Ever wonder if Dr. Fauci, our health leader during the Covid-19 pandemic, was, indeed, an evil mastermind out to make everyone wear a mask because, ah, it makes us look odd? WaPo’s Dana Milbank observes that the GOP mission to expose the retired doctor and NIH leader seems to have aborted:
Documents and testimony the panel gathered over 18 months, while finding misbehavior by a grant recipient and by an adviser to Fauci, produced nothing to substantiate these wild allegations. The United States did not fund research that created the pathogen. Fauci didn’t lie about the U.S. role in “gain of function” research at the laboratory in Wuhan, China. He didn’t try to suppress the lab leak theory, or bribe people to reject it. He didn’t get rich off the pandemic, either — although he testified that he earned about $120 a year from an antibody he developed years ago.
The gibbering madness exhibited by the GOP House members in the face of reason and facts can lead to a number of conclusions. My favorite is the failure of the news gathering organizations to survive as independent organizations has been a disaster for both citizens and Congress. A trustworthy, local news source that delivers the nonsense in which these members of Congress indulge, both before and after an election, should result in their elimination in competitive elections; weak news sources, both quality and in terms of being easily swayed by blandishments, mislead their audience to the detriment of voters and Congress.
