Political Payback

The Wall Street Journal‘s Editors note that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R, CA) plans to remove three of the more sketchy and extremist members of the Progressive-Democratic Party from House committees if he becomes Speaker. The Editors then fret that

This sort of mutually assured political destruction is both a symptom and cause of the decline of Congress. But these are the polarizing precedents that Mrs Pelosi has set, and in politics payback is inevitable.

The Editors are correct regarding symptoms and causes here; however, they fail to proceed to the follow-on alternatives. The Republican Party getting even here will give both parties an opportunity to step back. Whether both of the parties take advantage of the chance is a separate question.

If there isn’t payback, though, the destruction is guaranteed to continue, and by a single party alone—which would be much worse.

A Deliberate Move by the Progressive-Democratic Party

…against American citizenship and American citizens.

The Progressive-Democratic Party-backed Washington, DC, city council voted 12-1 (!) to allow anyone resident in the city for at least 30 days to vote in city elections. DC Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) didn’t have the courage to take an open position, one way or the other, on the bill; she allowed it to become the law of the city by simply not signing it. The new city law is so broadly written that illegal aliens and foreign college students would be able to vote, and

There’s nothing in this measure to prevent employees at embassies of governments that are openly hostile to the United States from casting ballots.

Now, courtesy of Bowser and her city council, anyone in the Russian, or the PRC, or the Venezuelan, or the… embassies can vote to choose the city’s elected officials up to and including the Mayor. To hell with what American citizen voters resident in the city want or vote for (or against).

Now the matter goes to Congress—the city being a Federal enclave—and those worthies have 30 days to vote it down. It’ll be instructive to see whether there are enough Party politicians in each house of Congress with enough understanding of the meaning of patriotism, and especially of the meaning of “American citizen,” to strike down this bill. As The Wall Street Journal editors put it, Let’s see the roll call.

Merrick Garland’s Special Prosecutor, in His Own Words

Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith as Special Prosecutor of former President Donald Trump (R). Leave aside the fact that while Smith was a lawyer in the Department of Justice a dozen years ago, he worked closely with the IRS’ then-Director Exempt Organizations, Lois Lerner, to target Conservative organizations applying for tax exempt status for slow-walking their applications or outright denial.  Never mind, either, that Smith brought a number of charges against a sitting Republican Governor and obtained convictions, thereby destroying his political career. Or that these convictions were overturned by the Supreme Court over Smith’s naked distortion, to the point of blatant unconstitutionality, of the laws under which Smith achieved his destruction.

Here is Special Counsel Jack Smith in his own words:

I intend to conduct the assigned investigations, and any prosecutions that may result from them, independently and in the best traditions of the Department of Justice[.]

Smith will both investigate and then prosecute. He can’t possibly—and this highly talented lawyer knows full well he can’t possibly—conduct his investigation and his prosecutions independently of each other. Sadly, though, he’s right that this is in the finest tradition of the politicized Eric Holder-, Loretta Lynch-, and Merrick Garland-run Department of Justice.

This is one more illustration of the naked political assault by President Joe Biden (D) and his Attorney General on a 2024 Presidential campaign competitor from a competing political party.

Merrick Garland’s Confession

Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed a Special Counsel to investigate former President Donald Trump’s (R) alleged involvement in both the Mar-a-Lago documents case and whether Mr. Trump or others “unlawfully interfered with the transfer of power” after the 2020 election. Here is Garland’s confession that his appointment is purely politically motivated.

Based on recent developments, including the former President’s announcement that he is a candidate for President in the next election, and the sitting President’s stated intention to be a candidate as well, I have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint a Special Counsel[.]

Garland could have appointed his special counsel months ago, as he was repeatedly encouraged to do over last summer. Instead—his own words, mind you—he chose to wait until the Presidential contest was joined to do so, and he did it on the heels of the contest’s beginning: just three days after Trump’s announcement.

This is Garland’s statement that his appointment is intended to influence the coming Presidential race in favor of his boss, President Joe Biden (D).

Republican Virtue-Signaling

Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives voted Wednesday to impeach Philadelphia’s District Attorney Larry Krasner over his position that some crimes, like prostitution, theft, and drug-related offenses would no longer be prosecuted and were therefore de facto legal. Krasner also stands accused of lying to judges and to crime victims. The vote was 107-85. With violent crime spiking as it is in Philadelphia during Krasner’s soft-on-crime term, it certainly seems he should be unceremoniously removed from office.

However.

Pennsylvania’s State Senate doesn’t even know when it’ll get around to trying him. It is certain, though, that there aren’t the votes to convict Krasner, and the Republicans in the House have known this all along.

This move goes along with the push by Republicans in the Federal House of Representatives to impeach DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and President Joe Biden—if, in fact, they win a majority of House seats. It’s certainly the case that Mayorkas badly needs removal, and it’s also likely that Biden is, for a number of reasons, unfit. House Republicans, though, know full well that there aren’t the votes in the Senate to convict either.

This is just Republicans yapping, it’s a waste of time, and the foolishness of it is one part of the reason the 2022 Red Wave turned out to be a little pink stain.