Friday, March 10, 2023

Tiptoe Through The Twitters

As Punchbowl is reporting, "In a little more than two months as chair, Comer has launched a barrage of probes into everything from the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan to Ukraine aid to the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio," and that has some other House committee chairman unhappy that he is stepping on their toes.

One of those avenues of investigations is into Biden's withdrawal from Afghanistan which resulted in a letter from Comer demanding information and that letter caught House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul (R-TX) flatfooted.

“I was a little surprised by the letter,” he admitted before brushing it off with, “But we’ve talked since then. We’re working it out.”

According to the report, "Comer’s letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg last month requesting information on the Ohio train derailment raised eyebrows in GOP circles as well. Some Republicans thought the probe is overreaching on an issue better served by either the Energy and Commerce or Transportation and Infrastructure panels."

One aide for a House member was critical of Comer thrusting himself into everything.

“There’s a big difference between oversight where you have expertise and oversight to churn out press releases,” they explained. “Everyone thought he’d learn from prior chairmen and work in a more coordinated way. It’s been quite the opposite.”

Comer's defender is Gym Jordan:

The report adds that House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) tried to tamp down complaints about Comer's intrusiveness, telling Punchbowl: "We’re gonna do stuff in our committee. He’s going to do stuff on his committee, and if there’s overlap, and he’s doing stuff that we’re doing too … the most important thing is that the American people get the facts, we propose legislation and we address things in the appropriations process.”

Welcome to the monkey house.
You might remember the backstory: On October 14, 2020, just a couple of weeks before the 2020 election, Twitter prevented its users from linking to a New York Post article about Hunter Biden’s laptop, because the article relied on stolen emails and contained private information. But by October 16, 2020, Twitter had corrected, once again permitting users to post links to the story.

This tired old story was what Jordan chose as the focus of yesterday’s hearing. He brought in reporter Matt Taibbi, who could not substantiate any governmental direction, control, or suggestion to Twitter that they should take down the Hunter Biden story. Moreover, Jordan ignored the fact that a knowledgeable former Twitter executive had testified last month before another House committee that neither the government nor Democrats instigated Twitter’s takedown or even provided information that prompted it.

Whatever credibility Taibbi retained prior to yesterday’s hearing imploded when he stated that this “Twitter File” story was “by far” more “serious” and “grave” than the 2008 fiscal crisis that deflated as much as 40 percent of the world’s wealth.

Must the the "vampire squid" reference emptywheel tweeted about. Mattydickpics continues to throw tantrums that nobody will take his nonsense seriously.  It's a conspiracy against him, ya see.  He's supposed to decide what's important, not other people.

Nice work, if you can get it.

Jordan’s vacuous Twitter Files hearing appeared to be an effort to distract from the negative response to his hearing on February 9 resurrecting random MAGA grievances. That first hearing led off with 89-year-old Senator Chuck Grassley as a witness complaining that it was Hillary Clinton and Democrats, and not Donald Trump’s campaign, who had “colluded with the Russians.”

Yeah, that didn't go so well:

Even Fox News host Jesse Waters moaned to Republican committee members, “Tell me this is going somewhere.”

After that first hearing, Jordan shifted attention to his claim that he had “dozens” of “FBI whistleblowers” with knowledge of FBI misconduct directed at Trump. In response, Democratic subcommittee members released a 316-page report documenting that Jordan’s staff could point to only three such witnesses, none of whom actually had direct knowledge of such misconduct.

Wait a minute!  We were promised whistle-blowers at yesterday's hearing!  We wuz robbed!!!!

Jordan had promised us a new Church Committee.  So far, it's more like he's being taken to church; by his grandmother, who has tight hold of his ear.  Like this:
Now for a palate cleanser:
Meanwhile: The funny part is, DeSantis is blaming this bad news on "teacher's unions." Which may appeal to the mouthbreathers in Florida, but it won't get him very far north or west of the Florida panhandle. Even in Texas, we aren't that crazy (we don't have teacher's unions, to speak of; and we don't have statewide legislation on book bans.  Not yet, anyway, on the latter.).

And a final lagniappe:
 
Trump claimed before that election that Clinton "would create an unprecedented constitutional crisis" as the first "sitting president under felony indictment and ultimately a criminal trial," and the studio audience laughed at the irony as he seeks re-election to a second term.
"Unfortunately."
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