Most of the political class has written off the 1/6 commission on the basis its enabling legislation cannot pass the Senate. While there’s still some chance Republicans will come around, no one has ever made money betting that they will do the right thing.
Democrats should move on quickly to Plan 2. Both the House and the Senate are controlled by Democratic majorities. This means each house can set up their own investigative committees. The House could, it seems, even set up an external commission, on its own.
We should press Democrats in Congress to do this immediately. Each house should set up a select committee with the purpose of determining all facts relevant to the attack and seeking out its root causes. Those committees should make recommendations to prevent a similar occurrence in the future.
In addition, the House should set up an independent commission with the same goals. This commission should have members whose stature will give weight to the results. They should not pick anyone who has previously worked for the Republican Party or held office as a Republican. Funding for this external commission should be expansive, so that it has maximum scope to operate. That funding should be passed under reconciliation, avoiding any delays by Republicans in establishing the commission.
These investigative bodies should not be set up with any intention of making them non-partisan. The Republicans rejected bipartisan efforts, so they should be locked out of any investigations. Their presence would impede these investigations, causing delays and possibly preventing these bodies from obtaining the truth.
So far, Democrats have tried to get a bipartisan commission, on the theory that the public will have more faith in what it puts out and it will be easier to take action recommended by such a commission. But if that’s not in the cards, the only alternative, other than the senseless option of dropping the investigation, is for Democrats to set up their own investigations.
The Republicans will, of course, label these "partisan efforts”. They will call any such effort “a witch hunt”. So, the best thing to do is to find as many witches as possible.
To do that, Democrats should set up purely partisan committees and a completely partisan commission. That is, all committees should have only Democratic or independent members. Republicans should be strictly excluded. The commission can have non-partisan members, but should not have any Republicans on it.
Why do that when it will just justify calling these investigative bodies “partisan”? Well, Republicans are going to label them partisan witch hunts in any case. There is no point in trying to avoid that perception.
There is a huge advantage to making these efforts strictly partisan: there will be no friction in their operation. There will be no attempts by Republican members to stop subpoenas or limit testimony. Participants will be freed to drag in anyone who probably was involved.
In particular, the investigative committees should subpoena every person in Congress to testify. They need to ask each one whether they had any contact or communication with any of the people or groups known to be behind the 1/6 attack. They should then get records from the FBI for who the perpetrators had communications with in Congress and compare it with testimony to see if any Republicans perjured themselves under oath. The House committee can question each of its members, and the Senate committee can question each of its Senators.
Free of Republican interference, House and Senate committees could thoroughly investigate Republican Party involvement in the insurrection. This should be an ongoing effort that lasts right up to the next election. There was an opportunity for the Republicans to come on board with a bipartisan commission, which could have been objective and neutral in its investigation. That opportunity is passing by now, and unless Republicans in the Senate sign on quickly, Democrats should move on. Once we move on, we should use the entire weight of government to X-ray Republicans for their involvement in the attack, and use any results we can to attack them in the 2022 campaigns.
Republicans are hiding their involvement in the 1/6 attack. Democrats should not let them off the hook. And Republicans should pay a price for not signing up for a bipartisan commission. Excluding them from participating in further investigations is minimum consequences for failing to back the bipartisan commission. Using those investigative efforts to root out the anti-democratic elements in the Republican Party should be the consequences of Republicans refusing to come on board with the bipartisan 1/6 commission.