Representative Devin Nunes (CA-R), chairman of the House Intel Committee and purveyor of various vacuous spectacles, appears to be indulging in another such, according to CBS News:
In a sign of increasing partisan hostilities, Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee plan to construct a wall – a physical partition – separating Republican and Democratic staff members in the committee’s secure spaces, according to multiple committee sources. It’s expected to happen this spring.
For now, some Republican committee members deny knowing anything about it, while strongly suggesting the division is the brainchild of the committee’s chairman, Devin Nunes, R-California.
“I’m not part of that decision,” said Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas. “You’ve got to talk to Devin. I don’t know what they’re trying to do one way or the other.”
“I swear to God I didn’t know that,” said Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Florida, when asked about the plan. While acknowledging a wall might not be constructive for the committee’s work, he said, “The level of trust and the level of everything down there is – it’s poison. It’s absolute poison down there.”
Rooney said one reason for the tension is an erosion of trust, exacerbated by an ongoing ethics investigation into the “entire Republican staff,” including “the woman up front that answers the phone” for alleged leaks. He later added that the matter was being handled by the Office of Congressional Ethics.
After some thought, though, I suspect this could dovetail quite neatly with the supposedly small kerfuffle in which Trump ended up accusing the Democrats of being traitors for not clapping at his State of the Union address. Many pundits wrote it off as being light-hearted banter with the crowd – accusations of treason? – but that’s a bit hard to swallow.
So this might be the next step. Remember back when America agreed that we always show a united front to foreign adversaries? The House Intel Committee was considered to be part of that united front, and members of the committee made a special effort to drop partisanship when appointed to this prestigious, if somewhat secretive, committee. Partisanship should stop at the borders, or so the feeling went.
That went by the boards after the infamous letter to Iran by the GOP Senators.
But the reputation of the Committee still exists. Nunes’ move, assuming it’s a good report and it comes to fruition, is a signal useful to the GOP propaganda arm to say that the Democrats are not to be trusted, that they are traitors.
Given the recent clownish behavior of Nunes, this might catch the Democrats by surprise.
1With apologies to Sondheim and Lapine, this is a misquote from Into The Woods. The actual quote:
When first I appear I seem mysterious, but when explained I’m nothing serious.
