Tag Archives: Capitol Hill

DC riot

No way was it a ‘routine day of touring’

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By John Kanelis / [email protected]

Congressional Republicans have their Big Lie — alleging vote fraud in the 2020 election. Now they might have spawned a smaller, but still significant, lie about the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Now that the U.S. House of Representatives has voted to create a select committee to examine the cause and consequence of the riot against the government, it is good to examine the other “big lie” making the rounds on Capitol Hill.

It’s the one that suggests that the riot was nothing more than a group of “peaceful tourists” taking part in a tour of the Capitol Building. Indeed, some members of the GOP congressional caucus have uttered such trash.

It begs the question: When has a “routine tour” left feces on the walls of the Capitol Building, or smashed through windows, or assaulted police officers with weapons and pepper spray, or left two officers dead and many other participants injured?

Never in my entire life have I witnessed such an egregious attempt at lying, deceit and boorish conduct as we have seen among congressional Republicans who have resisted calls for a thorough examination of the insurrection we saw play out on Jan. 6.

They won’t call it what it was: an insurrection against the government. They won’t acknowledge the role that the 45th POTUS had in inciting the mob of terrorists.

This lie won’t ever rise to the level of The Big Lie, given that the riot occurred because the disgraced ex-POTUS made the phony allegation that day and ignited the mob to do what it did.

However, this lesser — but still significant — lie about the riot being nothing out of the ordinary is bad enough. It likely will scar the current cult that masquerades as a political party perhaps for the rest of its existence.

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Let the probe begin

By John Kanelis / [email protected]

It’s not how many of us wanted this process to move forward, but I’ll accept it as a step toward rooting out the cause of the infamous insurrection of Jan. 6.

The U.S. House of Representatives, with just two Republican members joining their Democratic colleagues, today voted to form a select committee that will take a deep dive into the insurrection.

GOP Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois — both of whom voted to impeach the disgraced 45th POTUS for his role in inciting the riot on Capitol Hill — voted “yes” on the committee creation. They both also signaled a willingness to serve on that panel.

My version of political perfection would have produced a bipartisan commission approved by the Senate. The GOP caucus slammed that door shut, leaving any look into the event up to the House. The lower chamber’s approval does not require Senate endorsement, so the House will proceed on its own, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The Wall Street Journal reports: “It’s clear that Jan. 6 was not simply an attack on the Capitol building, it was an attack on our democracy,” Mrs. Pelosi said in a speech before the vote Wednesday. “Every member here knows that Jan. 6 was an attempt to subvert our democracy,” she said. “But many across the aisle refuse to admit the truth.”

House Approves Creation of Select Committee to Probe Jan. 6 Attack (msn.com)

Indeed, the Republican resistance to examining the horrific event simply boggles my mind. The mob that stormed Capitol Hill that day launched a full assault on the entire government. It targeted Republicans as well as Democrats. It injured several law enforcement officers; two of them died in the melee. So, members of the political caucus that professes to be strong on “law and order” has resisted efforts to get to the truth of the attack.

Moreover, they have dug in to fight efforts to prevent future attacks.

So now it falls on the Democratically controlled House to select the committee. Pelosi is indicating she might appoint at least one Republican to sit on the panel.

This isn’t the perfect path toward finding some key answers to this horrifying assault on our democratic form of government. Given the stubborn refusal by Republicans to seek the truth behind it, this select committee will have to do.

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Who’s he kidding?

By JOHN KANELIS / [email protected]

Who in the name of gullible listeners does Ron Johnson think he’s kidding?

The Wisconsin Republican U.S. senator is now trying to take back what he told the radio talk show host the other day about the insurrection of the Sixth of January on Capitol Hill.

I am certain beyond a doubt that he said that the crowd that stormed Capitol Building would “never” do anything to break the law, that they have “great respect” for law enforcement and that had the rioters belonged to Black Lives Matter or Antifa that he would have “been concerned.”

Now the Cheesehead nut job says the media twisted his remarks. That his statements were taken out of context. Huh?

Respect for law and order, for the police? What about the cops who were injured by the rioters/terrorists? Or the young Capitol Police officer who died from his injuries?

I heard what Johnson said. I heard all of it. I know what I heard.

Ron Johnson said it. He needs to own it. Oh, and while he’s at it he ought to resign from the U.S. Senate.

Joe Biden, national news

Experience matters

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By JOHN KANELIS / [email protected]

This needs to be repeated — with emphasis.

Joseph R. Biden brings important experience to the presidency that was sorely lacking in the individual he succeeded, Donald J. Trump.

I’ve talked already on this blog about whether President Biden will be able to shepherd an infrastructure bill through Congress. My hunch is that he stands a much greater chance of doing so than Donald Trump ever had. Why? Because Biden is a creature of Congress and Trump is, well, someone with zero government experience.

That kind of thing matters when a president chooses to operate the complicated machinery called the federal government.

Trump trumpeted his business experience as a selling point while winning election in 2016. I’ll set aside that he lied about his success as a business mogul. I believe we have learned that Trump’s business record at best is considered, um, checkered. He spent his entire professional life propping his own image up. Trump never grasped the concept of teamwork, which is an essential element of governing with a co-equal branch of government, the men and women who work on Capitol Hill.

Joe Biden, on the other hand, knows the Senate well. He was a major part of that legislative body for 36 years. He chaired key Senate committees. Biden developed first-name relationships with foreign leaders. He worked well with Republicans. He is fluent in the legislative jargon that senators and House members use among themselves.

This is the kind of experience that should serve President Biden well as he seeks to push an agenda forward. Trump’s experience in business, in show biz, in self-aggrandizement and self-enrichment provided a prescription for failure.

I consider myself a good-government progressive. Therefore, I intend to look carefully over time at how well our government functions with a president who knows which levers to pull and which buttons to push.

Donald Trump

When will GOP wake up?

By JOHN KANELIS / [email protected]

What in the name of all that is holy is it going to take to get the Republican members of Congress to realize that they took an oath to defend the nation, not to defend the reputation of a disgraced former GOP president?

Some of the GOP congressional honchos traipse down to Mar-a-Lago to tee it up with Donald Trump. Meanwhile, back at their place of employment — Washington, D.C. — the man who succeeded Trump, President Joe Biden, is trying to craft a legislative agenda that works for the nation he was elected to govern.

Biden took office wanting to unify the country gripped in the throes of a killer pandemic. Drug companies have developed vaccines and now are flooding pharmacies and government mega-vaccination centers with tens of millions of doses of vaccine to inoculate Americans.

Democrats are on board with President Biden. Republicans aren’t. They continue to spew the crap that comes from Donald Trump’s pie hole, speaking for the disgraced ex-president as if whatever he says is actually relevant. It isn’t. He isn’t relevant.

It frustrates me to no end to watch the president cobble together alliances within his own party but falling short in his efforts to bridge the still-gaping divide between the Democratic and Republican parties. All the while there is that chatter about Trump wanting to retain some position of power and influence within the Republican Party.

Let me be among those who hold a contrary view of Donald Trump’s future. He is toast. I am getting that nagging feeling in my gut that there might be an indictment or three in Donald Trump’s future. The men and women who continue to march to No. 45’s cadence will have to look elsewhere for actual political leadership.

They won’t have to look far. It resides in the White House.

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Scars to remain

(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

By JOHN KANELIS / [email protected]

Donald Trump’s impeachment trial is now history and, indeed, it made history on its way into the books.

The former president’s “acquittal” by a minority of U.S. senators serving as jurors does not wipe away the scars created by the horrendous event that precipitated the House of Representatives’ impeachment of the former president.

The healing will take time. Lots of time. Maybe the time will outlast the terms of all the lawmakers currently serving in our Congress.

The insurrectionists who stormed Capitol Hill on Jan. 6 inflicted damage not just on the physical structure of our Capitol Building, but also on the relationships among members of both political parties serving in the building.

The men and women who challenged the results of the 2020 presidential election have been cast aside by those who didn’t mount the challenge. We have heard stories of House members and senators being afraid to serve with colleagues, fearing physical harm; they have spoken of lawmakers carrying weapons with them in the halls of the Capitol.

We also have heard of House members and senators seeking to move their desks away from colleagues with whom they have served.

The Donald Trump Age brought us a new level of hostility that didn’t exist in the good old days. There once was a time when Democrats and Republicans could find common ground frequently. Now such discoveries become the subject of major news stories.

We hear about relationships being fractured. Men and women no longer speak to each other while the legislative body seeks to craft laws.

Yes, these are difficult times. I don’t have a formula for ridding the atmosphere in Washington of the toxicity that has poisoned it.

I have told you before that I am an optimist. I am going to cling to the hope, therefore, to a quaint notion, which is that the greater cause of public service will bring men and women of good will together. I just hope it is sooner and not long after many of us have, to borrow a phrase, “left the building.”

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Conviction still unlikely

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By JOHN KANELIS / [email protected]

The evidence of incitement of insurrection has been searing, heartbreaking, graphic and it reveals a profound danger to our republic.

Despite what I believe we have seen in the impeachment trial of Donald John Trump, I fear it won’t move a sufficient number of Republican U.S. senators to do what they should do … which is convict the ex-president of the crime for which the House of Representatives impeached him for the second time.

Trump will get an acquittal. He likely will crow about it. The good news from my standpoint, though, is that his legacy — and I use that term with great caution — will be scarred forever by the knowledge that most senators believe he violated the sacred oath of his office.

He stood before the crowd of terrorists on the Sixth of January and implored them to march on Capitol Hill. He told them to “stop the steal” of an election he lost fair and square to President Biden. They tried to do as they were instructed to do by their hero, the disgraced president.

It won’t move enough senators to convict Trump. Which means the Senate cannot vote to ban this monster from ever seeking federal public office.

That will be to the shame of all the Republicans — and I am talking specifically to Texas’s two senators, Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, both of whom indicate no interest in doing the right thing.

They will hide behind the phony argument about the trial’s alleged unconstitutionality. They will look indifferently at the evidence, at the sight and sounds of terrorists storming the Capitol building, ignoring how many of their colleagues came to being physically harmed … or worse.

The good news, as I see it, will be that Trump will be marked forever as someone who sought to destroy the very government he took an oath to defend and protect.

Uncategorized

More than QAnon Queen to worry about

By JOHN KANELIS / [email protected]

It is tempting to single out an individual who stands above a particular fray. So it has been with Marjorie Taylor Greene, the person I have dubbed the QAnon Queen of the House … of Representatives.

She deserves to be stripped of her committee assignments and sent to the back of the room. She can talk to herself and to her friends in the sedition caucus of the Republican membership in the House.

This brings me to a critical point, which is that there are more House members and senators who share this individual’s warped, distorted and disgusting world view. We need to keep our eyes peeled to their activities as well.

Who else is out there? I shudder to think that a newly elected rep from North Texas, Republican Beth Van Duyne of Irving, might be among them. She has become the target of vigorous political advertising that suggests she shares the loony bin notions being touted by Greene and others.

Oh, then we have Rep. Louie Gohmert from Tyler, who’s been faithful to his birther notions about former President Obama.

You know how I feel about Sen. Ted Cruz, the Houston Republican. Enough said about the Cruz Missile.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has warned us that the “enemy is within” the ranks of House members and senators. Boy howdy, Mme. Speaker.

I intend to remain vigilant to the nuttiness that can — and no doubt will — arise from Capitol Hill.

One more final point. Think of the irony that the very place that came  under attack on the Sixth of January from the terrorist mob — the halls of Congress — is now a potential hotbed for the type of lunacy that the rioters followed.

Astonishing.

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Is this trial different? Yes … here’s why

By JOHN KANELIS / [email protected]

The men and women who will prosecute the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump have filed their legal brief in advance of that process.

It states, in part: “The Nation will indeed remember January 6, 2021 — and President Trump’s singular responsibility for that tragedy. It is impossible to imagine the events of January 6 occurring without President Trump creating a powder keg, striking a match, and then seeking personal advantage from the ensuing havoc.”

READ: House Impeachment Managers Outline Case Against Trump : NPR

My head and my heart are conflicting with each other as the nation prepares to witness this spectacle unfold. My heart desires a conviction, even though Donald Trump no longer is in office. He needs to be held accountable for inciting that horrifying riot.

My noggin tells me something different. It is that the House managers who will prosecute this case will be speaking to a “jury” that has made up its mind. Fifty Senate Democrats want to convict the former president; some of the 50 Republicans may join them, but not enough of them will cross that threshold to deliver a conviction.

The Constitution sets a high bar, requiring a two-thirds vote in the Senate to convict a president.

So, why is this trial different from the first trial that acquitted him on abuse of power and obstruction of justice? It is different because the crime Trump committed on Jan. 6 had a direct impact on the jurors, the senators who will be sitting in judgment.

Trump incited the rioting mob to march on Capitol Hill. The terrorists did as he stated. They stormed into the Capitol Building, where senators and House members were meeting to certify the results of the 2020 election. Senators and House members were sent scurrying; they feared for their very lives!

How in the name of sanity does someone give a pass to someone who incited that kind of violence when it could have resulted in catastrophe for those who will pass judgment? You cannot!

Trump has assembled a new defense team; the first one quit because of differences with the client over trial strategy. The new team will argue that the Senate lacks standing to try a president who isn’t in office. This layman believes that argument is so much crap!

This trial should be dramatically different from the first one. If there exist enough Republican senators with a sense of moral outrage over what happened on the very floor where they will hear this case, then there well could be a vastly different outcome.

Sadly, I fear that the cowards among the GOP caucus are going to win the day.

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QAnon poses dire threat

By JOHN KANELIS / [email protected]

Where in the world did QAnon come from and how in the world does it command the kind of attention it is getting these days?

It came from the deep recesses of human beings’ spirit and I suppose its attention is driven by the preponderance of social media in modern society.

I am happy to report that I do not believe anyone close to me adheres to the idiocy that the conspiracy theorists who populate this uber-fringe movement. If anyone surfaces I will be triple-damn sure to educate them quickly about the folly of what they espouse.

However, they are in Congress. They occupy seats in state legislatures; I wouldn’t be surprised to learn of QAnon goofballs sitting in the Texas Legislature at this moment discussing and enacting measures aimed at governing how my family and I live.

QAnon comprises morons who subscribe to the nuttiest notions possible. They want to execute those with whom they disagree; they say Muslims are unfit to hold public office; they believe the government is coming after every gun in America; they have sought to debunk tragic events, such as school and church shootings, calling them hoaxes and made-up events; they deny that the Holocaust occurred; oh, and they blather this nonsense in the name of Christianity and patriotism.

Is there anything more un-Christian and unpatriotic than to hear someone say we should kill elected leaders?

QAnon supporters were among the terrorists who stormed Capitol Hill on the Sixth of January. They wielded flagpoles as weapons they used against police officers. They were heard yelling “Hang Mike Pence!” which was a direct threat to the life of the sitting vice president of the United States.

They need to be rooted out, exposed and booted from their elected office one way or another. Governing bodies — such as Congress or legislatures — can expel them. Voters need to be persuaded of the utter madness associated with sending them to office in the first place … and then they must act to rectify the grievous error they committed.

I had hoped we had eliminated the fright associated with Donald Trump serving as president when he left the White House for the final time. Silly me. We have a good bit more work to do to restore our national soul.