The pompous toad who now runs the House Judiciary committee, Jerry Nadler, has declared that the United States is now in the midst of a Constitutional crisis. Here is his hyperbolic rant:
During a press conference after the House Judiciary Committee voted to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt on Wednesday, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler (D-NY) stated that we “are now in a constitutional crisis.”
Nadler said, “We’ve talked for a long time about approaching a constitutional crisis. We are now in it. We are now in a constitutional crisis. … Now is the time of testing whether we can keep a republic, or whether this republic is destined to change into a different, more tyrannical form of government, as other republics have over the centuries.”
Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) reminded Nadler of his hypocrisy
Buck said, “Mr. Chairman, you said in 1998 that a report of this kind is ‘a prosecutor’s report,’ by its nature a one-sided report.”
The Colorado Republican also referenced Nadler’s comments that grand jury testimony is often “unverified” and could be “salacious,” and its release would be “unfair.”
“You said it would be ‘grossly unfair’ to allow members of the Judiciary Committee to see the materials in relation to a report involving obstruction of justice by a Democratic President,” Buck said.
“Given your position, I offered an amendment several weeks ago to protect those materials [grand jury material], and the Democrats on this committee objected and voted against my amendment,” Buck added.
Congressman Buck said that during the Richard Nixon impeachment proceedings, the committee adopted rules to protect against leaks but, “I note for the record, we have not.”
“Mr. Mueller said no collusion, no provable obstruction,” Buck added.
Congressman Buck then said that Nadler said that impeaching Clinton would amount to a “partisan coup d’etat.”
Not surprisingly, the media is equally hypocritical
But the same media in 2012 derided the contempt vote for Eric Holder as cynical political grandstanding, if not outright abuse of power.
On June 19, 2012 (the evening before the House’s contempt vote for Holder), Matthews repeatedly compared the gesture to a demeaning (and perhaps racist) “stop-and-frisk”: “Is this sort of stop-and-frisk at the highest level? Go after the Attorney General, get him to empty his pockets, stand under the spotlight as long as they can and see if anything happens?”
The following day, CNN’s Brooke Baldwin grilled Republican Congressman John Mica on why such a vote was even necessary: “Why go ahead with a contempt vote? Why?” Baldwin later added: “For a lot of people, this is Republican versus Democrat, and they say, ‘This is just theater, it amounts to nothing.’”
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes dismissed the development as sheer politics, opening his June 23 show by remarking: “Given what we know about the Republican Party — and the way the House of Representatives conducts itself when run by Republicans and with a Democrat in the White House — it shouldn’t really count as news when a House committee finds the Democratic Attorney General in contempt of Congress.”
California rep Jackie Speier threatened to put Barr in handcuffs:
Speier said, “I think, before long, you’re going to see more and more people willing to be very aggressive. I think, frankly, our membership has been very respectful and has tried to accommodate everyone in terms of having them come without subpoena. I think subpoenas are going to fly now, and when they are not complied with, we have what’s called inherent contempt proceedings. Which means we send the sergeant [at] arms out to handcuff the individual who is declining to testify.”
Host Chris Matthews then asked, “Who are you going to handcuff?”
Speier responded, “Well, I’m going to start with Mr. Barr and bring him in. And –.”
Matthews asked, “Are you really serious about that threat? Because he’s laughing at that.”
Speier answered, “Well, you know, he won’t get the last laugh. I mean, he has to comply with the subpoena. And, so far, he has been — it’s all been negotiated, but once there are specific subpoenas, and he does not comply with them, he can be brought before the House. He can be tried. He can either be held there to testify, or he can be punished. And there is actually a jail in the Capitol, which has been used as recently as 1930.”
Back in 2012, Eric Holder was held in contempt for withholding documents pertinent to his screw-up of Fast and Furious. Just imagine, if you will, the reaction had Republicans threatened to put Holder in chains,er, I mean handcuffs.
You will recall that Nadler voted against holding Holder in contempt.
But Nadler may have a point. We really are in a Constitutional crisis, but it’s one of democrats’ making. They are voting to hold Barr in contempt for failing to violate the law.
“The only side who has made accommodations is the Attorney General, who made extraordinary efforts to provide Congress and the public with information about the Special Counsel’s work,” the DOJ noted in a press statement Wednesday. Barr is unable “to comply with the House Judiciary Committee’s subpoena without violating the law, court rules, and court orders,” the statement added.
“It is deeply disappointing that elected representatives of the American people have chosen to engage in such inappropriate political theatrics,” the statement added. The House Judiciary Committee, led by New York Rep. Jerry Nadler, voted to hold Barr in contempt for not giving the committee special counsel Robert Mueller’s full, unredacted report.
Georgia Republican Doug Collins:
“Chairman Nadler knows full subpoena compliance requires Attorney General Barr to break the law. Yet, instead of introducing legislation allowing the attorney general to provide Congress grand jury material, Democrats move to hold him in contempt,” Collins said in the statement.
Surely Nadler knows this, which makes him reckless and unethical. democrats were quick to hit Devin Nunes with ethics violations in order to sideline him from digging into the Russian hoax. It’s time for Republicans to file ethics charges against Nadler for this abuse of power and his farcical demand that the Attorney General violate the law.
It’s unconstitutional. A criminal conspiracy.
Of course, this nonsense is simply more kabuki to harass Trump and distract from the coming tsunami which will likely bury the democrats.
Now here’s the side-splitter. The contempt charge against Holder was just settled- yesterday. So if the democrats pursue this charade, it will longer on in the courts for years, well into the second Trump term and perhaps beyond.
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.