House Speaker Mike Johnson called an early recess for the Thanksgiving break on Thursday. Republicans need a rest. They were so punchy from all the infighting and name-calling that they just allowed a short term continuing resolution with no budget cuts to pass, mostly with Democratic votes, and couldn't even work up a good old-fashioned cry. There are a few diehards still shaking their fists on the Capitol steps and vowing never to let this happen again but nobody has the energy to cheer them on at this point:
"Strike one, strike two," Chip Roy warns Speaker Johnson after short-term spending bill was approved with Dem support under suspension of the rules and without spending cuts.
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) November 16, 2023
"The swamp won and the speaker needs to know that."
MTG: "It's extremely concerning to me" pic.twitter.com/P7IbW5MJqZ
The GOP obsession with "individual spending bills" instead of packaging it all together in "omnibus" legislation doesn't seem like the greatest idea at the moment: They can't even get their own draconian spending bills to the floor, much less pass them. So I'm not sure why a decent number of Republican hard-liners thought a government shutdown was going to shake anything loose. Not that it really matters. They haven't done any actual legislating since this Congress convened nearly a year ago. Why start now?
America is tired too — tired of their inane, infantile behavior. Many people are no doubt grateful to be spared any more of it for at least the next week or so. Unfortunately, these Republicans are ready to hit the ground running when they come back, with the only thing they actually know how to do: put on a circus sideshow to own the libs.
Johnson issued a statement this week suggesting that it's time to put the finishing touches on the most important priority of this Congress, impeaching Joe Biden:
At this stage, our impeachment inquiry has already shown the corrupt conduct of the President’s family, and that he and White House officials have repeatedly lied about his knowledge and involvement in his family’s business activities. It has also exposed the tens of millions of dollars from foreign adversaries being paid to shell companies controlled by the president’s son, brother, and their business associates. Now, the appropriate step is to place key witnesses under oath and question them under the penalty of perjury, to fill gaps in the record.
Well, except that in the realm of reality the impeachment inquiry has been a total bust. Most of what Republicans claim has been "exposed" was already known before they started. None of it showed corrupt behavior then, and it doesn't now. This business about "shell companies" has been debunked over and over again. The companies the Republicans imply are shady money-laundering entities, described by House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., as "fake" companies that "don’t make anything ... don’t produce anything ... [and] don’t provide a good or service" are actual businesses with employees and everything. It may sound impressive to sling those important-sounding words around on Sean Hannity's show, but that doesn't make them true or meaningful.
Comer's committee has already subpoenaed thousands of documents and bank records. As far as we know, the only thing they've turned up is a $200,000 check from James Biden, paying back a loan to his brother — who held no public office at the time — which the House GOP would like to claim as evidence of some sort of criminal scheme. Apparently, Comer and company forgot to mention that the same bank documents show that Joe Biden's loan to James was made and then paid back within a matter of weeks, undermining any suggestion that it reflected some sinister plot concocted years earlier, when Joe Biden was vice president. (Indeed, it turns out that Comer himself has a history of six-figure transactions with his own brother, which have potentially significant tax implications, and Comer was infuriated when that was pointed out during a hearing on Tuesday.)
Last week the committee sent voluntary interview requests to several members of Biden's family, including Sara Biden, the wife of James Biden; Hallie Biden, the widow of Beau Biden, the president's late son; Elizabeth Secundy, Hallie Biden's sister; and. Melissa Cohen, the wife of Hunter Biden.
It has also summoned Tony Bobulinski, a shadowy former associate of Hunter Biden. He's the guy who, according to former Trump White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson, wore a ski mask for a clandestine meeting with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. We don't know if or when any of these people may appear before the committee.
Comer has also authorized subpoenas of Hunter Biden, James Biden and Rob Walker, another of Hunter Biden's business associates. They want Walker to appear on Nov. 29, James Biden on Dec. 4 and Hunter Biden the following week, perhaps as an early Christmas present to Donald Trump.
But if this testimony goes as poorly for Republicans as did the first and only hearing they have held, I won't be surprised if we end up with another brawl in the committee room. One Republican staffer called that event "an unmitigated disaster" and another said they had "botched this bad."
Even their biggest fans were not impressed:
On Steve Bannon’s show, they have been ripping Jim Jordan and James Comer all day: “Today really was rock bottom. Our House Republicans don’t know what they’re doing. These people are fundamentally unserious.” pic.twitter.com/cWsimz2uW5
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) September 28, 2023
In case you missed the excitement, Democrats on the committee ran circles around the GOP's so-called expert witnesses, who ended up admitting that there wasn't anywhere near enough evidence for impeachment and once again recited all the exonerating facts about Hunter Biden's business dealings in Ukraine. It got so bad that Comer said afterward that he didn't think there'd be a need for any more public hearings.
Speaker Johnson said recently, in a closed door meeting, that he wasn't sure it was necessary to continue with the inquiry at all, since Biden's popularity was already low, proving beyond a doubt that this whole enterprise is a purely partisan effort to damage the president's re-election chances. (You may recall that Kevin McCarthy's very first bid for the speakership fell apart, way back in 2014, for admitting the same thing about the Benghazi hearings and Hillary Clinton.)
But House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is refusing to give up, which is certainly on brand. He wants the chance to browbeat Hunter and James Biden on TV, so they're going to try to launch this overloaded rocket one more time. I wouldn't expect it to be any more convincing than the first, though it will get huge ratings on Fox News, where the prime-time hosts will be frothing at the mouth. And that, in the end, is the most important part of the job description for Republicans in Congress.
When all is said and done, Joe Biden will almost certainly be impeached. Of course they don't have enough evidence, but that really doesn't matter. It's conceivable that a few GOP members in swing districts, who fear losing their seats next year, might bail out and the vote will fall short, but I wouldn't count on it:
Hannity asked House Republicans if they expect Joe Biden to be impeached.
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) November 2, 2023
Nearly everyone in the room raised their hands. pic.twitter.com/E36Fz8a2yH
House Republicans may not be able to perform the most basic functions of governing, but they know that their de facto leader, down in Mar-a-Lago, demands his retribution. And they will do his bidding if they possibly can.
