Out-Takes and Sidebars

A pithy and sometimes trenchant commentary on current events and politics

Kevin McCarthy: “The House of Representatives censures Adam Schiff, representative of the 30th congressional district of California, for misleading the American public and for conduct unbecoming of an elected member of the House of Representatives.” All but six GOP representatives supported a motion censuring CA representative Adam Schiff for his roles in exposing the collaboration of the Trump campaign with Russia, and for the spellbinding job he did in Trump’s first impeachment trial. It’s hard to imagine Kevin McCarthy and his caucus sinking any lower, but they continue to surprise (and appall). In his own speech, Schiff called the censure “false and defamatory,” saying “You flatter me with this falsehood. You, who are the authors of a big lie about the last election, must condemn the truth tellers and I stand proudly before you,” he remarked…called the censure “false and defamatory” and said he would wear it as a “badge of honor.”

“You flatter me with this falsehood. You, who are the authors of a big lie about the last election, must condemn the truth tellers and I stand proudly before you,” he remarked. Meanwhile of course, the serial liar George Santos remains in the GOP’s good graces – and voted “yes” on Schiff’s censure.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Republicans Seek to Make the World Safe for Disinformation As they make undocumented and false claims about the FBI and DOJ acting unfairly in their investigation and prosecution of Donald Trump’s criminal filching of national security documents and role in the January 6 coup, the New York Times reports that “Republican lawmakers and activists are mounting a sweeping legal campaign against universities, think tanks and private companies that study the spread of disinformation, accusing them of colluding with the government to suppress conservative speech online.” 

Today’s Republican Party is blatantly and ruthlessly seeking to undermine and tear down institutions and the public’s trust in them with lies. And they want to block and deter anyone from calling them out on it and exposing them. That’s not a novel play for them and it goes back at least as far as the demagoguery of Senator Joseph McCarthy. But it has become institutionalized and a main characteristic of the party today.

This is the party that adopted Trump’s Big Lie, and is still trying to ride it to permanent power.

“Nothing to See Here” Says Alito, Winking at Clarence Thomas The investigative reporters at the not-for-profit news agency Pro Publica broke the news that “Justice Samuel Alito Took Luxury Fishing Vacation With GOP Billionaire Who Later Had Cases Before the Court.” This follows their earlier reporting that Justice Thomas has for years taken luxury vacations with conservative activist Harlan Crow, who also had business before the court. And neither Thomas nor Alito disclosed these gifts on their financial disclosure forms, likely violating the law. And neither recused himself when cases involving their “hosts” came before the court.

28 U.S. Code § 455 - Disqualification of justice, judge, or magistrate  holds that  “Any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned,” but leaves it up to each individual justice to make his or her own judgement about whether their impartiality could be questioned. Defending his decision not to recuse, Alito wrote (in the Wall Street Journal) “It was and is my judgment that these facts would not cause a reasonable and unbiased person to doubt my ability to decide the matters in question impartially.”

I disagree: seems to me that it would be quite reasonable to question the impartiality of justices ruling on cases involving patrons who bestow gifts and trips worth tens of thousands of dollars. Don’t you think?