An Impeachment to Nowhere
The House of Representatives has opened up an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden. I am suddenly reminded of an old episode of the “Dukes of Hazzard” where Boss Hogg quipped that they would throw the Duke boys in jail. When asked the charge he just said they would come up with something later. Jurisprudence was set back a few centuries that day. Thank God it was just poorly written fiction.
Fiction has become reality as the Republicans in the House have no idea what crimes Biden committed. They just assume he has done something. His brother repaid a loan. His son repaid a loan. He was on the speaker phone once with someone his son worked with to say hello. These are all horrible crimes and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The trouble is that there isn’t a law against any of those things. I suppose the House could pass such a law on the fly to make it illegal, but they couldn’t pass gas at a family function. They’ve been the second least productive Congress in the nation’s history. They passed 22 bills in the last calendar year. The Congress between 1931 and 1932 passed the least with 21. Congratulations Kevin, er Mike er who is in charge now?
This is how things are going in Washington. Donald Trump was impeached twice and had a majority vote for conviction both times. Only two other presidents had been impeached previously. None have been convicted. The general idea is that Trump can then go on the campaign trail and argue that Biden was also impeached, so they really are just the same at the end of the day. Nihilism is defined as “the rejection of all religious and moral principles, in the belief that life is meaningless.” In other words, there are no rules and there is no discernable moral code. It is an old Soviet mind trick. Essentially, if everyone is evil then my evil really doesn’t matter. Sure, there are degrees of evil, but that is just a thought experiment. We then can compare Edwin Edwards to Ted Bundy and put them on the same pedestal of evil.
The folks in the House GOP are hoping that you don’t notice the difference. You won’t notice the difference between a man charged 91 different times in four different jurisdictions and a guy where criminal plots are being thrown out like a pitch meeting at the WB Network. The ever-relevant Hunter Biden offered to testify at a public hearing and James Comer made it sound like Biden had kicked his dog. How dare you expose our bullshit in front of God and everyone?
The sad thing is that this actually works on some people. Thankfully, it won’t work on enough to make a big difference. Most of his voters know Biden isn’t really a crook. They know their guy is. They just don’t care. He is a crook fighting for them. At least he’s fighting the same people they fight with on a regular basis. Well, maybe he’s just using a bunch of fighting words.
It’s going to be entertaining though. Forget about anything getting done. We have another budget crunch coming in February and this particular Congress seems incapable of focusing on two things at once. Do we focus on the fake impeachment and manufacturing evidence of a crime that isn’t really a crime? Do we focus on actually funding the government and making sure essential services are met? Damn this is hard.
“…poorly written fiction”? It’s How It Has Been Done in rural America since Day 1, and still, and foreseeably.
1In the spirit of Walter Cronkite’s habitual sign off:
“And that’s the way it is, Friday, December 15, 2023.”
There really isn’t anything else to say.
2“It’s going to be entertaining though.”
I know my Republican sister gets up every morning, clicks on Fox News if her husband hasn’t beat her to it, to see what Hunter Biden news came down the wire last night. Or what new encrypted file on his laptop might have been cracked by “top men” on Comer’s staff.
For some of us, we just have to be grateful this laptop impeachment thing is run by such a bunch of transparent idiots. Like children in the 5th grade planning a bank heist.
3The Friday cartoon about the gop Biden impeachment says it all. It was inevitable that the gop house of vengeance would pursue impeachment of Joe Biden. It’s easy to build a case when facts don’t matter. To them (and their voters), facts about trumpf crimes were lies and facts supporting Biden are irrelevant. If I were a betting man, I’d say despite no evidence against Joe Biden, the house of vengeance will move quickly through an inquiry and get to articles of impeachment they can vote on in 2024. Since facts don’t matter, they’ll be able to impeach him so trumpf’s impeachments will be cancelled out, as you pointed out, Nick.
4It is kinda like a Star Chamber.
5At least one R Senator has publicly declared that anything Biden did before his presidency is off the table. Amazing! One R who actually made sense! Lets see how long his career lasts.
6Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO) pointed out that since they took the majority back in January, the NSGOP has tried twice to shut down the government, threatened to default on the debt, and now have launched an evidence-free impeachment investigation against Hunter Biden. (That’s not a typo…)
What should we expect from the malignant spawn of libertarianism and Christian nationalism? One wants to get rid of government altogether, and the other wants to run government its way or the highway. What gets me is that so many people in this country – and especially in Texas – seem to think that’s just fine.
7