Past is Prologue: January 6th Commission Edition

Andrew Donaldson

Born and raised in West Virginia, Andrew has since lived and traveled around the world several times over. Though frequently writing about politics out of a sense of duty and love of country, most of the time he would prefer discussions on history, culture, occasionally nerding on aviation, and his amateur foodie tendencies. He can usually be found misspelling/misusing words on Twitter @four4thefire and his food writing website Yonder and Home. Andrew is the host of Heard Tell podcast. Subscribe to Andrew's Heard Tell SubStack for free here:

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19 Responses

  1. Philip H says:

    So one of those 35 Republican defectors is Michael Guest, who represents the mostly white and deeply red Mississippi 3rd Congressional District. While he hasn’t put out a statement yet as to why he voted as he did, it effectively nullifies the Mississippi delegation (2 Yea, 2 Nay). He doesn’t need to do this to stave off a challenge from the right, and now in his second term he’s definitely not a flaming liberal progressive. I don’t expect his vote to sway either of our Trumpian senators, but I do think someone from the left should quietly ask him what swayed him.Report

  2. DavidTC says:

    Don’t we need to investigate all those antifa and BLM people who slandered the name of patriotic Trump-supporting American by breaking in while pretending to be them?Report

  3. 35 GOP reps, so this is officially bipartisan.Report

  4. Koz says:

    Coming soon to a rally near you, former president Trump is expected to hit the road again, and has made no secret that his priority aside from his own designs is to get revenge on any Republican that voted against him in certifying the 2020 election, the second impeachment, and various other slights real and perceived

    Great. Former President Trump is a private citizen now, let’s see what he’s got. I’ve been wrong about Trump before, but I’m not buyin’ this idea “GOP is all about ex-President Trump.” The people who believe this are woefully underestimating the different between President Trump and ex-President Trump as it pertains to his stature in the party.Report

    • Mike Schilling in reply to Koz says:

      I hope you’re right, but the pervasive bootlicking from GOPs office-holders suggests otherwise. The Big Lie is GOP orthodoxy.Report

      • Koz in reply to Mike Schilling says:

        The “Big Lie” is irrelevant, that’s how it looks to me. Libs want to turn the crank on it to make some political juice, but they haven’t done it yet. I don’t expect they are going to in the future. The bitching about this independent commission is stupid. Push comes to shove, Demo’s don’t need us anyway. They can simply take a new or existing committee, in either chamber, and start calling witnesses.

        What libs can’t do, that they need, is make Real Americans care about January 6 if they weren’t predisposed to already, and so far at least, they’re not.

        This puts Demo’s in Congress in a weird timing dilemma. They have a year and a month, a year and two, maybe, to legislate before campaign season takes over, GOP takes over the House and maybe the Senate, and libs get jack shit.

        So, how _should_ Demo’s be spending that year? Hard to say, really. There is a train of thought behind the January 6 thing. Politically embarrass or immobilize GOP with “Insurrection!!!” argle-bargle and then once GOP is weak, they push through HR1, DC statehood and the rest of it. But no. Demo’s try that, then the Real Americans sez, “Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids!” and libs go away with their tail between their legs. Certainly libs got nothing from Impeachment #2, and January 6 is further ago now than then.

        But what is the alternative? Libs are upset at small-ish top line dollar figures in the GOP infrastructure counteroffers. For some values of lib, it would be horribly embarrassing if the Demo’s actually cut a deal with the GOP at those numbers. But probably their best course of action is to do it anyway, then try for another bite at the apple through reconciliation.

        That’s probably the most they can accomplish in terms of policy, and minimizes butthurt for the lib base. Most likely, libs are going to have to internalize and react somehow to the reality that they don’t have the votes they think they have.Report

        • Philip H in reply to Koz says:

          Wanna hand over what ever it is you’re smokin? Cause its got some great hallucinogenic properties there skippy.Report

          • Koz in reply to Philip H says:

            Lolz. I wrote it, as such it is now frozen in the Internet Amber. We’ll see soon enough that it happened just like I said (or not).Report

          • Koz in reply to Philip H says:

            Having second thoughts on this one already, hmmmm Philip?Report

            • Philip H in reply to Koz says:

              What gives you that idea?Report

              • Koz in reply to Philip H says:

                Basically what I said before. Libs got nuthin’, they got no filibuster, no SCOTUS, no HR1, no Jan 6 Commission blah blah blah. They may not even get any infrastructure, and what they do get is going to be constrained by whatever Manchin and/or some GOP’s are willing to agree to.

                In this world, libs are not going to be motivated to be team players. And though they don’t like our team any more than they did before, for the most part they’re not going to be angry at us. They’re going to be angry at the Demo’s in Washington, and be looking to take it out on them.Report

        • Mike Schilling in reply to Koz says:

          As the man said, he could murder someone on Fifth Avenue, and people would explain that it wasn’t important.Report

    • Philip H in reply to Koz says:

      Well let’s see – Mitch is going to can off the 1/6 Commission for him. Liz Chaney got tossed from her leadership position NOT upholding The Big Lie ™. Lindsey Graham has repeatedly said that the Republican Party can not go forward without Trump. The Republican controlled Arizona Senate is employing a firm whose owner openly sides with Mr. Trump to “Audit” the Arizona election results in Maricopa County – which Mr. rump has repeatedly called for.

      Call me nuts but he still seems to have a lock on the Party, if not the electorate.Report

  5. LeeEsq says:

    Remember remember
    The 6th of January
    The Video Games Freikorps and Plot
    I know of no reason why
    The Video Games Freikorps Should Ever Be Forgot
    Donald Trump and his MAGATs
    Did the scheme contrive
    To slaughter Pence and the Senate
    All up aliveReport