Americans are paying attention to the January 6 Committee

J/6 Opinion: I thought the January 6 committee wouldn’t matter. 

But I was wrong, essay by Max Boot published in The Washington Post.

I admit to having been skeptical, ahead of time, of the hearings planned by the House select committee investigating the events of Jan. 6, 2021. What more is there to be said, I wondered? 

Frankly, the evidence of Donald Trump’s guilt in inciting an insurrection was already so obvious that it was hard to imagine that the committee would have much to add. This was not, after all, a situation such as Watergate, where the scandal happened behind closed doors. The entire nation saw Trump’s incendiary remarks and tweets, and the riot that followed, on national television.

I am happy to say I was wrong. The committee’s hearings are exceeding expectations, because it is not behaving like a typical congressional committee. There is no grandstanding and no preening. There are no petty partisan squabbles. There is not even the disjointedness that normally occurs when a bunch of politicians are each given five minutes to question each witness. There is only the relentless march of evidence, all of it deeply incriminating to a certain former president who keeps insisting that he was robbed of his rightful election victory.

The committee’s recent hearings — there have been two (now 6/21 three) in the past week, with more planned — have been organized like carefully choreographed television productions, and I mean that as a compliment. The committee has been focused on doing what all good television productions, whether factual or fictional, do: telling a story that enthralls the viewer.

January 6 Committee hearings Chairman Bennie Thompson and Co-Chair Liz Cheney

Only a few of the committee members have spoken so far. Imagine what heroic self-restraint it takes for elected officials to understand that they can make a greater impact with their silence than with noisy blather. The members are allowing their staffers to play an unusually prominent role not only in questioning witnesses on tape but acting as narrators for mini-documentaries laying out what they have found.

The biggest complaint against the committee, heard at ever-increasing decibels from Republicans, is that it is a partisan hit job — and never mind that two prominent Republicans sit on the committee. Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) are denigrated as RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) because they had the courage to act on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s convictions. (McCarthy initially held Trump responsible for the mob attack but voted against impeaching him.)

Accusations of partisanship have been amply refuted by the hearings, which have been entirely factual and notably free of partisan rancor. There have been no anti-Trump, much less anti-Republican, rants. The committee members are focused with forensic, factual intensity on the question of Trump’s responsibility for the events of January 6. They are making a case beyond any reasonable doubt in the court of public opinion, even if it remains to be seen whether there is sufficient evidence to indict Trump in an actual court of law.

The biggest complaint against the committee, heard at ever-increasing decibels from Republicans, is that it is a partisan hit job — and never mind that two prominent Republicans sit on the committee. Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) are denigrated as RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) because they had the courage to act on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s convictions. (McCarthy initially held Trump responsible for the mob attack but voted against impeaching him.)

Accusations of partisanship have been amply refuted by the hearings, which have been entirely factual and notably free of partisan rancor. There have been no anti-Trump, much less anti-Republican, rants. The committee members are focused with forensic, factual intensity on the question of Trump’s responsibility for the events of January 6. They are making a case beyond any reasonable doubt in the court of public opinion, even if it remains to be seen whether there is sufficient evidence to indict Trump in an actual court of law.

Barr’s statement was seen by some lawyers as evidence of the “criminal intent” that would be needed to convict Trump of crimes, such as sedition. Whether that is accurate or not, Trump’s own aides have made an open-and-shut case that he is not fit to run Mar-a-Lago, much less the United States of America. Either Trump is spectacularly delusional or spectacularly dishonest. Take your choice. Or maybe he’s both? Whichever the case, he has no business returning to the nation’s highest office.

Mississippi echo opinion ~ Republican tax cuts for the rich

A letter to the editor published in the Mississippi Daily Journal newspaper ~ echo:

Republicans abandoned principles with omnibus bill

It is time to remodel and upgrade the Republican Party to reflect current standards.

Since the party has abandoned the platform and promises of 2016, the first change should be to swap the elephant for a rhinoceros and the GOP logo to RINO (Republican In Name Only).

The $1.3 trillion omnibus appropriations bill just passed by Republican majorities in both the Senate and House violates nearly every principle and promise made to conservative Republicans while granting Democrats everything they asked for.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said it best, “It’s a funny thing. We’re able to accomplish more in the minority than we were when we had the presidency or even were in the majority.”

They were able to fully fund Planned Parenthood and Obamacare*, double the number of immigrant workers to compete with citizens and students for jobs, and funded programs the Secretary of Education had been eliminating because they were unneeded and unnecessary.

This pork-laden bill that will only fund the government for the last 6 months of the fiscal year will add an estimated $1 trillion to the debt.

Republicans studied the way Democrats passed Obamacare because the Republican leadership used the “Pelosi rule” of “pass it and then we will find out what is in it” tactic to ram this 2,232 page bill through a vote before legislators had a chance to comprehend what they were voting on.

Rep. Trent Kelly should be complimented as the only member of our Mississippi legislative delegation who refused to compromise his conservative principles and voted no on the bill. All of the others abandoned their principles and voted to hand this wasteful victory to the Democrats.

This brings up the question of what to do in November. 

Do we stay with incumbent RINO’s who have confused leadership with rubber stamping Democrat demands, or do we start looking for some real conservatives to support.

The decision is not hard for me when I look at the $21 trillion in debt our legislators approved that our grandchildren will have to pay back.

Raymond Settle, Blue Mountain, Mississippi

*Taaaadaaa! :))