Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan Should Be Laughed Out of the House for This
If there was actual leadership in the United States House of Representatives, the bill proposed on Wednesday by two Freedom Caucus loonies, only one of whom is currently accused of turning a blind eye to the sexual abuse of college athletes, to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein would be consigned to the dustbin of dustbins, and its sponsors read into the outer darkness of the House Committee on Small Business.
Instead, because Speaker Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny starver from the state of Wisconsin, largely has taken leave of a job he wasn’t doing anyway, we actually have to deal with a piece of legislation that is merely a thinly camouflaged direct-mail appeal. From CNN:
The resolution to impeach Rosenstein, which Meadows and his conservative allies have been threatening for weeks, is the strongest step that conservative allies of President Donald Trump have taken in their feud with Rosenstein and the Justice Department. In a statement, Meadows said Rosenstein should be impeached because of the Justice Department's stonewalling of congressional subpoenas and hiding information from Congress, and for signing one of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant renewals for Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page. Rosenstein has fiercely pushed back against his House Republican critics, warning in May that the Justice Department is "not going to be extorted" amid threats that he could be impeached.
Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan have no formal positions in the barely discernible leadership of the House majority, but they command the loyalty of the Goobers and Gomers claque without whom Ryan couldn’t do his job, even if he wanted to do it. (Ryan just came out against the measure.) So, this little stunt got coverage all out of proportion to its actual importance. It is not filed as a privileged resolution, so the odds of it ever coming to a vote are extremely long, assuming Ryan doesn’t disincorporate entirely. And, even if it did, would you like to be a swing-state congresscritter who votes in favor of this resolution, simply to pull out of the fire the chestnuts of Carter Page, Ph.D.?
It has been argued by people that I respect that this resolution is merely the opening shot of a joint Congress-White House operation aimed at getting rid of Rosenstein for the purpose of getting rid of Robert Mueller. That seems a touch Machiavellian even to me. If the president* wanted to do this, he could fire them both. And if you argue that he needs the impeachment resolution as “cover,” then that means it has to come to a vote, and I don’t think that’s going to happen.
I think it’s a fundraising gimmick, and a noisy distraction aimed at deflecting attention from Michael Cohen and his Time-Life Treasury of Graft collection, which has rocketed to the top of the charts this week. And Robert Mueller, with no expression on his face, reaches across the desk for another document.
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