The House Select Committee that purports to investigate the “insurrection” of January 6, 2021, started holding hearings today. I don’t intend to write much about this farce, as I think it is one of the dumbest things we have seen in many years. This is true for many reasons:
* We Republicans may have our faults, but if we were actually going to stage an insurrection, at least one of us would remember to bring a firearm.
* Along the same lines, if we were to undertake an insurrection, we would not call on a “shaman” wearing horns and a fur hat to lead it.
* An actual insurrection would result in casualties. Here, the only person who died, or was seriously injured, other than by natural causes, was Ashli Babbitt. Will Pelosi’s committee call the officer who shot her as a witness? Inquiring minds want to know.
* If the committee wants to investigate violent riots in Washington, D.C., it is barking up the wrong tree. There was a real riot on the day when Donald Trump was inaugurated in 2017, with businesses looted, buildings and vehicles burned, and innocent passers-by assaulted. Likewise, in July 2016 there was another real riot, in which (going from memory) around 60 D.C. police officers were wounded, and much property was destroyed. Do you suppose the Democrats are interested in investigating those riots?
* There actually is one aspect of the January 6 protest that deserves investigation: the performance of Capitol security. The fact that a small rabble of unarmed protesters was able to access the Capitol illegally is, or should be, shocking. Moreover, we have all seen the video of the Capitol entrance where guards opened the doors and waved the protesters into the building. The protesters entered in an orderly fashion, taking photos with their cell phones and carefully staying between the red velvet ropes. I suspect that most of those who entered the Capitol on January 6 were invited in by guards. I have never seen an explanation of how and why this happened. Will the committee investigate this bizarre breakdown in security?
Just kidding.
* The committee is proceeding without meaningful participations by the Republicans. To their everlasting shame, two alleged Republicans responded to Pelosi’s summons as collaborators. But no one on the committee will be a voice of sanity.
* This committee reminds me of the Select Committee on Assassinations that House Democrats appointed, as I recall, some time during the 1970s. That committee, staffed by the usual suspects, purported to investigate the John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King assassinations. The committee wrote a report that concluded, if I remember correctly, that all three assassinations were fruits of conspiracies. If you don’t remember that bit of history, you are not alone. The committee’s report was generally viewed as an embarrassment and was quietly shelved. The current committee will, I think, be similarly forgotten.
On the bright side, I don’t believe the Democrats are fooling anyone. The current “investigation” is a joke, and I think everyone understands that. The New York Times et al. may pontificate about the “insurrection,” but the whole thing is a farce that will get the Dems nowhere.
It also is a reprise of the Dems’ unconstitutional–in my opinion–second impeachment of President Trump. That impeachment did nothing for the Dems, as far as I could see, and the current version is lamer, if only because of the lapse of time. If Joe Biden’s policies had not proved a comprehensive failure, the Democrats would not be trying to focus attention on an ex-president of the opposite party.
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