Rep. Gosar Gets GOP to Walk The Plank
Two Republicans refuse to defend his behavior, one is "present."
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From yours truly in this afternoonâs BULWARK, some thoughts on Paul Gosar being stripped of his committee assignments:
Twenty years ago, Traficant was a wacky outlier. Nowadays, with the great zeitgeisty maw of social media demanding constant feeding, many average, un-cool representatives and senators feel compelled to do zany things for attention. Think of the idiotic stuntsâTed Cruzâs bacon machine gun, anyone?âor of the ways that meme culture has spread on Capitol Hill.
Meme culture is particularly prevalent on the Republican side of the aisle. Maybe this can be chalked up to the baseâmemes have long been popular in conservative culture (think of the emails your aunt sent you during the 2008 election) or maybe it has to do with the joy that prominent right-leaning figures from Donald Trump on down take in trolling. Who needs stodgy, staid press releases when memes and âshitpostingâ are available instead?
So, what happened?
This afternoon, the House decided in a largely party-line vote to censure Gosar and strip him of his committee assignments. When Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was stripped of her committee assignments in February, she was a new member and so had no record of any committee work. But Gosar has been in Congress for a decade, and has served that whole time the Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the Natural Resources Committee. The latter committee is fairly important for Gosarâs district, and booting him from it may have real consequences for him. A comparison better than MTGâs case is that of then-Rep. Steve King, who in 2019 was stripped of his committee assignmentsâincluding his spot on the Agriculture Committee, important to his state of Iowaâfor calling immigrants âdirtâ and taking too friendly a view of white nationalism.
What was it that finally brought Gosar, long known for his inflammatory rhetoric, provocative memes, and conspiratorial antics, to the point of being censured by the House? He posted (and later deleted) what he called a âsymbolic cartoonââan anime videoâthat depicted violence against President Joe Biden and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who serves with him on Oversight and Government Reform.
Republicans, eager to put January 6th in the rearview mirror put on a theatrical show of whataboutism and process complaints to defend Gosar. I doubt most of them enjoyed doing it but leadership not only puts pressure on people to vote their way, but speak. Itâs obvious if one side isnât sending any people down to talk, which is why most people used the opportunity to slam President Biden instead of talking about Gosar.
Frankly, he should have been expelled right after 1/6. Like with previous acts of extreme behavior, Gosar and McCarthy got Republicans to walk the plank and defend him. Replete with an afternoon chock full of whataboutism and insincere complaints about process.
The findings of the Mueller report have been overshadowed by the discrediting of the Steele dossier, but the Russia-Trump campaign ties were a real thing. Lawfare's David Priess joins Charlie Sykes on today's podcast.
GABRIEL SCHOENFELD reviews Rep. Adam Schiffâs new book, Midnight in Washington.
Vilification is one of the primary weapons in Donald Trumpâs political arsenal. Over the four years of the Trump presidency, perhaps no one was subjected to more of it than Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee andâmore pertinentlyâthe lead manager of the House impeachment team during Trumpâs first Senate trial. Indeed, Schiffâs name was almost never mentioned by the former president without the accompaniment of some juvenile taunt: âpencil neck,â âShifty Schiff,â âLittle Adam Schiff,â âcrooked Adam Schiff,â and even âAdam Schitt.â
Of course, such crude appellations tell us far more about the appalling character of Donald Trump than anything else. But Trump is not alone. Surprisingly, even some ostensible anti-Trumpers have been furiously dumping on the congressman. To Eli Lake, Schiff is a âshowman playing the role of statesman,â and for leveling various allegations against Trump that he could never prove, heâs âthe boy who cried collusion.â To Jonah Goldberg, Schiff is a âdishonorable and dishonest hackâ with a âgift for flinging hyperpartisan innuendo while seeming to be a studious and serious legislator.â
Is any of this right? Even if Schiff is not the villain of Trumpâs nightmares, does he nonetheless deserve some of the incoming that has landed on his head?
RICH THAU AND SUSIE PIEPER have a revealing and somewhat depressing item about how Americans donât trust Facebook, but plan to keep using it.
Hereâs what they found in their focus group:
What it boils down to is habit and convenience.
Benjamin, 32, from Michiana, Michigan, said, âI donât agree with the things that Facebook has allegedly done, but I also donât get on Facebook for news or for it to be a reliable source for literally anything. . . . So for that reason, I havenât gotten rid of it. . . . I do think itâs wrong, but Iâm a homebody, and I donât like to leave my house, so itâs the only way for me to keep in contact with people. . . . I can just see their life from a different perspective, and I donât have to interact with someone else.â
âI always knew Facebook and social media was a can of worms,â said Mark, 52, from Bayfield, Wisconsin. âEverything you put on there is there forever, and so I never used it for anything other than to communicate with family and friends like I would any other normal way.â
Laurel, 36, from Dunedin, Florida, was similarly nonplussed by the stories about Facebookâs problems: âThereâs corruption all around us, and this was just brought to light from this whistleblower, and it sucks, itâs bad, I donât condone it. But I like seeing my aunt in Hawaii, I like seeing my nieces grow up through Facebook, so Iâm not going to stop using it.â
Two respondents did report changing their Facebook habits following the troubling news.
đ¨OVERTIME LINKSđ¨
Jesus wept⌠Our pal Matt Labash writes about how âLetâs Go Brandonâ has made its way to churches, and how some of our brothers and sisters seem to be putting politics above faith.
The Vermont Country Store⌠If you want a flashback to the 80s or 90s, check this out.
Thanksgiving is coming up⌠Rep. Adam Kinzinger has this welcome reminder:
Meanwhile, in Florida⌠FL Gov Ron DeSantisâs controversial spokeswoman appears to outdo Marjorie Taylor-Greene in the crazy anti-Semitism department, as Jonathan Chait writes at Intelligencer:
One can easily predict that the next turn of this story will be that Pushaw and DeSantis angrily deny that her Rothschild conspiracy tweet had any anti-Semitic connotation. She will probably change the subject to DeSantisâs right-wing stance on Israel, which conservatives generally treat as a hall pass to engage in anti-Semitic rhetoric. But the larger point is that DeSantis is gleefully swimming in a sea of conspiracy nuts, and those conspiracy nuts are inevitably going to include a healthy share of anti-Semites.
Enjoy prison, QAnon Shaman⌠A worthwhile thread about the fate of the âQAnon Shamanâ who was sentenced today to 41 months in prison. The âShamanâ, whose name is Jacob Chansley, hired Albert Watkins, who is a⌠colorful⌠attorney in Saint Louis, who represented the McCloskeys after their gun-toting adventure. (He also represented a company that went by âSouth Buttâ in a lawsuit against outdoor retailer North Face. It did not work out.)
Insurrection can, and should have consequences. Even if one of them is you canât see your family while awaiting trial, or getting 3+ years in prison.
Thatâs it for me. Weâll see you tomorrow. Tech support questions? Email members@thebulwark.com. Questions for me? Respond to this email.
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