MORE California Republican Congressional Traitors: Jan. 2021 roster.

Clockwise from seditious top left: McCarthy, Nunes, Garcia, Oberholte (huh?), Issa, Calvert, LaMalfa.

Onescore and five days ago, this selfsame blog catalogued, for its clamoring readership, the roster of California Congressmembers (all Republicans naturally) who had signed on to Texas’ absurd and traitorous lawsuit to invalidate the votes of hundreds of millions of Americans, just to please Donald Trump.  Nationally there were 126 such seditious lawmakers, but I was (pleasantly) surprised to see that only FOUR of ’em were from California – partly because this state has had so few Republican lawmakers, and partly because some new ones hadn’t been sworn in yet.

THIS month’s new Republican Congressional treason was the radical action of voting to overturn November’s election results last Thursday morning, in the wee hours even after the storming of the halls by the Trumpy mob – and this time there were even more office-holding seditionists: eight Senators and 139 Representatives – by far most Republicans in that house.  And how many traitors did California contribute to this Benedict Arnold caucus?  SEVEN this time.

Once again Orange County dodged the bullet of any responsibility – last time was because our newly elected Young Kim and Michelle Steel hadn’t yet been sworn in;  this time because… wait for it, don’t laugh … the two anti-mask OC women were both down with the coronavirus! (It’s a dangerous county for anti-mask Republican Korean-American freshman Congresswomen, I guess.)

Shawn Steel’s Trump-worshiping wife took the easy way out, releasing a weak statement from her sickbed that she is “against violence,” because who isn’t?  (Besides Trump himself that is.)   Former OC GOP insider Larry Tenney says, “Shawn certainly told Michelle to avoid this like the plague because 1) CA48 voted for Biden & 2) radicalized MAGAt terrorists living in CA48 voted for Steel.”  Not, in short, a profilette in courage.

But Young Kim actually, to be fair, put out a decent statement on Tuesday the 5th on why she opposed Congress interfering with the popular vote, and even if in good health she would not have joined the seditionists:

“…I didn’t vote for Joe Biden, but we’ve gone through constitutional process—the American people have voted; states have certified their elections; and courts have made their rulings. It is Congress’s job to count the votes cast by electors each state selects. The constitution does not give Congress the authority to overturn elections. To take such action would undermine the authority of the states.

“Congress does not determine which electors states send, and we must respect the authority of the states. The electoral college has voted and I will respect their vote…”

Smart move, for a Republican who barely just won in a purple district.  So she qualifies for the Extremely-Low-Bar Olympics, along with our former friend Tom McClintock, who  inexplicably voted last month to support TEXAS invalidating all our votes, but somehow found CONGRESS doing that to be a bridge too far.  He explained his thinking this past Sunday:  

“…Despite the clear and precise language of the Electors Clause of the Constitution — that electors shall be appointed “in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct” — several states changed their election laws not by legislative action but by executive decree. This was the subject of the friend of the court brief submitted by 126 members of the House, including myself, in support of the suit brought by Texas and 18 other states: “Can a legislature delegate such authority and if not, what is the remedy for an illegally conducted election?” We still don’t know the answer to that question, because the Supreme Court refused to hear it.

“But does this give Congress leave to usurp their powers? Does Congress have the constitutional right to refuse to count the votes of states that it believes acted fraudulently or illegally?

“If the Congress can refuse to count electoral votes – for whatever reason – then it has the inherent power to seize the decision for itself and render the Electoral College superfluous. Unlike the judiciary, Congress has an obvious conflict of interest: if it invalidates enough votes, it gets to elect the President and Vice- President directly. If the Founders had intended to give this power to the Congress, why did they go to all the fuss and bother of designing an Electoral College at all?

“And here’s a bonus question: does anyone seriously believe that a body of 535 intensely partisan politicians is a safe repository for the power to adjudicate the integrity of the vote? Benjamin Franklin once warned us that as creatures of reason, we have the faculty to come up with whatever reason we need to do whatever we want. That’s why we have a Constitution…” read more here if you’ve got the inclination…

So Young Kim and Tom McClintock take our Very Low Bar Sweepstakes.  Now let’s meet our…

Seditious Seven.

Three of December’s four traitors are back for a second swipe at the Constitution, and we’ve already looked at Riverside’s vast Ken Calvert and the Far North’s uncouth Doug LaMalfa.   But Bakersfield’s cretinous Kevin McCarthy requires a special look, as he is House Minority Leader, and an invaluable ringleader of all this perfidy. 

As I write this, House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries was just straining for words to describe the Minority Leader: “McCarthy’s no longer a joke, but a caricature of a joke,” who’s done nothing in recent years but “lick Donald Trump’s boots.”  This seems fair enough.  Less than 24 hours after leading House Republicans in the attempt to strip Americans of their vote, Kevin scrambled to impersonate a statesman:

“To deliver a better America for all, partisans of all stripes first must unite as Americans and show our country that a peaceful transition of power has occurred.  Impeaching the President with just 12 days left in his term will only divide our country more.”

But if Kevin is a “caricature of a joke,” then what is Fresno hack Devin Nunes?  Sadly, perhaps, a “caricature of a parody of a shadow of a BAD, unfunny joke.”  Devin is best known for his fabled “midnight run” to breathlessly inform President Trump of secret details of the Muller investigation against him, and his routine spouting of batshit-crazy conspiracy theories. 

And if “licking Trump’s boots” is all that Kevin McCarthy does, then whatever Devin does for the Grand Yam must be even MORE obsequious and shameful. And if we can figure out what THAT is, then maybe that would explain what he was doing when he missed out on the Texas fun last month!  But he sure didn’t miss out on voting Thursday morning to disenfranchise America.

Garcia, Oberholte (huh?)

There are three other Congressional quislings who betrayed our nation this week but not last month, for one reason or another.   I’d noticed Mike Garcia, the naval pilot who’d sailed into the Santa Clarita vacancy left by Katie Hill’s flameout, had skipped the Texas embarrassment for some reason, which I’d put down to his purple district, but there he was Thursday morning voting to disenfranchise you and me, as was a brand spanking new Palm Springs Congresstard I’d never heard of, one Oberholte.  (Huh?)

I know you missed me…

But finally, didn’t you all miss Darrell Issa?  You’ll be so glad to know he’s BAAAACK!  And his first act, taking over the dirty smelly San Diego seat of disgraced (and naturally Trump-pardoned) criminal Duncan Hunter Jr, is to try and STEAL YOUR VOTES AWAY to make Trump happy! 

You didn’t expect anything better from this longtime malevolent loose cannon, did you?  Who can forget his endless pointless Benghazi hearings?  Who can forget his frequent careless blabbing of confidential material just to get headlines?  Who can even forget, 17 years ago, the glory-hungry car-alarm magnate putting his millions into the Gray Davis recall, only to weep on camera when Arnold Schwarzenegger jumped in front of him to run for replacement governor?

Well, his hometown newspaper, which used to like him, is none too happy with him now, editorializing yesterday:

“The decision of newly elected Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Bonsall, to join more than 100 Republican lawmakers in objecting to certifying electoral votes from Arizona and Pennsylvania late Wednesday is deeply depressing evidence that the GOP tech entrepreneur believes the future of his party belongs to those who share President Donald Trump’s belief in conspiracies and disbelief in inconvenient facts.

“The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board repeatedly endorsed Issa when he represented northwest San Diego County in the House from 2001 to 2019, but didn’t endorse him in his 2020 campaign citing his excessive partisanship and derogatory campaign tactics. Issa knows full well that Trump’s lawyers failed dozens of times in court to overturn results nationwide — without evidence to justify outlandish, false claims of fraud and malfeasance.

“Efforts to reach Issa’s office to explain his votes Thursday were unsuccessful. Maybe on a day Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Illinois, became the first GOP lawmaker to call for invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office, Issa didn’t respond because he knows it would be difficult to say he truly agrees with a president who depicts his election loss as the fault of a vast conspiracy that includes the Supreme Court. Issa started off on two wrong feet.”

All I can say is, if the small pockets of Californian yokels continue to re-elect these sorry specimens, then can the rest of us Americans at least keep them out of the majority?  That is all.  Vern out.

************

Update Sat. morning (that is NOT all.)

I’ve just been made aware of a THIRD Covid-blocked California Republican, one David Valadao, first-termer from the San Joaquin Valley. Damn, I guess California has ELEVEN Republicans after this very mixed-bag election.

Let’s see… ah, nice:  “In a series of tweets sent out on Wednesday, Rep. David Valadao who represents California’s 21st District said it is not the role of Congress to choose who is president:”

And then, after the melee:

And today…

More Republicans like Young Kim, Tom McClintock, and David Valadao, please!

About Vern Nelson

Greatest pianist/composer in Orange County, and official political troubadour of Anaheim and most other OC towns. Regularly makes solo performances, sometimes with his savage-jazz band The Vern Nelson Problem. Reach at vernpnelson@gmail.com, or 714-235-VERN.