Rosenstein comes in for the full measure of scorn and shame he truly deserves. As far as I’m concerned he deserves far worse. He deserves right this fucking minute to be in a prison cell waiting for Trump and others to join him. It will never happen but my hope (not much of one given the political optics) is that Trump will wind up tried on federal charges and all this Obstruction of Justice stuff can get revisited. AND that a by-product will be a fuller airing of Rosenstein’s treachery!
Just wondering whether you have ever tasted a kumquat. Granted they aren’t hot … but they are so bitter they really don’t have to be hot to send you looking for water.
I am waiting for the fat lady to sing. Thats right after barr and his crew along with the scum bags on scotus are charged with conspiring to overthrow the government.
Can you imagine a government that operated with as much focus and precision as the J6 has shown? If every committee worked like this committee has, the U.S. government would be as smooth and useful as any machine on earth! Kudos to all and sundry who have contributed to this excellent drama, worthy of the pen of Beorge Brnard Shaw.
Once upon a time most committees operated in a similar fashion. The J6 Committee is of course unique because the circumstances that led to it are unique so it’s particularly high profile, but there have been other high profile matters in the past where there was lots of attention being paid to the goings on. However, most of Congress’ work (in both chambers) was done in committees. That “Regular Order” McCain spoke about in his last appearance in the Senate. And yes, while sometimes there was grandstanding more often than not the debates, even when fierce were focused on the matter at hand and shaping actual policy/legislative language rather than some asshole being mostly (if not solely) concerned with generating a sound-bite for the folks back home.
And, even when the back and forth got bitter most of the time the antagonists would get together later and talk things out to try and reach some sort of compromise each side could live with, at least for a while. And shit that needed to get done got done, and legislation was much better crafted because committee meetings and hearings were about actual fact-finding/information gathering including hearing from actual experts who had different approaches to an issue or even different beliefs.
Now? Committees, especially in the House which has lots more members on most committees consist of committee staff playing little (if any role) in a hearing, and instead each person taking up most of their allotted time with “speechifying” before slipping in an often loaded question at the end – and then fights over witnesses “filibustering” to avoid answering and/or the legislator inturrupting them to prevent an actual answer. And it’s back and forth from one Party to the other so there’s no continuity. It’s ALL about showmanship these days and has been for quite a few years now. It’s not about gathering information and facts, it’s about generating sound-bites that will sound good back home and of course help fundraising.
Both chambers need old-school leadership that has the ability, gravitas and will to repeatedly kick-ass and jerk everyone into line. But THAT doesn’t happen because it would diminish their own time in the spotlight at so many key moments – those WH meetings with the Prez to negotiate on something major – and then give it to their chambers with mere days (if that) to say yes or no. They shouldn’t have that kind of power, any more than a single Senator can hold up something by using the Senatorial equivalent of a Presidential Veto.
So, we have a dysfunctional Congress and government, which in turn let’s fucking SCOTUS muck around much more than THEY should be able to do so.