Treason’s okie-dokie if you’re a Republican

Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez tweeted a policy issue (which would take me a while to explain and not a part of my story). Sen. Ted Cruz tweeted that he fully agreed. AOC had a few things to say to him:

I am happy to work with Republicans on this issue where there’s common ground, but you almost had me murdered 3 weeks ago so you can sit this one out. Happy to work w/ almost any other GOP that aren’t trying to get me killed. In the meantime if you want to help, you can resign. While you conveniently talk about “moving on,” a second Capitol police officer lost their life yesterday in the still-raging aftermath of the attacks you had a role in. This isn’t a joke. We need accountability, and that includes a new Senator from Texas. You haven’t even apologized for the serious physical + mental harm you contributed to from Capitol Police & custodial workers to your own fellow members of Congress. In the meantime, you can get off my timeline & stop clout-chasing. Thanks. Happy to work with other GOP on this.

After Cruz commented on the “partisan anger and rage on the Democratic side” AOC tweeted back:

Oh, there’s anger? Now why would there be anger that Cruz amplified known lies about our election that fueled an insurrection that cost ppl’s lives? What does he think the logical response to his lies should be? A hug? Maybe there’s anger bc his actions deserve accountability. “We need healing + unity, but I will not take any responsibility for my actions, nor will I acknowledge the contributions my lies made to the violence or the harm that it caused, nor do I believe anyone should be held accountable. But if you’re mad at that you’re divisive.” - GOP

Last Monday I mentioned that Mark Sumner of Daily Kos wrote an insurrection timeline with 60 events from election day to inauguration that show the nasty guy was plotting sedition. Sumner has posted an expanded version of the timeline both with more events (I didn’t count this time) and more explanation of each event. He included a timeline of the January 6 storming of the Capitol. Joan McCarter of Kos reported that Moscow Mitch is again threatening the Senate over “minority rights” such as the right to filibuster. His threat this time is to require a quorum for everything. McCarter explained how disruptive that would be. In the meantime Mitch, though he caved on the requirement the filibuster never be overturned, is still dragging his heels on the power sharing agreement. That means the GOP is still in control of the committees. David Nir of Kos added that forcing a quorum on everything could backfire on Mitch. When a quorum call is issued, members have to appear. Capitol police can be sent to haul in missing senators. The last time that happened (in 1988) a senator was carried into the chamber by three police officers: Nir wrote:

But forcing this kind of spectacle would only highlight Republican obstructionism in the worst possible way, and it would only further radicalize Democrats in favor of curtailing the very thing McConnell is most desperate to protect: the filibuster. That would be McConnell’s true nightmare, and one of his own doing.

Laura Clawson of Kos reported that Moscow Mitch is very good at manipulating the media. The latest evidence is he made a big deal of saying he might maybe vote to convict in the second impeachment trial. At the same time he prevented the Senate from returning before the inauguration, guaranteeing the trial would be after. Then he voted against holding a retroactive trial that is only retroactive because of his actions. And he gets the headlines of being the “Very Serious Reasonable Person.” About that vote about the retroactive trial – one GOP senator (I forget which one) demanded a vote on whether it was proper to hold a trial when the perpetrator had already left office. That this is constitutional is verified by scholars and actually used by Congress a couple decades ago (though not against a sitting president). Five GOP senators voted to say the trial is constitutional. Mary Trump tweeted:

Tonight 45 Senate republicans declared their contempt for the Constitution they swore to defend and protect. This gives the Democrats the green light to do what they must to preserve our democracy: Expand the Supreme Court, double the federal judiciary, end the filibuster NOW.

As a reminder of what happened during the insurrection Mangy Jay tweeted (and included the source):

~140 officers were injured in the Capitol attack. Some specifics: -1 officer beaten to death -multiple officers w/ traumatic brain injury -1 officer w/ smashed spinal discs & cracked ribs -1 officer who will lose his eye -1 officer who was stabbed w/ a stake -2 died by suicide "Blue Lives Matter" has always just been code for "Black Lives Don't."

We’ve seen when blue lives get in the way they don’t matter either. Back in December when Joe Biden proposed a national mask mandate Rep. Chip Roy of Texas responded with “Kiss my a--.” John Stoehr, whose Editorial Board newsletter tries to explain politics in plain English, explained what is going on and linked it to the impeachment trial. Here’s part of it:

It’s tempting to say Roy is a phony. However, we’d be missing something important if we left it at that. What if he means it? He says he’s a patriot, as do the 200 other House Republicans who voted against indicting Trump on a charge of inciting insurrection against the US. Ditto for the 45 Rs senators who voted against moving forward w/ Trump’s trial. (They lost.) Let’s assume they mean it when they say they’re fighting for the love of country. The question becomes: what kind of country do they love? What kind of country do they protect? When framed this way, it’s clear the difference between Biden and Roy isn’t a one of “real” patriotism versus “fake” patriotism but one of competing patriotisms. For Biden, it’s love of the whole nation, the actual America, the one we can see and touch and smell. For Roy? If I were to guess, I’d say, as I have many times before (sorry!), that he’s fighting for an wholly imagined “nation” inside the real nation, a place where “real Americans” believe they are ordained by God to rule the country in His name. The difference between these patriotisms was hard to see as long as democracy lent itself to these confederate ends. But democracy and its institutions over the last two decades, especially, has gotten in the way. It has given rights, privileges & power to people the confederates believe are undeserving of them. Democracy, in giving rights, privileges and political power to undeserving people, is taking something away. To defend democracy now is to be complicit in one’s own mugging. The difference between these patriotisms was also hard to see as long as the Democrats trusted the Republicans to act in good faith. Before Trump ascended to power (before the Republicans looked away while a foreign government sabotaged his Democratic rival), the Democrats believed it was important to work w/ the Rs in order to serve the whole country, not just its constituent parts. They appear to have learned their lesson from the era of the first Black president. They appear ready to do what's right, regardless of what the GOP thinks. More importantly, I think, they have maneuvered the Republicans into a position in which they are forced to declare their true loyalties—not loyalty to the real America for which we should all stand but but loyalty to a white confederacy dedicated to creating a nation by which the in-group is protected but unbound by law while the out-group is bound but unprotected. The Rs worked to convict a Dem president for lying to a grand jury (Clinton), but they are poised to acquit a R president for treason. This is *separate and unequal* writ large. Yet this might not be obvious had the Dems decided to move on “for the sake of the country.” Even if acquitted, impeaching Trump is meaningful for another reason. Two hundred and forty-six out of 261 Republicans say, in effect, that treason’s okie-dokie if you’re a Republican. So the Democrats can safely ignore their demands, because there’s nothing but downside to negotiating with terrorists and their confederate enablers.

Democratic Senator Tim Kaine suggested if the GOP was going to unite in acquitting the nasty guy of the impeachment charge, perhaps the Senate should try censure instead. Hunter of Kos explained why that’s a really bad idea. There needs to be more than a stern finger-wagging.

It was an insurrection against the government, and if there is no stomach among Republican lawmakers for punishing it as such, it is because they were themselves allied with those efforts. They remain allied in a unified attempt to dodge repercussions for attempting to overturn an election that did not go their way. ... If Republican senators are going to vote to immunize Trump even from an attempt to overthrow the government, oblige them to cast that vote. There needs to be a list. There needs to be a record. Fortunately, there appears to be little to no support for allowing Republicans to dodge a trial; this "censure" nonsense is likely to be over before it begins. We're going to get a list of which top Republicans truly believe, even now, that Donald Trump's actions were within the bounds of what America should allow. It will be a long list, and everyone on it will be senators who have betrayed their nation countless times before in their bid to normalize abject corruption in service to Republican power.

Andrew Wortman tweeted:

A Nazi loving 25 year old who can’t spell his name; a woman in a domestic terrorist cult that believes Trump was anointed to take down satanic democratic pedophiles; & a gun-toting lunatic who worked with the terrorists to have @SpeakerPelosi killed are all still in Congress. If this is the future of the GOP, and I don’t doubt that it is, fine. You’ll never hold majorities in either chamber again. But right now, these 3 individuals are a direct threat to our national security. If Pelosi won’t move to expel them, we must call for their resignation.

McCarter reported that now the nasty guy is gone and Moscow Mitch is no longer leading the Senate, a few federal judges are now saying maybe it is time to retire. They waited until now because the one thing Mitch was good at was confirming ultra-conservative judges. And now Biden can nominate and the Senate confirm (no filibuster allowed) progressive judges. Since many district courts and appeals courts are overworked and understaffed it is a good time to expand the number of judges. Biden won’t be so slow in nominating judges to fill those seats as his former boss Obama was (and many of the ones he did nominate were blocked by Mitch). There’s a Senate tradition of “blue slips” – that when a judge is nominated the senator from the judge’s state can agree with or slow down the confirmation process. But this isn’t law and it’s about time the Judiciary Committee drop the practice.