Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

In my day, never was longer.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Giving up is unforgivable.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

Books are my comfort food!

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Friday Evening Open Thread: Kevin McCarthy’s Select(ive) Committee(s)

Friday Evening Open Thread: Kevin McCarthy’s Select(ive) Committee(s)

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Friday Evening Open Thread: Kevin McCarthy's Select(ive) Committee(s)

(Jack Ohman via GoComics.com)


… Let us leave aside the removal of Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell from the Intelligence Committee. The republic will not rise or fall based on such things, and if McCarthy wants to engage in snippy stoogery to ingratiate himself with the MAGA caucus and soothe Donald Trump’s hurt feelings, it is within his power to do so. In his letter to Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the speaker claimed his decision was all about “integrity.” This is not just the death of irony; it is a North Korean–style, firing-squad-by-anti-aircraft-gun execution of irony. Worse, McCarthy even has the right to channel, as he did, Joseph McCarthy, and smear Swalwell by alluding to derogatory information that the FBI supposedly has about him. It might not be honorable or professional, but he can do it.

McCarthy’s shuffle of the Intelligence Committee pales in comparison to the creation of two new committees, both of which were part of the Filene’s Basement clearance of the new speaker’s political soul. One of them, on the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, is a continuation of the Republican assault on science that predated Trump but reached new heights with the former president’s disjointed gibbering about bleach injections. The committee will include the conspiracy theorist and McCarthy’s new best friend Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Ronny Jackson of Texas, the former White House physician who assured us in 2018 that Trump only weighed 239 pounds and was in astoundingly good health…

The “weaponization” committee is worse, and likely to do far more damage to the United States, because it is starting from the premise that the machinery of the United States government—law enforcement, the intelligence community, and federal agencies—has been turned against the average American citizen. Jim Jordan, who stands out even in this GOP for his partisan recklessness, will serve as chair. The committee will include members whom I think of as the “You-Know-Better-Than-This Caucus”: people with top-flight educations and enough experience to know that Jordan is a crank, but who nevertheless will support attacks on American institutions if that’s what it takes to avoid being sent back home to live among their constituents. Two standouts here are Thomas Massie (an MIT graduate who apparently majored in alchemy and astrology), and the ever-reliable Elise Stefanik (Harvard), whose political hemoglobin is now composed of equal parts cynicism and antifreeze.

The committee will include other monuments to probity, such as Chip Roy; Dan Bishop, who has claimed that the 2020 election was rigged; Harriet Hageman, the woman who defeated Liz Cheney in Wyoming; and Kat Cammack of Florida, who alleged that Democrats were drinking on the House floor during the speakership fight. All of them will have access to highly sensitive information from across the U.S. government…

The Church Committee was, in its day, a necessary walk across the hot coals for Americans who had invested too much power and trust in the executive branch. I suspect that the Jordan committee will not look to uncover abuses, but rather to portray any government actions that it does not like as abuses, especially the investigations into Trump. It will be the Church Committee turned on its head, as members of Congress seek to protect a lawless president by destroying the agencies that stand between our democracy and his ambitions.

Kevin McCarthy will be fine with all of it, as long as he gets to wear the top hat and red tails while indulging in the fantasy that he is in control of the clowns and wild animals, and not the other way around.

Reader Interactions

34Comments

  2. 2.

    Baud

    Jim Jordan, who stands out even in this GOP for his partisan recklessness, will serve as chair

    Jordan will be on Chuck Todd’s show this Sunday.

  6. 6.

    Alison Rose

    Speaking of McCarthy not having any clue how to do his actual job, yet more Santos shenanigans revealed!

    We Tried to Call the Top Donors To George Santos’ 2020 Campaign. Many Don’t Seem To Exist.

    The Regor and Berger contributions are among more than a dozen major donations to the 2020 Santos campaign for which the name or the address of the donor cannot be confirmed, a Mother Jones investigation found. A separate $2,800 donation was attributed in Santos’ reports filed with the Federal Election Commission to a friend of Santos who says he did not give the money.

    These questionable donations, which account for more than $30,000 of the $338,000 the Santos campaign raised from individual donors in 2020, have not been previously cited in media reports. Mother Jones identified them by contacting (or trying to contact) dozens of the most generous donors to Santos’ 2020 campaign, which he ended up losing by 12 points.

    Santos did not respond to a detailed list of questions Mother Jones sent to his lawyer and his congressional office that included names of donors whose identities could not be verified.

    Numerous cases where they could not find anyone by the name or address provided. Yet Kevin thinks this MFer deserves his seat. Sure, Jan.

  15. 15.

    stinger

    I’d like to thank whoever — can’t recall if it was in a front page post or a comment — posted the link to Cal. Gov. Newsom’s press conference after the Half Moon Bay mass shooting. I didn’t know much about the governor but was extremely impressed. He gave up on prepared notes — he’d read from them too many times — and just talked off the cuff, then answered media questions. I may watch it a second time.

  16. 16.

    bjacques

    That “Weaponization” Committee even comes with its own theme songs:

    Soul Coughing – Unmarked Helicopters
    Talking Heads – Puzzling Evidence
    Chumbawamba – Everything You Know Is Wrong

     

    Also, welcome back Alison Rose!

  19. 19.

    gene108

    McCarthy is the perfect man to be Speaker for this Republican House of Representatives.

    Republicans are supplicant yes men to right-wing media, their billionaire backers, and the MAGA voters.

    Also, Republicans have been working to undo any oversight on what they do in government for decades. The Weaponization of Government committee is just another step on the road they’ve laid out. Destroying campaign finance laws, voting rights, etc. are all part of this path.

  22. 22.

    Alison Rose

    @stinger: One thing I like about him is he very rarely does read from prepared notes and yet always sounds informed and smart. He has dyslexia and has said that it’s harder for him to do that than to just memorize what he wants to say and say it more extemporaneously. It makes him sound much more genuine, IMO.

  23. 23.

    stinger

    @Alison Rose: Interesting! I have to say, he certainly didn’t sound memorized in that clip.

    Also, I love when people with “disabilities” such as dyslexia or stammering show that they are completely capable and even better than most.

  24. 24.

    gene108

    @Alison Rose:

    In all honesty, there’s no reason for Republicans to do a damn thing about Santos. Republicans in tough districts keep a healthy distance between themselves and “honest” George, and George’s scandals aren’t going to hurt them.

    I think politics is so polarizing that there’s no way most of the nation unites in horror at a politicians wrong doing and those defending the politician, unlike say in 2006 with the Mark Foley scandal.

  26. 26.

    Anne Laurie

    @Alison Rose: One thing I like about him is he very rarely does read from prepared notes and yet always sounds informed and smart. He has dyslexia and has said that it’s harder for him to do that than to just memorize what he wants to say and say it more extemporaneously.

    Cher was one of the first highly public figures to come out as dyslexic, thirty? forty? years ago.  She said Sonny Bono told her she was ‘stupid’ because she memorized her lines for The Sonny & Cher Show — because she couldn’t read the cue cards with any fluency.

    If I didn’t already love Cher (& despise her ex), I would’ve done so from that moment.

  27. 27.

    kalakal

    As usual Big Bill Shakespeare described McCarthy’s type best

    “199  And cry ‘Content’ to that which grieves my heart,
    200  And wet my cheeks with artificial tears,
    201  And frame my face to all occasions…

    207  I can add colours to the chameleon,
    208  Change shapes with Proteus for advantages”

  28. 28.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Baud:

    Jordan will be on Chuck Todd’s show this Sunday.

    As if I needed another reason besides Upchuck Toddler to not watch any of the Sunday Shitshows.

    I wonder how many lies Chuckles will “have to leave right there.”

  30. 30.

    Alison Rose

    @Anne Laurie: When Newsom first started talking publicly about his dyslexia (and also wrote a very cute picture book about it!), a bunch of shitheads in his Instagram comments started calling him illiterate and the r word and stuff. Disgusting.

  31. 31.

    Trollhattan

    Watching the junior girls final, Australia Open, between two eevas–Andr and Korn. The skill level is boggling and they make few mistakes for 15YO. Not just finesse, one ripped a 114 mph serve. Hour 2.

  32. 32.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @stinger: I was not a fan of Newsom at first, he seemed more of an empty suit even since his days as mayor of San Francisco. But I’ve been pleasantly surprised that he’s grown into the job.

    Plus he seems to enjoy his other role as the designated finger-giver to Republicans, and does seem to genuinely give a damn.

  34. 34.

    artem1s

    McQuarthy is certainly spinning as fast as he can with the Biden papers and now allowing a committee to refute the Jan6 committee and TFG impeachments. Sooner or later Smith and the DOJ is going to start going after the planners and enablers in Congress who help foster the Big Lie and Gym won’t be do anything about it. I’m wondering if Qevin is actually hoping these asshats continue to perjure themselves in public and eventually lose their seats. It would remove a lot of his headaches so why not let them play in their own feces? I doubt it will work out the way he thinks it will but, you know, never interrupt your enemy, etc…

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