This Congress Winds Down–then what?

As I write tonight, we await the report from the January 6^th House Committee on the Insurrection.

News reports indicate the committee will make three referrals to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for criminal charges against the former president (DJT) as it releases its final report. The criminal charges will be for:

obstructing an official proceeding,

conspiracy to defraud the government and

inciting or assisting an insurrection. (Conviction would preclude ever holding any elected office.)

Of course, since Congress can only refer, but not inflict any penalties for offenses, the DOJ will have to look at the evidence and decide. The committee will release to everyone copies of the documentation collection on Wednesday. Since there are more than one million pieces of evidence to date, I guess we will have to rely on the experts in the press to do the deep dives into these documents to learn from them.

It is also said that of the five Republican Congressmen who were subpoenaed to appear before the committee but refused to do so, they will refer four to the Ethics Committee of the House. Some expect the attorney John Eastman, who advised DJT on several schemes, will also receive a referral. In civil court proceedings where Eastman tried to claim attorney-client privilege to protest the release of his emails with the former president and others, a California judge (David Carter) called the actions of both Eastman and DJT criminal.

The report will have eight chapters echoing the public hearings and the issues they investigated and reportedly will define the extent of the former president’s involvement in the Stop the Steal movements that led to the insurrection. His tweets inviting followers to come to the Capitol on January sixth–“it will be wild,” he said. (January 6^th was the date defined by the Constitution to count the legal ballots from the various state electors in a joint session of Congress chaired by the Vice-President of the country.) The Republicans, under DJT loyalist, Rep. Jim Jordan, will prepare their counter report addressing the claims of lax security and poor intelligence that failed the Capitol defensive position. His remarks faulted Speaker Pelosi for this ‘lapse’ in judgment.

Ultimately, the committee will disband as the new Congress starts in January with the Republicans in the majority. Minority Leader McCarthy spent most of the time during the Committees’ existence trying to discredit it and its findings. Of course, he tried to undermine it from the beginning, by choosing Republican members such as Jordan, who were loyal to the former president.

Meanwhile, the Republicans are giving McCarthy a hard time as he tries to find enough votes to become Speaker. So far, some say that he does not yet have enough votes to win on the first ballot. Some on the right demand that to get their vote, he invoke a rule that would allow him to be replaced on a simple majority vote; so far he has resisted that, but is jockeying around committee assignments. The outspoken Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose outrageous behavior during this current Congress caused her to lose all committee assignments on a party-line vote, is demanding a seat on the powerful House Oversight committee where she plans to draw up impeachment articles against President Biden. We expect Congressman Jordan to chair the Judicial Committee. Could they find two less competent people? Probably they could! Former Speaker Boehner was so disgusted by the posturing of many on the right when he was in charge that he quit, paving the way for Paul Ryan to become Speaker.

Boehner was on Capitol Hill this week giving positive remarks at the unveiling of a portrait for current Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is stepping down from her leadership position, but remaining in Congress. It was good to see some camaraderie between the two former rival leaders, who showed that civility can still be possible when there is mutual respect. Many expect this next term will be her last for Pelosi, as the attack on her husband was traumatic to her and her family. Stepping into the role of Minority Leader will be Congressman Hakeem Jeffries of New York, who is a generation younger than the 82-year-old Pelosi, and will be the first African American to serve in that position.

The new Congress will have 222 Republican members and 213 Democrats in the House. while the Senate will have 51 Democrats and 49 Republicans. (Senator Sinemas' defection to Independent status, notwithstanding!). The majority (one more than half) is 218, so McCarthy will have to control all of his caucus consistently to get much of anything done and can afford few defectors on any legislation or resolutions. Already a conservative group of five Congressmen stated they will not vote for McCarthy unless he meets their demands, so he will have a tough job, should he win. Some have called the minority leader spineless for his flip-flopping to get votes or to stay in the good graces of the MAGA crowd and DJT. He is not known for his legislative prowess, or vote counting, but has been a good fundraiser for Republicans who echo the MAGA crowd.

Currently, the country is awaiting the end of the lame-duck session of Congress and authorization of the spending bill, that will allow the government to borrow and spend, currently, the spending is on a one-week extension which was approved on a party-line vote. McCarthy does not want a full authorization as he says his party should have the opportunity to make changes or demands in the next session. The Democrats want the funding to cover the next fiscal year, which ends on September 30, 2023. Of course, there is also the Omnibus Spending bill into which everything but the kitchen sink is tossed, in a last-minute attempt to fund all the favorites for each party and keep the government and the military running. Republicans, always running on a “starve the government platform”, want to stall and do a redo once they are in charge and the Democrats are trying to protect their favorite programs.

Roll Call reports that a joint committee has come to a basic agreement and is now working on compromises to get an appropriations bill ready for a vote by December 23^rd before they adjourn for the holidays.

Meanwhile, the House finance committee, controlled by Democrats for a few more days, now has the tax returns from the former president after he lost conclusively after years of appeals in a final argument before the Supreme Court. We expect the committee to make some or perhaps most of these documents public this week. Don’t you wonder what he fought so hard to keep private with all of his claims that he was under constant audits? To whom does he owe money? With whom has he done shady deals? What if he isn’t as rich as he claims to be? An inquiring public wants to know! Now that the Manhattan jury convicted the Trump Company of tax fraud and other charges, who knows what charges will follow?

The DOJ special prosecutor is already busy, winning courts battles over the classified documents (more of which were found in a storage area outside Mar-a-Lago), the Special Master is dismissed, so that delay is over now, and more White House insiders are being called in for testimony before the grand jury. Oh, and now more of the emails from former White House chief of Staff Mark Meadows have been released, letting us see just how many Republican Congressmen were in contact with Meadows about plans on and about January 6^th- and who asked for pardons afterward. No wonder he did not want to testify!

Meanwhile, DJT has a new scheme or as Alicia Menendez on MSNBC put it-he has a new grift, selling NFT playing cards. (Non-Fungible Tokens-you own a picture image with a number on it that you receive digitally!)

 “So folks, for only 99 dollars each, you too can own a digital image of your favorite president in one or all of these art cards picturing him as an astronaut, or Superman, or sports figure!”

He also offered prizes, such as dinner with him or other special objects. (Gee, maybe you too can dine with white supremacists or get your own copy of a classified document!)

The Post article also includes a link to the Lincoln Project spoof of this project. According to reports, he sold 45,000 of these right away, netting a cool $4.5 million!

As the saying goes, grifters gotta grift!

Well, it is the holiday season, and one gift I would love to see is these schemers who plotted Jan 6th and their hangers on-get their day in court. I have faith that the American jurors will see the light and convict. Of the nearly 1000 who were arrested from the insurrection activities at the Capitol or afterward, almost half have so far either pleaded guilty or been convicted by a jury.

My other wish is for peace in Ukraine. That poor country has suffered so much at the hands of a megalomaniacal Russian.

Best wishes for the holidays to all readers!

“Til next week-Peace!