It is said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. That seems to apply to congressional Democrats – and especially the House Democrats who are being led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi like a bunch of nose-ringed cattle.
For several years, House Democrats were able to peddle their baseless claim of Russian collusion by President Trump. Thanks to a compliant news media, they carried that bogus story as news until Special Counsel James Mueller burst their bubble with a report that exonerated Trump, his campaign and every American from conspiring with Russian interference in the election.
Pelosi later organized the first impeachment of President Trump. It was a slam-dunk from the start. She had the votes to impeach regardless of any evidence – so she ordered the impeachment. Whatever one thought of the justification for the impeachment– or lack thereof – it did not win popular approval. It did not move the needle of public sentiment against Trump. It failed to achieve Pelosi’s objective. Whether it ultimately led to Trump’s loss in the election is arguable but unresolvable.
Even as Trump was days away from leaving office, Nancy Pelosi engineered another slam-dunk impeachment. She had the votes, so to Hell with justification. This time it was due to Trump’s alleged role in the Capital Hill riot. We know it was only an alleged accusation because since that time, Pelosi has been calling for a bipartisan commission to prove what the second impeachment was supposed to have proven.
Nancy Pelosi signed off the second impeachment even knowing that there would be no time for a trial to consider removing Trump from office – which is the primary purpose of impeachment. Pelosi admitted that her motivation was simply to put another bad mark on Trump’s historic record. This is clearly an abuse of the impeachment process.
Now we have Nancy Pelosi’s “Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol.” It is starting off like that line about the judge telling the defendant that he would get a fair trial and then be hanged. The Select Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) constantly talks about investigating the “insurrection” – prejudging the nature of the attack. It is not at all clear that it was an insurrection as opposed to a riot. I have opined on that issue several times – seeing the attack as having all the elements of a riot, not an insurrection.
Nancy Pelosi’s select committee consists of seven Democrats and one Republican – Arizona Congresswoman Liz Cheney — to demonstrate her devotion to bipartisanship. Really? The Democrats and Cheney all have one thing in common. They already know the outcome of the investigation(?). They have prejudged the case.
So far, of the hundreds of rioters arrested and indicted by federal prosecutors, none have been charted with being part of an insurrection. Many legal analysts – even on the left, such as CNN’s Jeffery Toobin – believe that there may not be any charges of insurrection. Insurrection, sedition and coup are merely the political terms of the left in the court-of-public-opinion, where propaganda trumps the rule-of-law and rules-of-evidence.
Allow me to stress that I have no sympathy for rioters. Yes, most of the protesters were peaceful, but that does not excuse those who were not. They should be punished commensurate with their individual crimes. I apply that principle to ALL riots. Only the Democrats and the media ignore certain riots. Riots that are often far more damaging and deadly than the January 6th attack on the Capitol.
The only difference between the many riots that have scarred our cities and the riot on Capitol Hill? The targets and victims of the rioting. The riot on Capital Hill involved the political power elite. The common folks are the ones who suffered looting, arson, vandalism, injury and death. Often for days and weeks at a time.
Just as the Mueller Investigation and the two impeachments were not legitimate investigations based on any notion of probable cause, the Select Committee will develop dubious political narratives with only one purpose in mind – weaking the Republican Party in the hope of staving off a GOP takeover of the House and perhaps the Senate.
There can be no other purpose since the FBI is doing the REAL investigation. They are the only agency that can – as we hear so often – “get to the bottom of things” and bring justice. The Select Committee can put on a partisan dog and pony show. They can produce fodder for the media allies. But it has no power to indict, convict and sentence anyone.
With Nancy Pelosi in charge, the House has appropriated Hollywood’s unofficial theme song, “There’s No Business like Show Business.”
So, there ‘tis.