Congress
meets in joint session in the House of Representatives on January 6 to count
the electoral votes. The Vice President, as President of the Senate, is the
presiding officer. Tellers open, present, and record the votes of the States in
alphabetical order. The President of the Senate announces the results of the
State vote and then calls for any objections. To be recognized, an objection
must be submitted in writing and be signed by at least one member of the House
and one Senator. If an objection is recognized, the House and Senate withdraw
to their respective chambers to consider the merits of any objections,
following the process set out in 3 U.S.C. §15. After all the votes are recorded and counted,
the President of the Senate declares which persons, if any, have been elected
President and Vice President of the United States.
The statement
above describes the process which is to be followed for the official counting
by the Congress of the United States of the votes by the state electors of the
Electoral College. It was this process that was interrupted when the rioters
entered the Capitol in an attempt to prevent its completion. Later in the day, after
the rioters were repelled, and the building was put back in some semblance of
order, Congress completed its constitutional mission and the election of Joe
Biden was certified officially.
The release of
the newest book by Bob Woodward and Bob Costa called “Peril” examined the final
days of the last president. One area the book reviews are the actions taken by
members of the White House staff after the election results were certified by
the Electors from the Electoral College in December. Plans were made to
circumvent the ceremonial acceptance of the electoral college results from each
state by the Congress on the date specified–January 6th. As the
book describes, Vice-President Pence was being pressured to disallow votes from
certain states and remove some of the votes won by Biden, replacing them with
so-called alternative electors, thus allowing the “President” an eventual win. These
moves are described in a memo obtained and spelled out in “Peril” and were
written by a well-known Republican lawyer, John
Eastman. Aside from the fact that
these moves are against the constitution and improbable at best, they explain a
framework for stealing an election that was well underway. This same attorney
spoke at the rally before the assault on the Capitol and encouraged the
insurrection. Why has he not been charged with trying to take action against
the US Government?
The president
was even heard telling Pence to act like a man and follow these plans. VP Pence
checked with the Senate Parliamentarian, who told him that this plan could not be
carried through, while others were telling him that he should go along. Eventually,
according to Woodward and Costa, Pence turned to a trusted advisor from
Indiana, former Republican VP Dan Quayle,
for his advice and was told that he could not take these actions. Quayle
reportedly said that the VP role had no authority and was expected to only be
ceremonial. Ultimately, Pence followed his guidance and started the session,
only to later find himself under threats of “Hang Mike Pence” from the mob and
finally being rushed into hiding by the Secret Service. It was under his
authority that the Pentagon finally released the DC National Guard to assist at
the Capitol, since no one at the White House would do so. Finally, he presided,
as required, over the certification of the votes which came in the hours past
midnight after the body addressed and overrode objections by several Republicans.
We now have a
Republican Party which, under the former president, has come to view its mission
as only staying in power, regardless of what the Constitution or the Rule of Law
might state. They have shown that there are no steps beneath them, even the
possibility of negating elections should local officials so decide. They have
led campaigns to harass local election officials and in some cases run them out
of office. They have decided in some cases to remove the authority of the
Secretary of State to certify election results. And in Arizona, even though the
absurd Cyber Ninjas long-drawn-out recount showed that Biden won even more
votes than originally attributed to him, the MAGA team asserted that he still
won the state. The former disgraced president continued to lie about these
results in speeches this weekend. After the results were announced, he called
for a recount in Texas–a state he won–and Texas complied with recounts in
urban areas primarily. So we have a national party that is silent and complicit
in these lies and continues to act irresponsibly in these matters. Such actions
are meant to destroy public belief in election results and could lead to years
of litigation after future elections. Many believe that grounds are being laid
to contest elections in 2022 and 2024 when the ex-president expects to again be
the candidate of his party. (Tell me that this cannot be so!)
Two editorials
this weekend sounded alarms about these concerns. The first is an opinion piece by Robert
Kagan and covers almost 3 pages in the Washington Post. He sets out the
possibility of a dismal scenario for our near future: “The United States is heading into its greatest political
and constitutional crisis since the Civil War, with a reasonable chance over
the next three to four years of incidents of mass violence, a breakdown of
federal authority, and the division of the country into warring red and blue
enclaves. The warning signs may be obscured by the distractions of politics, the
pandemic, the economy, and global crises, and by wishful thinking and denial.”
He further describes
the country as already being in a Constitutional crisis as the amateurish “Stop
the Steal” efforts have become a national organized effort to control local
election boards which are expected to regulate future elections. He criticizes
the leaders of the “Republican Party as being a Zombie party
with leaders going through the motions of governing even as the power in the
party has leached away to Trump.”
He noted that a
handful of responsible election officials in states such as Georgia kept the
election results honest; he indicated that the party will not allow that
mistake in the future if given their way with local officials.
As others, including
General
Milley, have written, he writes that the charismatic fascist leader always
starts with a modest agenda which is eventually increased as well-meaning leaders appease it. Kagan further indicates: “For many Americans,
Trump is the answer to their fears and resentments….his egomania is part of his
appeal…his victimization claims against the media and the elites echo their own
sense of victimization…..they believe that the US government has been taken over,
[as he claims], by socialists, minority groups and sexual deviants.”
He further
states: “It would be foolish to imagine
that the violence of Jan. 6 was an aberration that will not be repeated.
Because Trump supporters see those events as a patriotic defense of the nation,
there is every reason to expect more such episodes.”
He issues a call
to action for whatever reasonable Republicans there might be out there, such as
those who voted for Impeachment, to exercise some leadership, to join with
Democrats in crafting a responsible Voting Rights Law that can override the excesses
in local elections being crated in some states. The elder statesmen of the
party, even when out of office, have shown no such courage to date with the
possible modest exception of George Bush. Kagan issues a challenge for bold
actions which might lose them an election but might save the country.
The second
article I found on this topic was in the New York Times and was written by Jamelle
Bouie: Titled: “Trump had a mob, he also had a plan”,–he discusses further
his incredulity at the Eastman memo and the machinations the White House
undertook to override the election results. After reviewing the facts of
January 6th and the failure of those efforts, he states: “None of this should make you feel good or cause
you to breathe a sigh of relief. Consider what we know. A prominent, respected
member in good standing of the conservative legal establishment — Eastman is
enrolled in the Federalist Society and clerked for Supreme Court Justice
Clarence Thomas — schemed with the president and his allies in the Republican
Party to overturn the election and overthrow American democracy under the
Constitution. Yes, they failed to keep Trump in office, but they successfully
turned the pro forma electoral counting process into an occasion for real
political struggle.”
He concludes: On Jan. 20,
Joe Biden became president and Donald Trump slunk off to Mar-a-Lago to lick his
wounds. But the country did not actually return to normalcy. Jan. 6 closed the
door on one era of American politics and opened the door to another, where
constitutional democracy itself is at stake. There are things we can do to
protect ourselves — legal experts have urged Congress to revise the Electoral Count Act to close off any
Eastman-esque shenanigans — but it is clear, for now at least, that the main
threat to the security and stability of the United States is coming from inside
the house.”
So, are you scared yet? Can you believe
it took Dan Quayle to convince the VP to act lawfully? I think that many
people, now some nine months later, are finally realizing the extremes which the
former president tried to keep himself in power. Why is that? Does he really
believe his lies? Is he afraid of jail
for all of his unlawful activities over the years, now that he no longer has immunity
from prosecution? Would he overthrow the Rule of Law to suit his own needs, no
matter the costs? This is so not the
American Way of governing.
Have we, as a country, lost sight of
the values of our forefathers? Are our elected representatives so caught up in
their own election cycles that they cannot see the greater need to protect this
country from despots and fascist wannabees? Where are the statesmen/women who
value the country above their own office? Why have Romney, Sass, and Cassidy
gone silent? Are Reps. Cheney and Kinzinger the only Republicans with backbone?
Contrast them with Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, who has made herself into a
mockery of who she used to be with her sycophancy. Where are the Governors and
other leaders who will tell Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy to put their
country first and not put the country into a shutdown or force a deficit for
purely partisan gain? What has happened to our functional democracy? What will
happen in the future? Where are the
Americans who will stand up and speak out and say enough of this? I see no
happy endings here unless they do; what about you?
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Some brief words about the virus and
vaccines. The Director of the CDC
overrode the conclusions of her advisors and widened the population eligible
for booster shots. Pfizer
indicated that they have applied for emergency use approval for a low dose
vaccine for 5-11-year-olds and should hear within a few weeks. Maryland case numbers
continue to be high with a 16% increase in cases, although vaccinations have also
increased in the state to reach 64%. Montgomery, Howard, and Frederick Counties
have vaccination levels of 75%, 73%, and 66% respectively.
COVID stats – NY Times:
US Totals: Total
Cases: 42,905,619. New Cases: 119,883.
Total Deaths: 688,157. New Deaths: 2,031.
Maryland Totals:
9/24/21–Total Cases: 525,123. New
cases: 1,363.
Total Deaths: 10,362. New Deaths:
14.
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I haven’t
visited the panda for a while – check out this
link for some splashing smiles:
“Til
next week – Peace!
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