The actions of the House Republicans who have access to the impeachment inquiry depositions seem a bit unfocused:
Republicans have complained for weeks about the secret House impeachment inquiry, accusing Democrats of rigging the process and interviewing witnesses behind closed doors — at one point storming the hearing room and chanting, “Let us in!”
But inside the secure room in the Capitol basement where the proceedings are taking place, Republicans have used their time to complain that testimony has become public, going after their colleagues who were quoted in media reports commenting on witness appearances, and quizzing witnesses themselves on how their statements had been released. …
At one point, GOP lawmakers held up the questioning of McKinley to complain about a fellow lawmaker, Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.), who had made a public comment about witness testimony the day before.
GOP lawmakers during those two days touched not only on Ukraine’s ties to the Bidens but also on potential connections to Trump’s 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton. One line of questioning appeared to suggest, without any evidence, that Yovanovitch might have improperly dealt in classified information, including a question about whether she ever sought to “unmask” the identity of individuals protected in government reports. The term echoed Republican complaints from three years ago that Trump aides’ identities had been unfairly revealed as part of the FBI’s Russia investigation.
It appears the House Republicans are not taking this opportunity to investigate a President who has a number of alleged offenses to his credit, not to mention offensive behavior patterns. They, in fact, appear to be indulging in ineffective behaviors. But why? Here’s some possibilities, keeping in mind that not all the members of a group has the same motivations.
- They’re foxes. The House GOP are no one’s fools. They know the President is probably not going to survive an impeachment trial, but they also know the zealous Trump base will forgive no one that participates in the process. So? Do the obvious: make great noises, shake your fists and voice your faux-outrage, denounce and denounce, and make sure Fox News gets hold of it. The hell with leadership and moral integrity, because, as Senator Graham (R-SC) has observed, it’s all about being re-elected.
- They’re frantic. The House GOP knows the President, his and their shared ideology, and their futures will take a big, and perhaps fatal, hit as an unstoppable impeachment occurs, and the trial in the Senate, where antipathy for the President by his GOP allies is more palpable, has a less certain than outcome than they wish. Being a pack of second and third-raters, they’ve been flailing at the levers of power, hoping to delay and even derail the process, but failing. Being who they are, they’ll keep doing it, hoping to play to hometown constituents who are their ultimate audience.
- They’re irretrievably partisan. Party over country, even theology over country. We’re already seeing this with the Evangelicals. The House GOP has it in spades, and it doesn’t matter if President Trump were to shoot even one of them in the middle of a busy city street, they’d still defend him as the leader of the Party, even proclaiming him immune to prosecution. Here, let me get on my hobby horse and adjust the stirrups. Yep, this would fit right in with Turchin’s disintegrative phase from Secular Cycles, in which the nation’s political elite engages in internecine warfare, literally murder and warfare in many cases, until a generation or two has passed, and the children of the survivors decree Enough, we don’t care who is responsible, the fighting is finished!
So which is it? I’m not sure, and the group may even be split into substantial groups corresponding to the categories. My guess is that it’s #3, as they just don’t seem to be that bright of bulbs, but they do seem power-hungry and ideologically driven. That may be their doom, all wrapped up, as the constituents who’ll suffer at their hands, should eventually figure out what’s going on and dump them in the gutter of history.
