House Republicans, unrenowned for their lucidity these days, are hell-bent to impeach President Biden, perhaps before the year is out, and might very well do so without sufficient high crimes and misdemeanors to even cover the head of a pin.
GOP lawmakers, who hold a bare majority in the lower chamber, are instigating the effort to drive Biden from office for only one definable reason – their messiah, former President Donald J. Trump, was impeached twice, so now it’s payback time.
That may sound like the sort of deed a kindergartener might undertake against a playground rival. There’s a reason it appears that way.
Issues emerge, however, when it’s noted that the Lord of Mar-a-Lago actually was involved in impeachable offenses while Biden’s record remains unblemished. In this instance, sans any credible evidence of wrongdoing, Republicans nevertheless remain intent to rid the White House of the Democrat they consider a squatter. They’ll simply move to impeach him and manufacture some phony, mumbo-jumbo rationale in due course.
Because that’s what they do. They have nothing other than their own putrid desire for power.
Ultimately, the only thing they’ll prove able to concoct will be some (get ready for it) Trumped-up charges.
Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
Their intentions are obvious – House Republicans rarely dabble in the art of subtlety. That celebrated nitwit, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, announced in late August that an impeachment inquiry was “a natural step forward.”
“The House is now spearheading the commitment to hold Joe Biden and his cronies accountable to you, and let me tell you – the Biden family corruption our investigations have uncovered in just a few short months is damning,” McCarthy said in a fundraising message.
McCarthy declared his party is boldly marching ahead – evoking “Onward Christian Soldiers’’ – despite opposition from that usual gang of idiots: the media, Hollywood, Big Tech, and DC bureaucrats, all of whom are falling in line “to peddle their LIES.”
“Now, all those forces are converging all their resources to SHUT DOWN what my colleagues and I are uncovering about their puppet in the White House,” he said, closing with the inevitable “send me all your money” pitch by warning, “Democrats dark money dollars are pouring in to distract voters and undermine our investigations. If we don’t see some immediate backup from our grassroots supporters, I fear Joe Biden and his cronies will get off scot-free with their shaky schemes.”
McCarthy is, as usual, simply responding here to his master’s voice, like any whimpering cur. Trump took to his Truth Social media site recently asserting that Biden has obviously broken the law and commanding his Republican worshipers to fall in line – or else.
“You don’t need a long INQUIRY to prove it, it’s already proven,” he ranted. “These lowlifes Impeached me TWICE (I WON!), and Indicted me FOUR TIMES – For NOTHING! Either IMPEACH the BUM, or fade into OBLIVION. THEY DID IT TO US!”
And, of course, no recitation of this nonsense would be complete without the horse manure spewed by McCarthy’s top henchman, the old farmer himself, our own mighty Tail-Gunner, Rep. Jamie Comer (R-WhereverHeHangsHisHatIsHisHome), chair of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, who insists that the evidence against Biden is “overwhelming” and that he believes sufficient House votes exist to pass an impeachment inquiry resolution.
“We have caught Joe Biden in countless lies about his knowledge and involvement in his family’s shady business schemes,” Comer said on — where else? — Fox News, appearing on Hannity. “This could potentially be the biggest political scandal in my adult lifetime.
“This is very serious,’’ he added. “We need to get all the facts. We’ve been producing evidence. We’re at some roadblocks now with this administration. This impeachment inquiry will help us get all the evidence so the American people can know once and for all exactly what Joe Biden did and when he did it.”
All of this would be devastating were it not for the fact that it’s totally baseless. Condensing the situation down to the Cliff Notes version, Tail-Gunner Jamie and the boys maintain that old man Biden is deeply engaged in the business activities of his wayward son, Hunter, who has been commercially involved with outfits with ties to governments in places like China, Russia, and Ukraine.
Jamie and the gang want to believe that Biden grabbed a $5 billion bribe from some Ukraine muckety-muck to protect an energy company that included Hunter on its board. That the president is intimately involved in his son’s business affairs, that Hunter is using the family connection to get rich, and that many of the president’s policy decisions are based on putting cash in his own pocket.
Let’s acknowledge Hunter is using his old man’s name to get ahead. It’s probably so, but there’s no law against it despite the Gunner’s efforts to conjure one up out of thin air.
The bribe allegation has been disproven time and again. Claims that the president is leading what dimwits refer to as the Biden Crime Family emerge from some nonchalant contact with some of Hunter’s business associates – stopping by at a restaurant dinner table to say hello and offering greetings over telephone calls with Hunter during business meetings. And for what it’s worth, and it ain’t much, Joe Biden’s name occasionally appears in emails exchanged by Hunter and his associates.
That’s pretty much it. That’s what McCarthy and Comer and the other morons are hanging impeachment on. That is the biggest political scandal of Jamie’s lifetime, even though his savior, Donald J. Trump, now faces four indictments in both state and federal courts totaling 91 counts.
Devon Archer, Hunter’s former business partner, testified before the House Oversight and Accountability that he was associated with Hunter for 10 years. Over that period Hunter would speak with his father every day, Archer said, and business was never discussed. Hunter was having well-publicized personal difficulties during much of that time and the two would simply converse about subjects like fishing. He further said Hunter would occasionally put his father on speaker phone during dinners they were having with clients but business was never discussed, only pleasantries.
This is what constitutes, in Tail-Gunner Jamie’s mind, “potentially…the biggest political scandal in my adult lifetime.”
Interestingly, one person who isn’t buying is Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, of Louisville, who, it should be noted, is Trump’s arch enemy and has a friendly though politically contentious relationship with Biden.
McConnell told reporters last month that he understands why House Republicans might be incentivized to give Biden the heave-ho based on the Trump impeachments. But he warned them to avoid the primrose path.
“Impeachment ought to be rare rather than common,” McConnell said. “I think this is not good for the country when we have repeated impeachment.”
The Gunner, McCarthy, and the rest of the worthless bunch can take solace in one area – they’re poisoning the waters. A CNN poll released Thursday showed that a majority of those questioned think Biden was involved in Hunter’s business affairs with Ukraine and China during his time as vice president under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2017.
The survey found that 61 percent maintain that Biden had at least some involvement while 42 percent say they think he acted illegally while 18 percent determined that his actions were unethical but not illegal. Another 38 percent say they don’t believe Joe Biden had any involvement in his son’s business dealings during his vice presidency.
It appears Republicans were oversampled in the poll, with reports indicating that 59.7 percent of those questioned were GOP voters. Many of them, undoubtedly, get their information from Fox News or some other right-wing outlet where Jamie pops up more frequently than old Friends reruns on network television. Regardless, a substantial number of folks believe or want to believe that Biden did something wrong, even though there’s no evidence to justify that assumption.
This is what House Republicans have wrought. They should be so proud.
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Written by Bill Straub, a member of the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame. Cross-posted from the Northern Kentucky Tribune.
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