After the 2022 midterm elections, Republican officials knew things would be challenging in the upcoming Congress. The GOP had lost ground in the Senate and secured a narrow majority in the House, leaving the party with few legislative prospects.
What gave Republicans hope, however, were their oversight options: The GOP would launch an endless series of investigations, which they hoped would produce all kinds of evidence of their foes’ pernicious ways. The party probably wouldn’t be able to pass meaningful bills, but their probes, Republicans assumed, would create plenty of rewards.
So much for that idea.
Republican Rep. Jim Jordan’s “weaponization” committee has failed to deliver the results the party hoped to see. Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk’s Jan. 6 committee has failed to deliver the results the party hoped to see. Republican prosecutor Robert Hur’s special counsel investigation failed to deliver the results the party hoped to see. Even Republican prosecutor John Durham’s special counsel investigation failed to deliver the results the party hoped to see.
And then, of course, there’s the granddaddy of ‘em all: The GOP’s ongoing impeachment inquiry targeting President Joe Biden, which has been a humiliating failure for quite a while, and which appears this week to have reached rock bottom. Politico reported:
Behind the scenes, Republicans of all ideological persuasions are increasingly admitting that they pulled the trigger on Biden’s impeachment too soon and that the effort has been hobbled by embarrassing setbacks.
The report added that GOP officials, from the leadership to rank-and-file members, realize that they won’t have the votes to impeach the incumbent Democrat, leaving the party to “search for an off-ramp” and explore possible “Plan Bs.”
Time will tell if, how, and whether Republicans settle on some kind of face-saving strategy — to the extent that one might exist — but in the meantime, plenty of voices within the party are grudgingly acknowledging reality and making their displeasure known.
ABC News, for example, pointed to multiple sources familiar with the sentiment on Capitol Hill who agreed that the impeachment inquiry is essentially “falling apart.”
Punchbowl News quoted a House GOP leadership aide who said Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer “are becoming the chairmen who cried wolf, promising there’s a ‘there’ there over and over again and producing nothing anywhere close to an impeachable offense.” The same report quoted Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of California saying, “I do believe we need to bring this to a conclusion.” This comes on the heels of related recent reporting about Republicans describing Comer’s and Jordan’s crusade with words and phrases such as “clueless,” “disaster,” and “parade of embarrassments.” If it were merely one failed investigation, GOP officials might be able to shrug it off. But it’s the cascading failures that make this an epic humiliation for the party.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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