Update on the January 6 insurrection from NY Magazine The Intelligencer (March 26) re: Failure in Setting up
an Independent Commission (9/11 style) to investigate that insurrection:
“January 6 Commission Dies, As Republicans
Oppose Focus on January 6”
Related article here from
The AP.
After a month or so of discussions, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has apparently given up on her idea of creating a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate the Capitol Riot.
Instead, seven House
committees will conduct their own investigation of the events of January 6,
utilizing their subpoena and fact-gathering powers, as Politico reports:
In letters
to 16 agencies across the Executive Branch and Congress, the panels
asked for all communications sent between agency officials regarding Congress’
Jan. 6 session, when lawmakers certified Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.
The request is for relevant documents and messages (from December 1, 2020 to January
20, 2021).
Republicans objected to two features of Pelosi’s original
proposal:
First, she proposed giving the president three appointments in addition to one each from House and Senate leaders from both parties.
That,
said Republicans, would give Democrats an overall 7-4 majority on the
commission, unlike the equal partisan representation on its model, the 9/11
Commission. But Pelosi has indicated repeatedly that she was open to
negotiation on the structure and composition of the commission (still the GOP played raw politics saying no).
Second, and the real killer is where GOP refuses to accept a
January 6 commission whose scope is limited to the events of that day, as the AP reported (the linked story above).
They say the investigation should not just focus on what led
to the January 6 insurrection but also on violence in the summer of 2020
during protests
over police brutality (which BTW is unrelated).
That is the touchstone with GOP voters, Rightwing Talk Radio, and nearly every Conservative media outlet in the country as a common TV talking point.
It is also what Democrats say is a distraction from the real
causes of the violent attack.
In addition to a broader
investigation of various and sundry forms of violence, Republicans also want
any commission investigation to be guided away from the idea there’s something
particularly dangerous about right-wing extremism for example:
They swiftly decried the broad latitude that the commission would have
to investigate the causes of the insurrection. They also objected to a series
of findings in the bill that quoted FBI Director Christopher Wray saying that
racially motivated violent extremism, and especially white supremacy, is one of the biggest threats to domestic security.
So having been denounced for wanting a January 6 commission
to investigate January 6 and its actual perpetrators, Pelosi has gone to plan
B: a regular House investigation.
That, of course, will be denounced by Republicans as
partisan, too, but at least it can get underway without arguments about making
sure left-wing protesters who had nothing to do with the Capitol riot share the
spotlight.
My 2 cents: GOP strategy
with this as being against almost every DEM-related policy, plan, idea, or
proposal is simple: To deflect, distract, dodge, delay, duck, and deny. All
just to get their way or to stop any DEM and President Biden way.
That is the GOP's M.O. –
it’s in their DNA – from their playbook Chapter One. They are not apt to change –
ever.
Finally, I note that Biden
and the DEMS use words like compromise is necessary, bi-partisanship is a
worthy goal, and such – which the GOP ignores with more resistance and
stubbornness.
Thanks for stopping by.
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