After endless, tiresome, and ultimately pointless tirades about lies and corruption and election interference at the hands of prominent Democrats and bitter, conniving loser Hillary Clinton, House Republicans finally had a chance last week to live up to their words. Accountability was on the docket thanks to Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s (R-FL) H.Res. 489, “Censuring and condemning Adam Schiff, Representative of California’s 30th Congressional District.”
The GOP Conference agrees that Adam Schiff has betrayed the trust of the American people, purposely abused positions of extreme authority, lied continuously, and as such, must be held to account.1
These were the words conservative Americans needed to hear from Republicans after our twice-impeached former president was indicted twice and again dragged through the muck as the Democrat Party gears up to make sure whoever gives Joe Biden his marching orders gets another four years. Finally, Republican losers were ready to be winners. The House GOP was going to take a stand and show the nation that the Democrat machine’s might does not always make right. Allegations of Adam Schiff’s lies and outrageous abuse of power were the perfect example. The stage was set.
20 Republicans joined their Democrat colleagues to make sure Luna’s resolution failed. 3 more did not vote. 2 voted present. Victory slipped away. Republicans were losers again.
Losers again. How much abuse can conservatives take?
In the wake of Nancy Pelosi’s January 6th Kangaroo Court, two sham partisan impeachments, the Durham report findings, two new legal assaults on the GOP presidential frontrunner, and stunning revelations about the Biden family’s business dealings by Rep. James Comer’s (R-KY) Oversight Committee that the Democrat Party’s state media refuses to report on, it was high time for Republicans to strike back.
The Schiff censure resolution fit the bill. This was a badly needed chance for the Republican Party to prove that conservative lawmakers aren’t afraid to challenge Democrats on their own turf and punish the nefarious acts they call out and Washington’s political left always seems to get away with no matter how egregious the offense.
We had hope, but to date Comer’s investigations only seem to create more investigations that will likely go nowhere with a Democrat-controlled Senate standing in the way. Republican legislation from the House will meet the same fate. It’s good for a few press releases and that’s about it.
H.Res. 489 was different. This was a chance to draw a little blood, to show that Republican losers are anything but. Most important, Republicans could finally show conservatives who are rapidly losing hope that our country can be saved from the Democrat Party and its allegedly corrupt, lying president that they are not weak, powerless losers.
They failed.
Contemplation of Justice
Architect of the Capitol3
Only 10 Republicans agreed to cosponsor Schiff’s censure. A similar measure, H.Res. 604 was introduced by House Republican Andy Biggs (R-AZ) in September 2019. That effort never came up for a vote, but it netted 151 Republican cosponsors in a House dominated by Democrats.
Why was the sure to lose Biggs resolution a better bet for Republicans who just showed America that Democrat might really does make right, even when their majority gives them a chance to make a statement that proves otherwise or at least to show they are capable of the same solidarity as their opponents?
Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) explained his vote against censuring Schiff:
Mr. Schiff’s active role in promoting this [Russia collusion] hoax is disgraceful and damning.
But that is not the question before us. The question before us is whether a member of Congress should be censored and fined for speech, even outlandish speech, during the public policy debate. We have gone much too far down this road and it is time we turned back.2
Wrong. This wasn’t about “outlandish speech.” Outrageous hyperbole is the stock in trade of House lawmakers. Schiff spread a partisan hoax that undermined the nation’s confidence in a sitting president that potentially interfered with a presidential election.
Three months before election day 2020 the congressman remarked:
In short, the Trump campaign invited illicit Russian help, made full use of that help while Russia’s covert campaign was underway, and then lied and obstructed the investigations in order to cover up this misconduct. As several Senators noted in a separate conclusion: ‘This is what collusion looks like.’4
This is what a massive fraud designed to deliver political might to the Democrat Party looks like.
Actually, some politicians are above the law
The real question is whether Republicans are content with being the party of losers who whine and complain to their base and hold investigations with no realistic end game in sight because the Democrat Party’s control of Washington is too powerful to challenge.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), who voted “present” declared:
Countless times, Adam Schiff has said: No one is above the law. He is about to find out that is true.5
It seems this is not, in fact, true. Unlike the powerful Democrat machine, Republicans won’t stand together for their base.
“No one is above the law” is the same argument Democrats employ to justify their political persecution of Donald Trump. By refusing to censure Schiff, at least 20 GOP House members showed us that this maxim is not universal and that some of their colleagues are, in fact, above reproach.
Did the Republicans who spared Schiff agree with McClintock about going too far down the road? If the penalty was the excuse, Luna’s resolution did not mandate a fine. It called for an investigation and states “he should be fined.” This was a detail to work out later, after lawmakers passed the measure and got their foot in the door.
As far as outlandish speech is concerned, extreme Radical Democrat and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) just blasted his GOP opponents for “the type of lawlessness and disorder that does get people hurt.”6 The gloves certainly seem to be off. By all appearances Republicans are content to be pummeled by liberal politicians who know no boundaries and believe that might makes right even if it means promoting a massive fraud to deceive the American people.
Rejection of Luna’s resolution is what we have come to expect from Republicans who talk a big game, hold lots of showy hearings and investigations, but rarely summon the might to effectively confront their opposition. Conservative Americans deserve better than a party whose lawmakers helped bring Biden’s infrastructure bill over the finish line but can’t agree to punish Schiff. Democrats know better. When Donald Trump developed the COVID-19 vaccine we were warned away. When Biden took over, the same vaccine became a mandate Democrats took credit for.
Schiff’s lies and deceptions were just part of a vast Democrat Party-Deep State conspiracy that twice failed to throw Donald Trump out of the White House and now wants him imprisoned for the remainder of his days. This is emblematic of the left-wing political tyranny the GOP seems famously unable to confront while Biden’s Justice Department steps up its game and tries to eliminate the president’s 2024 challenger and the best hope for Republicans to reclaim the White House and reverse liberal America’s accelerating death spiral.
FBI’s Abbate says no to Cruz and that’s as far as it will go.
Many of us watched Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) question FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate about the elusive FD-1023 whistleblower form. Abbate refused to comment. Cruz got angry. That’s as far as it went.
While conservative media rightfully praised the senator’s outrage, this was not a victory for Republicans. It proved again how powerless the GOP is in the face of allegations that our Deep State protects a failing and allegedly corrupt president at any and all costs.
After watching James Comer (R-KY) make the evening rounds on Fox News and reading his increasingly frustrating press releases about the progress of the House Oversight Committee investigation into alleged Biden corruption, it’s long past time to ask where his efforts are headed. Curiously, when the congressman appears on conservative media interviews he is rarely, if ever asked the question we all want an answer to: if you prove your allegations are true, what comes next?
Most of us suspect the answer. It spells the beginning of the end of our country by an entitled political left that puts itself first and America dead last.
You have heard it many times and it bears repeating: if a Republican and especially a member of the Trump family was accused of the same offenses as Hunter Biden*, that person would be quickly prosecuted beyond the fullest extent of the law. Trump was indicted, then booked almost immediately while our liberal, pro-Democrat wheels of justice tread water and refuse to come clean about the whistleblower FD-1023 smoking gun or allegations of Biden family shell companies and suspicious financial transactions.7 Meanwhile, the Democrat Party media speculates about a criminal Republican president with an ankle monitor and remains mute about any developments in the Biden scandal.
Might is about more than numbers. It’s about strength of will.
Are Republicans afraid of being accused of defending Trump if they take a stand, are they fearful their members might be next despite their House majority, or do they like being losers who know they always have a ready excuse for not standing up for America with anything but empty words and hollow promises?
Don’t confuse passing legislation that will die in the Senate for progress. Luna’s censure resolution was the next best thing and an opportunity to take a stand for progress against Democrat control that dooms our nation.
There was little to be lost by taking a stand against Schiff, other than sparing Republican voters more pointless hyperbole about election interference the GOP seems powerless to do anything about. Hillary Clinton’s Steele dossier, the impetus behind Schiff and the Democrat Party’s historic Trump-Russia fraud, will go unpunished as will the politicians who promoted this scam.
Democrats have stepped up their game. The outrages against America’s political conservatives have risen well above the level of the usual political lies and deception. Their party will, in all likelihood, determine who runs for president on the Republican GOP ticket. They don’t want Trump and will probably get their way. Considering Republicans won’t even live up their words about Schiff, Hillary Clinton, and election interference and manipulation by the political left, they know they have little to fear and nothing to lose because might makes right. By refusing to pass H.Res. 489, Republicans just proveed it.
*Author’s note: moments after I published this post the news broke of the Justice Department’s misdemeanor plea deal to resolve Hunter Biden’s tax problems. By all appearances, Joe’s might truly does make right.
Republicans, take note. This plea deal will make the results of your investigation of Hunter’s dad look like the justice victory of the century.
You should have handed your base the Schiff censure when you had the chance. Even this small win would have been better than losing.
Sources
1“BREAKING: Rep. Luna Files Privileged Resolution to Censure, Condemn, and Fine Rep. Adam Schiff.” luna.house.gov. May 23, 2023. https://luna.house.gov/posts/breaking-rep-luna-files-privileged-resolution-to-censure-condemn-and-fine-rep-adam-schiff, retrieved June 16, 2023.
2“Why I Oppose the Censure and Fine Adam Schiff.” mcclintock.house.gov. June 14, 2023. https://mcclintock.house.gov/newsroom/columns/why-i-oppose-censure-and-fine-adam-schiff, retrieved June 15, 2023.
3“Statue of Contemplation of Justice by James Earle Fraser on the U.S. Supreme Court Building’s main steps.” Architect of the Capitol. https://www.aoc.gov/media/3454, retrieved June 1, 2023.
4“Chairman Schiff Statement on Senate Intelligence Committee Trump-Russia Report on Counterintelligence Vulnerabilities.” democrats-intelligence.house.gov. August 18, 2020. https://democrats-intelligence.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=1038, retrieved June 15, 2023.
5”Issa: Adam Schiff Needs to Be Called Before Ethics Committee.” issa.house.gov. June 14, 2023. https://issa.house.gov/media/press-releases/issa-adam-schiff-needs-be-called-ethics-committee, retrieved June 16, 2023.
6“Leader Jeffries on MSNBC: “Extreme MAGA Republicans Have Leaned into Lawlessness and Disorder.” democraticleader.house.gov. June 11, 2023. https://democraticleader.house.gov/media/press-releases/leader-jeffries-msnbc-extreme-maga-republicans-have-leaned-lawlessness-and, retrieved June 11, 2023.
7“Grassley & Comer To Wray: Provide The Unclassified Documents Or Face Contempt.” grassley.senate.gov. May 31, 2023. https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/grassley-and-comer-to-wray-provide-the-unclassified-documents-or-face-contempt, retrieved June 2, 2023.
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