The desperation of the Republicans to draw a moral equivalency between themselves and the Democrats is becoming marked. Over the weekend, news broke of the latest Trump Administration scandal, as summarized by Steve Benen:
Even among those who’ve come to expect the worst from the Trump administration were taken aback last week with new revelations about the Republican-led Justice Department. The New York Times was first to report that federal investigators secretly seize communications records from at least two Democratic members of Congress, some of their staffers, and even some their family members.
Ranking GOP member of the Senate Judiciary Committee Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) had a response to the suggestion that perhaps Congress should be investigating this latest embarrassment to the American democracy:
“Both classified leaks and abuses of power are serious offenses that must be met with strict consequences. We know that the Justice Department is capable of abusing its power, as it did when it secretly spied on and ran intelligence operations against the Trump campaign. We also know that classified information in congress’ possession can leak to the press, as was the case with the classified Carter Page FISA – the product of that abuse. We do not know whether the effort to investigate such leaks was another example of an abuse of power by the Justice Department.
[Bold mine.]
Here’s the problem: despite numerous allegations and investigations, no evidence supporting said allegations ever emerged.
But Republicans can’t have that. They have a repellent character in the White House who abused his position unlike any other President, and if they admit that he’s far worse than the Democrats’ worst, then they risk losing votes.
And so they cling to what are most kindly described as unproven allegations; for realists, they’re better described as brazen Trumpian lies. And Senator Grassley is capping off a long career in the Senate by participating in those lies.
It’s such a fucking embarrassment. He used to be respectable. Now he babbles on about his physical condition and indulges in lies after rubber-stamping nearly all of the Trump-nominated judiciary – while doing nothing else.
