So Republicans like Gym Jordan and James Comer have been loudly demanding that a Special Counsel be appointed to investigate Hunter Biden. When they finally got their wish, they responded with outrage, (because when do Republicans respond with anything else these days?) A “distraction” they are calling it and an attempt to “whitewash” the supposed “crimes” of Hunter Biden. Leaving a whole lot of people baffled as to why they would be so furious because they got what they want. Outrage is reflexive in today’s GOP, remember that when Trump won they managed to be both self satisfied and angry simultaneously but there is a much more important reason for this particular temper tantrum. Yeah, they’re angry and it’s because…
1) As usual, Republicans acted on the assumption that Democrats would behave as dishonestly and unethically as they, themselves and so would never in a million years appoint a Special Counsel, even though the Democrats are as aware as anybody else that there is no evidence of wrongdoing because there was no wrongdoing. Republicans thought that they were safe to loudly and publicly demand a Special Counsel because they would never get one because they, themselves would never grant that if their positions were flipped. The fact that Republicans have long used a partisan DOJ to do their dirty work means that they can’t imagine an independent DOJ. Which brings us to…
2) Republicans know there is absolutely no fire behind their smoke screen, hell they created it out of whole cloth. An independent special counsel will ultimately find no “there” there and further erode their already absurdly thin case. They have been so desperate to produce real evidence of a crime that they have paraded convicted felons, unregistered lobbyists and discredited and disgruntled Federal employees through at least two different Congressional committees. It has been such an obvious horse and pony show that even Sen. Turtle McTurtleface is having none of it. Which means….
3) Hard line MAGAs aren’t going to get their impeachment vote because the Republicans in districts that Biden won now have a plausible cover: they can’t support impeachment until the Special Counsel is done. And while I have no doubt that Weiss will act independently and try to follow the evidence wherever it leads, it’s not going to be accomplished overnight and Republicans wanted, NEEDED an impeachment to take place prior to November 2024. But you want to know what? I don’t think that’s the only reason they’re pissed…
4) Republicans have been so desperate to find criminal wrongdoing and corruption that some of the “evidence” that they have presented may have been coerced or just made up, which could open some Republican politicians to criminal liability or at the very least, something hugely embarrassing right before an election. Remember, every member of the House of Representatives must run for re-election or leave Congress next year and while Republicans have no shame and apparently aren’t even embarrassed by entering revenge porn into a Congressional record, perjury, bribery and blackmail are tools that we know they aren’t afraid to use.
In summary then, Republicans have been outmaneuvered. By granting their wish, (which they never dreamed would be granted), Garland has killed any chance of McCarthy holding an impeachment vote and has possibly opened some of them up for either (further) political humiliation or even criminal liability. Of course they’re pissed off. By calling their bluff, Merrick Garland and possibly Dark Brandon just thwarted the fuck out of them by throwing their whole strategy out the window.