This was mostly prompted by reading Laura Clawson’s account of Newt’s latest bout of verbal flatulence here on this site. I do not propose to get into a rediscussion of it and of the resounding clap backs he received to it.
No, instead I am prompted to ask what, if anything, any GOP mouthpiece would hope to achieve by launching hearings and “investigations of the investigation” about the efforts by a legislative select committee to uncover the truth about what was behind January 6th 2021. Didn’t they learn anything from trying to make a mountain of a Benghazi molehill? They wanted documents, they got them — assuming they were still extant and not legitimately protected somehow. They wanted comms records, these were produced. Out of all that info, they produced bupkis. “This can’t be all you have, because it doesn’t prove you did wrong and we know you did!” Nope. There was truly no “there” there.
Haven’t they worked out yet that the Democratic party and its members will usually produce anything asked for, mostly when asked, only requiring that a subpoena be issued when it is necessary to give legal ground for turning over arguably private or confidential information? The reason they do this when the GOP instead stonewalls at every opportunity?
Because Democratic politicians are, for the most part, not corrupt beyond the unavoidable thin smear of venality that attaches to being in that trade in the first place. They have learned the common-sense principle that if you don’t want all sorts of political, moral and legal shit coming down about your ears then the way to achieve this is to not commit crimes, to actually follow the rules.
The GOP, on the other hand, like right-wingers the world over, believes that “if you don’t get caught it’s all ok.” So they do everything in their power — even if the only thing remaining in their power is laughable bluster — to avoid being called to account. Because they are guilty and they know it. Because they got so arrogant in their positions of “power” that they believed the rules didn’t apply to them and discovering that they do is a rude awakening.
Threatening tit-for-tat hearings is a losing proposition for Republicans. There’s just way too much stank in their closets and way too little on the Democratic side.