The partisan divide in America makes it difficult to agree on anything in politics. But this much is certain, the House Republicans are a mess, and their incompetence has been a boon the President Biden and the Democrats. Whether their impeachment craze, internal squabbling, or just plain political ignorance, the 118th Congress Republicans are proving themselves to be the worst majority in living memory.
There is no way to sugar-coat it. The effort to impeach Biden is unraveling and Rep. James Comer, not surprisingly, has not a clue how to save it. For Comer and his equally clueless comrade, Jim Jordan, it is a fitting fizzle to a ham-handed, incompetent investigation that has only served to get this duo of destruction TV time.
This dissension and the impeachment flop would be much less of a problem if the GOP had the seats it should have gained in the 2022 elections.
Investigating a President is no small thing. Any investigation needs to be meticulous; witnesses must be fully vetted, watching out for blind leads and sabotage by the President’s allies. Running to the media with every scrap of information, every rumor, every witness is a sure way to get set up or caught in a bear trap. It does maximize the number of cable TV appearances and fundraising letters.
Even worse, the inept Comer and Jordan duo seem to never have considered their targets might fight back and turn the tables. Hunter Biden’s offer to testify should have been a godsend. Every prosecutor’s dream is to get the accused on the witness stand and under oath. But not clueless Comer. When young Biden made that challenge, Comer initially choked and passed on interrogating him. And, now that Hunter Biden has finally been questioned, it was Matt Gaetz that looked more the fool than young Biden.
Now Comer is finally admitting he doesn’t have the votes, and he might never have had the votes.
The failure of impeachment is not to say Biden and his dissolute son are not guilty of corrupt practices. There is plenty of smoke and there is clear evidence of influence peddling. The recent uncovering of Biden’s brother trading on his name is another layer of corruption. But there is a big difference between legal and illegal influence peddling. Making phone calls and dropping names is corrupt but not illegal (not to mention that these corrupt practices occur in Washington every day), not to mention when an elected official is now a private citizen. (READ MORE from Keith Naughton: Trump Is the Front-Runner and Biden Is Drifting to Disaster)
Instead of publicly making impeachment the goal from the start, Comer and Jordan could have focused on shining a light on these sleazy practices and followed it up with a tough anti-nepotism bill that would clearly be a rebuke to the various Biden activities. They could have forced Democrats to cast a humiliating vote “aye” or a politically-disastrous “nay” vote — a shrewd and crafty way to put the Democrats in a box, and, if they get a smoking gun on impeachment, all the better.
Unfortunately, shrewd and crafty will never be words associated with Comer and Jordan.
It is worth noting that impeachment in and of itself means nothing. Secretary Mayorkas and, maybe, Biden would just go on trial in the Senate where there is zero chance of a conviction. Given their fumbling, does anyone think the House impeachment managers (who will be subject to decisions by the Democratic-controlled Senate) will present a better case than the defense lawyers?
Matt Gaetz is right about one thing: this is failure theater.
Clearly the Biden Administration cares not a whit for how impeachment is proceeding. And that alone should cause Republicans pause. I would go so far as to say that Biden welcomes the impeachment circus. Why? Because House Republicans are essentially giving Biden a pass on a whole stack of much more troublesome derelictions.
Consider the FTX scandal where Sam Bankman-Fried stole billions from tens of thousands of American cryptocurrency investors. Not only did he make enormous donations to Biden and other Democrats, Bankman-Fried’s mother (Barbara Fried) created and ran one of the biggest Democratic dark money funds. Both parents were neck deep into FTX, benefiting from the corrupt scheme. (READ MORE: Who Is Better Placed to Beat Biden: Trump or Haley?)
Seems like a scandal tailor-made for House Republicans. Tens of thousands of mostly younger Americans (a demographic Republicans need to get votes from) had their money stolen by an arrogant schemer, possibly abetted by his lawyer parents with all of it entangled in Democratic fundraising. It was a chance to make political gains and possibly expose a Democratic dark money organization to the light of day.
But what is obvious to anyone with any political sense cannot be seen by the House GOP. They did nothing, held no hearings, and let the whole episode molder. As a result, the Biden Justice Department gets the credit for arresting Bankman-Fried and convicting him in very short order. As for the parents, right before New Year’s Eve the Justice Department announced there would be no more prosecutions.
Letting Barbara Fried and possibly other Democrats off the hook is only one example of many. The House GOP could make the fentanyl crisis and the broader crisis of drug abuse a focal point and not just with hearings. Where is the bill re-classifying fentanyl from a drug to a poison (which it is)? Where are tougher laws banning bail for trafficking? Or bringing back mandatory minimums? All bills that would force tough votes for Democrats and would show the GOP leadership doing something other than fulminating on television.
House GOP incompetence is not limited to impeachment, they can’t get basic politics straight. Saddled with the George Santos embarrassment, Republicans were handed a major gift when Democratic U.S. Senator Bob Menendez was indicted for taking bribes from foreign governments. Video of gold bars and stacks of cash in the Menendez basement was perfect for Republicans.
Clinging to a 1-vote majority in the Senate and dependent on two recalcitrant caucus members (Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema), there was no way Democrats would force out Menendez. But that left an opening for Republicans to offer a trade: If Democrats expel Menendez, Republicans will expel Santos. Such an offer would have put the Democrats in a difficult box. A Santos-Menendez trade would have looked perfectly logical — even though Republicans would have reaped a net benefit. Every snark about Santos could have been met with a blast at the treasonous Menendez.
Instead, Republicans stupidly sent Santos packing and got nothing out of it. As a result, Republicans have a more precarious majority, and the focus is on Santos rather than the treasonous Menendez. Incredibly, it is Democratic Senator John Fetterman, who has been more vocal than anybody about kicking out Menendez.
All in all, the parallel stories of Santos and Menendez show the utter political incompetence of House Republicans. There is just no excuse for the mendacious Menendez to remain in the Senate while the less venal Santos is scraping out a living making Cameos.
(Worth noting, Santos was expelled for lying his way into Congress — which begs the question, when are the other 434 House members getting kicked out?)
Winning politics is a team sport. Especially in the American two-party system, winning and wielding power will always mean each party need to assemble an often-fractious coalition and balance those interests. The Democrats understand this fact. Some Republicans understand, but many do not. And with a nothing majority, all it takes is one or two me-first members to sink the whole ship. Unfortunately for the GOP, they have a raft of me-first members, including in leadership. (READ MORE: Another GOP Fail: The Free Ride for Ukraine Nobody Will Take)
Too many make chasing TV hits, sparking social media storms, and any other attention-grabbing stunts over winning. And in today’s clickbait world, only by being as outrageous as possible gets attention. As a result, the public is fed a steady diet of the Marjorie Taylor-Greene, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert circus and Comer’s and Jordan’s impeachment failure theater. Good for their fundraising and speaker fees, bad for winning elections and hanging on to the majority.
This dissension and the impeachment flop would be much less of a problem if the GOP had the seats it should have gained in the 2022 elections. Based on historic trends Republicans should have a majority of about 235 to 200. Instead, they squeaked in with just 221 seats, which leaves little room for error.
The Cook Political Report partisan rankings rates 220 seats with a GOP voter advantage, 208 for the Democrats and 7 evenly split. Republicans occupy 8 “D-plus” seats, having lost the Santos seat (D+2). Democrats have 10 R-plus seats and the “Even” seats are split 4 Republican and 3 Democrat. The Report’s early projections have a GOP advantage at 210-203 and 22 tossups.
While Republicans may be projected to have an advantage, consider that two of the tossups are Pennsylvania seats where Reps. Wild and Cartwright (in R+ districts) have easily seen off GOP challengers and the Pennsylvania Republican Party has only become more inept and dysfunctional since the past election. Arizona and Michigan also have two tossups and GOP state parties that are dumpster fires.
In addition, the most recent YouGov poll shows Republicans at a polling disadvantage. Congress as a whole has a miserable 20 percent favorable to 56 percent unfavorable rating with Democrats down 40 percent to 49 percent. But Republicans poll worse at 36 percent approve against 52 percent disapprove. As any majority will tend to get more of the blame, the GOP is at a further disadvantage.
It is very possible that the foibles and follies of the Biden Administration will overwhelm the incompetence of House Republicans and deliver a back-door majority in 2024. But it would be much better if the GOP would stop fighting with one another, put forward an agenda that addresses the problems everyday Americans face and get to work. Unfortunately, that does not look likely.
