Haha...Said as the obvious should matter to these clowns. They checked their moral imperatives at the door, by their support of Trump they've displayed their contempt for all things morally grounded.

Pelosi has the GOP by the short and curly hairs.

For anyone to place two or three career diplomats' lives, and the resulting years of Clinton's blame over the five lives lost in more egregious acts of governmental sloppiness, is fucking abhorrent.

If the GQP had even a smattering of common sense they'd throw all their dead-weight overboard. The hard right, given what I've seen, barely vote and rarely move the needle. Why pander to people whom the majority of Americans see as white trash?

Unless white trash is what you are.

LL&P

What would you have them do? Punish Manchin and Sinema? McConnell would welcome both of them into his club and probably reward them with just about anything they want.

Thanks to those two (and others who are less vocal), there will be no legislation regarding climate change, police reform, marijuana legalization, or anything else that matters to the black voters and young voters they need. The Dems are focused as usual on older, white voters who won't vote for them.

So, they'll have to work with what's available and that's fear of the orange one and his band of terrorists.

BTW - "efforts across the country to restrict voting rights" is not the issue that matters. If people really want to vote, they will. Republican legislation that will allow Republican legislatures to substitute their preferred candidates for actual winning candidates is what needs to be addressed. Don't hold your breath.

You want to talk about behind the scenes leadership. I sure hope there is some on the Democratic side!

Are you freakin' kidding me!?

The instigators are acting in full public view.

Yes, domestic terrorism needs to be addressed and it goes way, way beyond the Capitol insurrection.

If all you've got is a congressional committee, you ain't got much.

even if the republicans do clean up in the midterms, domestic terrorism needs to be addressed, and the instigators of 1/6 need to be brought into the light. i'm not talking about the losing presidential candidate, i mean the behind the scenes leadership.

JL

And, haven't any of you read Chris's book!!!???

Well, it'll come to you on the bus home ... I hope. :)

If that is the case, the the Democrats have already lost both houses of Congress.

the president won't, the doj can't, and nobody else has the breadth of jurisdiction necessary. congress is the only body who can make a public investigation happen, and they are oath-bound to do so.

JL

There are two other authorities who can put together a commission to investigate the Jan 6 insurrection and they are the DoJ and the President.

The reason the DoJ wouldn't choose to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate is that they're already investigating in a joint operation with the FBI. Every one of the 545 arrests so far has been investigated by this dedicated team and every one of them has been charged with one or more crimes.

They have at least two grand juries already empanelled and handing down indictments. It wouldn't make sense for them to set up a Mueller-style investigation when their entire objective is to identify the perpetrators and indict them. They barely have enough resources to cover the operation they're currently running let alone managing a second investigation that mirrored what they're doing already.

President Biden doesn't want to set up the commission because then he'd be accused of going after a political opponent. Republicans and the media would use it to paint him as destroying all semblence of the bipartisanship he said he wanted. Also, Biden made it very clear from the outset that, unlike Trump, he'd leave the law in the hands of lawmakers and law enforcement.

One of Congress's major responsibilities is oversight. They can't just ignore the Jan 6 insurrection. They are duty-bound by their oath of office to investigate it. It's the biggest threat to democracy since the Civil War so it isn't something they can just ignore.

Pelosi is also under extreme pressure from Democratic supporters to investigate. And since that is the case, she might as well use it to help Democrats in the run up to the midterms.

Republicans want to quash it because they know it's going to be bad for them. In the original negotiation with House Republicans, Democrats agreed that a bipartisan, no-politicians commission would have to complete their investigation and report by December this year. Republicans insisted on that because it would give them 10 months to mitigate all the negative fallout.

But since they sank that recommendation in the Senate, Pelosi is now punishing them by stating that the select committee will continue into next year, ie right up to the midterms if necessary. That's really smart because it will do tremendous damage to Republican chances, especially in addition to Gaetz being indicted by the DoJ (for multiple charges unrelated to Jan 6) and others who will be found guilty of charges directly related to Jan 6.

Republicans have reason to panic and that's precisely where we want them.

There just has to be a better way than a congressional committee, select or otherwise ...

according to discoverpolicing.org, there are 65 federal law enforcement agencies, 27 OIG's, and over 17,000 state and local agencies, all responsible for policing the USA.

each of those agencies has a specific jurisdiction, limiting the scope of its investigation and enforcement. centrally investigating something that impacts the whole country, especially if some part of the executive branch may be involved or compromised, really does require a special commission or committee, either of which requires congressional approval.

That can't possibly be the case, can it?

in his half century in politics joe biden might have learned a thing or two about how to get things done. it's not as if LBJ just wandered in and said, "hey, wouldn't a voting rights act be super?"

JL

p.s. i'm still convinced the talking filibuster should come back.

Biden is trying to be bipartisan, and is getting big things done despite doing so.

Like what other way, Elizabeth?

No other avenue exists besides, "Forget Trump tried to overthrow America because the arepugs don't want to participate."

I agree that there are a lot of very important unanswered questions about all that happened on January 6 at the Capitol and, more importantly, all that led up to it.

I just think the highly charged partisan atmosphere that permeates Congress and, American politics, in general, makes Captiol Hill the absolute worst place to get at those answers. It'll be great political theatre, though but, I've seen that kind of clown show too many times and so it doesn't interest me.

I also think all Democrats are responsible for working towards upholding voting rights and ensuring every citizen who wants to vote is able to vote. And, it will be on all Democrats to persuade voters that Democrats are fighting for the policies that help make the lives of people better, literally and economically.

Once this partisan charade gets going it will take on a life of its own and I only hope your country will survive it. Isn't there a better way to get answers about what happened and why that doesn't include politicians?

I really do care about what happens. I am here for one reason - I'm a big fan of the promise of America and more of it being fulfilled. Call me a cockeyed optimist and I'd be guilty as charged! :)

I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.
~will rogers

But I've been paying attention as much as anyone, I should think, and I don't know at all what happened - behind the scenes. Why, why, was the capitol so poorly defended? What, what, was the president doing that afternoon with his staff? Who among the mob had a sense of purpose and mission due to actual encouragement or coordination with the Republican Party whether in Congress or the White House?

Only a commission of the kind the House is forming can get the answers to these questions, as they are fully outside the limits of any investigation into the actual law-breaking by the rebels.

Nor do I think this is just "Trump nonsense" that will distract the voters from voting for the Democratic Party in 2022. I think it's the other way around: it's the Republicans in Congress who are desperate to put the Trump nonsense of a quasi-fascist coup attempt "behind" them so they will have a chance of winning next year in the face of a healthy Biden economy and a healthy Biden populace.

Nor are the Democrats on the committee the same people responsible for a "focus on garnering votes" next year. It's two different jobs - Biden's is a third job - and they can all be done at once.

But, of course, I expect Democrats to focus on partisan theatre to uncover what happened on January 6th when anyone who has been paying attention already knows what happened.

I think we all need to be reminded of what Chris wrote in 'How Democrats Can Take Back Congress' and adapt it to how Democrats can gain healthy, filibuster-proof majorities in Congress!