Eh, maybe. The lockstep of the majority party seems to be breaking up in the manner of a dam breaking. For Bondi to be subpoenaed – even after Chairman James Comer reminded them she didn’t have to be under oath, and they could invite her to do “briefings” at any time instead – five Republicans joined all the Democrats in subpoenaing Bondi anyway.
Feel free to disagree of course, because what follows is simply my opinion, but often Oversight Committees are formed for the express purpose of suppressing oversight, and that’s exactly what this one was created to do: contain congressional curiosity and also restrict the congressional powers that might otherwise be used to actually investigate. “It died in committee” is a saying for a reason.
But that’s literally collapsing before our eyes. After I posted that, I read this. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna is a Republican from Florida. Watch it on C-SPAN or on her own social media, but this is her three hours ago supporting Rep. Mace’s motion today for a subpoena for information on a congressional “sexual harassment slush fund” that’s been reported on since at least 2017. Here are her words at the mic in support:
I support Representative Mace’s subpoena here, as well as the amendment to it. And I just think it’s really disgusting how this institution protects itself because y’all just, half of them, voted to send this stuff to House Ethics, where you know it’s gonna die. We know that members of Congress are using taxpayer dollars to pay off sexual harassment. We just had a member of Congress literally sexual harass a woman that then lit herself on fire, and you guys all protected him! You guys all protected him — my own side, your side.
And so, if you guys wanna talk about victims, if you wanna go out and virtue signal, and then you guys are gonna kill her stuff on the floor and then try to pass– yeah, of course we should subpoena all this stuff. But just, I’m not gonna sit here and play games. I think it’s a complete fraud. I think that’s why the American people hate us! I think the midterms are coming up and everyone should go on record for this, and I hope that members are exposed for this. I hope — it goes back, I think, to the ’70s — because it’s wrong that it’s happening. It’s wrong that we cover up for it. It’s wrong that we can’t censure our own side because people are busy making deals, because you guys don’t wanna censure your side. It’s a deal that’s been cut and people hate us for it. So yeah, I support it.
According to what has happened so far, Rep. Luna is supposed to be BOTH speaking and voting as told. That’s very apparently no longer the case. Last fall, four broke rank to force EFTA to a vote via discharge petition. Today, five broke rank to subpoena Bondi against Comer’s express insistence that they not. And Luna just stood up to speak of that which we do not mention publicly, and just to be absolutely sure it got heard, posted it to her own socials.
It takes a well-controlled majority in the majority party to ensure nothing happens in committee. And that is very clearly gone. Do you think Chairman Comer and the majority can count on Rep. Luna in committee now? I don’t.
So while I wouldn’t bet on anything happening, I also wouldn’t bet against. The machine is breaking up before our eyes, in a drawn out process that is gathering speed. These things are always incredibly slow, until they’re not. That’s where we are now. Can they patch it in time? Maybe. Maybe not.
ChunkMcHorkle
