Congressman Dusty Johnson had the courage to stand up to the Republican Party’s Dear Leader and vote with the majority of the House to convene an independent commission to investigate the January 6 Capitol insurrection. Senator John Thune and Senator Mike Rounds did not. Senator Thune joined most of his fellow deceitfully cowering Senate Republicans yesterday in preventing the independent commission from getting the supermajority 60 votes it needs to pass:
I support the ongoing criminal investigations by the Department of Justice, which have already led to hundreds of arrests. I also look forward to the conclusion of the bipartisan investigation that is currently underway in two Senate committees and reviewing their report. Unfortunately, Speaker Pelosi tainted this entire process by making it political from the start. I hope we can end it by simply finding the facts [Sen. John Thune, in Jacob Newton, “January 6 Commission Killed in Senate: South Dakota Senators React,” KELO-TV, 2021.05.28].
Showing even less courage, Senator Rounds skipped the vote:
Senator Rounds is currently fulfilling his responsibilities critical to his role on the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees by meeting with strategic partners and military leaders in war zones overseas. As he did not cast a vote, the record will show that he did not support this legislation, which is congruent with his position on this particular commission [Office of Sen. Mike Rounds, in Newton, 2021.05.28].
A Congressionally authorized independent investigation of the January 6 Capitol insurrection is not tainted political theater. It is an opportunity to have a public inquiry into the worst incident of domestic terrorism of this century, an attack on the United States Congress that posed a greater threat to Constitutional government in the United States than al-Qaeda’s airplane attack in 2001. As a member of the House in 2002, Thune supported creating the independent commission that investigated 9/11, and members of that commission have stated we need a comparable commission to investigate the January 6 insurrection. But Thune and closet-chicken Rounds evidently will only support investigations of foreign terrorists, not terrorists from their own party, including the terrorist who leads their party and who incited the insurrection in hopes of remaining in power.
Thune, Rounds, and the majority of their party evidently can’t handle the truth.
Related Reading: That truth includes our Senators’ failure to uphold their base’s diversionary racist slogan that Blue Lives Matter:
“I don’t understand it. They are elected for us, the people, and they don’t care about that,” [Gladys Sicknick, mother of Brian Sicknick, U.S. Capitol Police officer who died of strokes a day after insurrectionists assaulted him] added. “They care about money, I guess, their pocketbooks. So they’ll be in front of the cameras when they feel like it. They just don’t care, and it’s not right.”[Officer Sicknick’s girlfriend Sandra] Garza said of the Republicans who opposed the commission: “I think you know it’s all talk and no action. Clearly, they’re not backing the blue” [Jeremy Herb, “‘All Talk and No Action’: Sicknick’s Mother and Girlfriend Were Disappointed by GOP Senators,” CNN, 2021.05.28].
“We all take an oath to defend the Constitution against enemies foreign and domestic. And some people take that seriously. The fact that it’s not universal right now is pretty damn scary,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.). “Some of the people who really inflamed all of the things that led up to [Jan. 6], those are not people I’m going to be able to work with” [Burgess Everett and Marianne Levine, “‘Pretty Damn Scary’: Failure of Jan. 6 Commission Exposes Senate Wounds,” Politico, 2021.05.28].
Only in the US Senate is 35 a bigger number to 54.
As was pointed out on a news commentary program yesterday – a critical difference between 9/11 and 01/06 is that the 9/11 attackers were brown and Muslim, while the 01/06 attackers were white and “Christian”. A great demonstration of the real-time real world relevance of Critical Race theory. Excuse it any other way you wish – the distinction remains obvious.
Thune=Hindenburg? A while back I read “The Death of Democracy” by Benjamin Carter Hett. It’s about the demise of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Hitler. It’s scary how closely the Republican Party collapse into Big Lie mythological fascism today resembles the conservative parties’ maneuverings in 1920s to early 1930’s Germany.
Thune, of course, is no Hindenburg, who was respected as an old statesman-soldier with a probably not totally deserved reputation as a “hero.” Thune, at best, is an upper-level apparatchik in a conservative party that has lost its way. Thune would resemble more people like Hugenberg, Brunnig, Pappen, Schleicher, Jung or Bose, though some of these actually wielded some state power. Wherever you want to slot Thune in the pantheon of Hitler precursors and preparers, he’s the same-type of myopic coward.
Rounds? He’s a non-entity, an empty suit. He goes with the flow. Hitler used his type to build and operate the gas chambers.
Dusty? Slot him in as a real conservative who recognized the danger Hitler posed. There were a number of them. Many recognized it a little too late to save the republic or themselves.
The difference between 9-11 and Jan 6th is the Saudi terrorists were friends of dumbass dubya and Jan 6th terrorists are disciples for drump###k the dumb###k
Donald Pay– Living where you do, you probably did not see dusty going on the local news complaining how Pelosi had politicized the commission and how awful it was setup, but he voted yes because he thought it was the best he was able to get from Pelosi. Coward all the way.
Out of curiosity, and not saying the no votes were ok: is there some level of authority granted to the commission that would make its investigation qualitatively different than ongoing federal law enforcement investigations?
My guess is that the 1-6 commission would make the recommendations for policy/ law changes like the 9-11 commission did. Law enforcement is tasked with catching criminals.
Yet another example of what our representation stands for, re-election.
Yeah, cibvet, I can’t hear the Dusty’s spin from two states away. I’m sure he has to put up a fig leaf, and, without shame, he uses the typical Republican talking points, which may work for the dumb crowd, but which anyone with a double digit IQ sees right through. If you have followed the bipartisan negotiating process for this commission, you know that the Democrats gave in on almost all of the Republican requests. But, facts don’t matter to the Republican sheeple.
I keep emailing Mike Rounds and John Thune to notify them of my supreme disappointment in them, but do they change? No. I’m starting to think this relationship is one sided…
The Jan 6th independent commission would have been made up of people with investigative experience and the integrity to fulfill their mission (think Democrats) and not include the highly partisan drumpfbots who couldn’t find a clew in a bowl of clews (think Benghazi 1-5 or 6)
I clearly remember dumbass dubya’s fight against the commission’s being formed and acceptance of the findings once the Saudi Investigation was redacted.
I saw a poll that over half of Republicans believe that the rioters were antifa or BLM. If that’s the case, why are they not screaming for an investigation?
Marlboro Barbie explains his reasoning to change his 1-6 committee approval position to save his party’s chances at retaking congress as he neglects, once again, defending America to defend McCTurtlefartface.
In the end, only six Senate Republicans – Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, Bill Cassidy, Rob Portman, Lisa Murkowski and Ben Sasse – voted to move forward on the commission.
As the final vote hurtled towards its expected finale, the Senate minority whip, John Thune, who also switched his position to side with McConnell, acknowledged McConnell’s arguments about a commission jeopardising Republican chances to retake majorities in the House and Senate.
Summarising his concerns, Thune said: “Anything that gets us rehashing the 2020 elections I think is a day lost on being able to draw a contrast between us and the Democrats’ very radical leftwing agenda.
Above comments come from the Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/29/mitch-mcconnell-us-capitol-attack-commission-senate-republicans
Democrats negotiated – awarding republicans EVERYTHING THEY WANTED regarding the 1/6 investigation. Then 35 losers voted against the investigation anyway.
Schumer is a fool for negotiating with McConnell and his band of lying fools.
The democrats should now pass their original investigation proposal.
The AG must get with the his offices own investigation and prosecution of the political criminals.
Well….we’re nor going to have an official Congressional investigation of QNon boys at the Capitol.. We’ll have to let the federal DA’s and the Trump appointed judges do that work. Rounds got out of town for the vote. I really believe he’s trying to tack to the middle, but as Don Pay points out, this is a time when moral courage counts, and Rounds doesn’t have any. Thune’s place in our state’s history becomes murkier and murkier. Johnson staked out the high ground and now wants to spin himself into the all things to all people position.Rats in heat.
If they really wanted it to pass, it should have been titled, The January 6th insurrection and a return to Benghazi. It only takes one word to trigger a Republican.
I don’t live in SD any longer. When I did live there I supported Johnson from the time he ran for SoS. Always thought Rounds was a waste of space from the time he ran for Gov. . Thune seemed sensible and I was ok with supporting him-felt he was honest, even though lacked the drive of leadership..
Since I left I have seen Noem do her best to grift and benefit from the work done by the Daugaard-Michels administration who worked their butts off doing good things for the state while facing a lot of significant challenges.
Thune has given up on being POTUS and comfortable with smelling McConnell’s posterior as he hopes to take that position one day. Rounds is just collecting his money hoping for a good retirement.
I have been saddened to see what is happening to the place where I grew up. I would never think about returning for any types of reunions, It would too sad and I would frankly be concerned about bumping to someone who would draw down on me and start blasting away.
South Dakotan’s are no longer the tough and courageous, independent minded people I once knew. You have become lemmings in a cult that is frankly scary as heck. I hope people wake soon and see what is happening to them, From what I understand, few of her key people (other than family) really have ties to SD. .Noem and her ilk will suck your vitality and use it to play around the world as Trump has done. Thune and Rounds are cowering in the corner, hoping no one will notice them. Johnson , at least has shown some sense of SD decency.
I understand that it is tough to find people who have the time and resources to participate at the State Legislative level.. I really hope folks will get involved at the local level. at least. These ultra right wing groups are sowing the seeds of activity that will make 1/6 seem tame. It will take sane people to control the spread of their venom.
Marlboro Barbhie and Cardboard Mike join iowa’s 2 magats Grossley and Ivana Kuturnutzov as liars who claim to support the blue, but apparently not at crucial times when their party of magats are the ones blocking the independent investigation into drumpf’s assault on Gongress trying to overturn the 2020 election and democracy, itself.
Capitol police were killed and beaten by magat thugs and magats have tried their best to make the right wing traitors into liberals. Marlboro Barbie has claimed the magat party will likely lose the midterms if their party is further exposed and the truth comes out. Shame on those unpatriotic pieces of human garbage with Rs behind their cowardly backs.
Remember magat’s rage when William Jefferson Clinton received a 2 vowel job from an intern in the oval office? Remember the investigations and such phony outrage? Where did it all go in the intervening years?
A vowel and a consonant job. My bad.
“[legislative redistricting] Map drawing in 2021–22 will take place with a legal framework weakened by two major Supreme Court rulings. In 2013, the Supreme Court gutted core protections of the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder. Then, in 2019, the Court closed the door to federal court challenges to partisan gerrymanders in Rucho v. Common Cause. But the …last decade saw new … wins against partisan gerrymandering in two state courts, suggesting that state constitutions could emerge as an alternative route to challenge gerrymandering in the 2021–22 cycle.”
[At] 6 a.m., the (gerrymandered) Texas Senate approved this pathetic excuse for “voter integrity” legislation — which has almost nothing to do with fraud and everything to do with making it harder for Democrats to vote. This couldn’t have happened before Shelby County. @steve_vladeck
Cory, what is this on your blog??
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Could someone explain to me the point of having filibusters that don’t involve someone actually standing up and talking for hours?
Kind regards,
David
David, it’s far easier for the elderly male Senators to obstruct legislation so they don’t have to stand and talk for hours. Lower capacity is a disability of the aged male, at least some of us. When I was working we had a lunch table for elderly men. It was located closest to the restroom. We called it the “low T, hourly pee” table. The older women seemed to last longer than we men, I mean in the pee department. In the other department, some of us (not me) had the “low T” disability, too.
When and why did we as a country decide that truth doesn’t matter?
So let me get this right, Dusty wants a commission concerning an act, which he didn’t think deserved a conviction after a House impeachment? Really?
This is not right.
https://nypost.com/2021/06/23/fbi-tears-new-yorkers-life-into-shreds-devine/