In a way, it's kind of good that 35 Republicans jumped in to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's phony "9/11-style" commission on the Capitol riot of Jan. 6.

According to Axios:

The House of Representatives voted 252-175 on Wednesday to pass a bill to set up a bipartisan 9/11-style commission to investigate the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riots.

Why it matters: Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and GOP leadership oppose the commission, but 35 House Republicans voted in support of the bill, underscoring the fault lines within the party in the aftermath of the insurrection.

That's because now we know who they are: 

• Rep. Don Bacon (Neb.)
• Rep. Cliff Bentz (R-Ore.)
• Rep. Stephanie Bice (Okla.)
• Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.)
• Rep. John Curtis (Utah)
• Rep. Rodney Davis (Ill.)
• Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.)
• Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (Neb.)
• Rep. Andrew Garbarino (N.Y.)
• Rep. Carlos Gimenez (Fla.)
• Rep. Tony Gonzales (Tex.)
• Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (Ohio)
• Rep. Michael Guest (Miss.)
• Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (Wash.)
• Rep. French Hill (Ark.)
• Rep. Trey Hollingsworth (Ind.)
• Rep. Chris Jacobs (N.Y.)
• Rep. Dusty Johnson (S.D)
• Rep. David Joyce (Ohio)
• Rep. John Katko (N.Y.)
• Rep. Dan Newhouse (Wash.)
• Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.)
• Rep. David McKinley (W.Va.)
• Rep. Peter Meijer (Mich.)
• Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (Iowa)
• Rep. Blake Moore (Utah.)
• Rep. Tom Reed (N.Y.)
• Rep. Tom Rice (S.C.)
• Rep. Maria Salazar (Fla.)
• Rep. Mike Simpson (Idaho)
• Rep. Chris Smith (N.J.)
• Rep. Van Taylor (Tex.)
• Rep. Fred Upton (Mich.)

What a collection of jackasses.

The backdrop is this: we have always known that the RINOs have been out there; we just didn't know quite which ones they were.  They stood up and got counted this time, unlike those secret and voice votes held on Liz Cheney's bad House leadership — the secret vote to keep her, the voice vote to boot her.

With this vote, we now know whom to primary.

The reason for Republican voters to get rid of these Trump-hating bounders is twofold, maybe three:

First, the NeverTrump contingent among Republicans in the electorate is nowhere as big as that 35 proportionately.  These people are overrepresented in the House, so it's time to get at least some of them out.

Second, the arguments for the commission are problematic:

Tristan Justice at The Federalist makes the argument that Congress focusing on the Capitol riot while ignoring the mass backdrop of leftist political violence over the summer, at far greater cost of property and human lives, stinks of partisanship.

Democrats have been giving a pass to leftist rioters and benefiting politically from their deeds, so any commission worth its salt would have to investigate these characters, too.  But that might gore a leftist ox, so just the incident at the Capitol — a crowd that got out of control — is worth congressional time and $40 million in U.S. government resources.  Read it here.

I think there's merit in what Justice wrote, but one could always argue that there's a bit of whataboutism in it.

The stronger argument to me is that this commission is going in with a foreordained conclusion.  This is yet another Nancy Pelosi/Chuck Schumer/Adam Schiff kangaroo court, following the two failed impeachment bids, the Russia-Russia-Russia hoax, and the Mueller probe, all of which failed to succeed in their mission owing to having no facts to support their bid to make President Trump the bad guy.

The whole commission, despite being billed as bipartisan, is just another Democrat bid for political advantage.  We already know what the conclusion of this joke commission is: a finger to be pointed at President Trump.  We don't even have to read the final report to know that; we already know what they will claim in the end.

That any Republican would expect probity from Pelosi, with an open mind and honest inquiry, is sheer stupidity if not Trump-hate in disguise.  Pelosi croaks that the commission is bipartisan, but if you look at the deets in the actual passed law, you'll see that she and Schumer (page 7) determine the majority of the appointees, all of whom will be partisan leftists with the final say in the report's conclusion.

This just happens to dovetail with the Democrat agenda, which is discrediting President Trump, bringing this dreary issue up over and over and over to win the 2022 midterms and 2024 election, and quite possibly find a way to ban President Trump from running for office, which is right there on page 3 and 4.

To investigate and report to the President 16 and Congress on its findings, conclusions, and rec17 ommendations for corrective measures that may in18 clude changes in law, policy, procedures, rules, or 19 regulations that could be taken to prevent future 20 acts of targeted violence and domestic terrorism, in21 cluding to prevent domestic terrorist attacks against 22 American democratic institutions, improve the secu23 rity posture of the United States Capitol Complex 24 while preserving accessibility of the Capitol Complex 25 for all Americans, and strengthen the security and resilience of the nation and American democratic in2 stitutions against domestic terrorism.  

 ...and page 7:

(3) submit to the President and Congress re4 ports required pursuant to section 10 containing 5 such findings, conclusions, and recommendations, 6 which may include changes in law, policy, proce7 dures, rules, or regulations, to improve the detection, 8 prevention, preparedness for, and response to tar9 geted violence and domestic terrorism and improve 10 the security posture of the United States Capitol 11 Complex and ensure the security of Members of 12 Congress and staff. 

Laws?  But of course.  They will recommend passing a law to say President Trump cannot run for office again.  That is what they've always wanted, and they even made a last-bid lunge for it at the last farce impeachment.  We know that this is what this commission is about.

Anything to distract the public and the voters from their awful congressional record and motivate the Democrats' leftist base.  Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, a pro-Trump House representative, says the real aim of this clown show is to "cancel MAGA."

These 35 Republicans went along, and it won't be long before they get rolled.  Because censoring Trump as they're going to call for in this pre-ordained commission report won't stop at Trump; it will move on to them, too, and the voters.

Now we know who they are, and how many of them are out there in Congress — GOP politicians who hate President Trump and the very Republicans whose votes they claim.  They now trust in Nancy Pelosi.  They ought to be known and their names memorized.

Photo illustration by Monica Showalter with use of cropped image by Tom Childers via Flickr, CC BY 2.0 and public domain source.

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