Thankfully, Donald Trump’s – and Mitch McConnell’s – ploy of loading up the Supreme Court with Trump appointees hasn’t worked.
Trump’s blatant attempt to overturn the will of the American voters (remember how the Republicans whined that the Democrats were trying to do that during the impeachment proceedings? Funny how short memories can be.) was turned back Friday when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear that silly suit brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
It appears to have been Trump’s last gasp effort to thwart the will of the people and now we need only await the outcome of the Electoral College vote on Monday to make Joe Biden’s election official.
For four years, we saw Congress only as Trump’s lapdog instead of serving as checks and balances, as the Constitution intended, against overreach of power. Thank God the Supremes still understand the separation of powers concept.
From my time as a former part time disc jockey at KRUS, a booming 250-watt AM station in Ruston back in my college days, several songs come immediately to mind that I once played on my request show, appropriately called Requestfully Yours, that somehow now seem appropriate.
Roy Orbison’s It’s Over comes immediately to mind. That would be my first dedication to Trump.
Here are a few others:
- The Supremes to Trump: Stop! In the Name of Love!
- Donald Trump to the Supremes: Where Did Our Love Go?
- Trump to the Supremes: Nothing but Heartache
- Trump to the Supremes: My World is Empty without You
- Trump to the Supremes: River Deep, Mountain High
- Trump to the Supremes: Going Down for the Third Time
- Trump to the Supremes: Some Things You Never Get Used To
- America to the Supremes: I Hear A Symphony
Certainly, there are others and you can add your own to this list but I would suggest that Pigmeat Markham’s Here Comes the Judge is just too easy.
On a more serious note, I said HERE on Thursday that there was a question of whether or not Texas even had any legal standing to bring that ridiculous lawsuit against Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia and on Friday, The Supreme Court agreed that none existed.
That made Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Louisiana AG Jeff Landry and 16 other attorneys general, none of whom were from the four states where the lawsuit was challenging the results of the election, look extremely foolish.
Bigly Extremely.
If one wants to stretch credulity to its breaking point, Paxton’s motives were somewhat understandable: He has spent a large part of his career under indictment for securities fraud; he was recently reported to the FBI by his own deputies for bribery, and the Associated Press has reported his involvement in an extra-marital affair.
Trump can’t help him with his marriage or with any state criminal charges, but if he’s in trouble with the feds, he can throw his loyalist a lifeline before leaving office. To that end, Paxton’s doomed lawsuit could be a signal to Trump that a preemptive presidential pardon before Trump leaves office would be greatly appreciated.
As for the motives of our very own AG and four of our five Republican House members, one can only speculate as to their motives, although political expediency and pandering to their uninformed base would be pretty good guesses.
Of course, Landry is simply a political hack to begin with and he is obviously angling for a shot at the governor’s office in the 2023 election. If he’s successful, he would just be Bobby Jindal 2.0. He would be no more successful as governor than he has been in winning cases as attorney general.
For my money, the best bet for the Republicans in 2023 would be 6th District Congressman Garret Graves, the only Republican member of the Louisiana delegation with the good sense not to sign onto Paxton’s windmill-tilting lawsuit.
All four of the others JUMPED ON BOARD like they thought they were headed for Disney World. Ralph Abraham (lame duck 5th District), Steve Scalise (David Duke-dominated 1st District), Clay Higgins (McCarthyism-tinged 3rd District) and Mike Johnson (pseudo-family values 4th District) all joined Paxton’s quixotic quest to overturn the U.S. Constitution.
Their actions take them to the precipice of treason because they were complicit in an effort to strike down the very principle on which a democracy must be based: free elections devoid of intimidation, suppression or threats. To drape their motives in the cloak of patriotism and godliness does nothing to mitigate the felonious intent of their undertaking. Calling themselves patriots does not make them such.
Unsurprisingly, Mike Johnson leaves himself exposed as the ugliest festering boil of the lot: he is supposed to be the family values guy, the one who claims to have “devoted his life and career to fighting for the fundamental freedoms and traditional values that have always been a priority to the people of Louisiana,” according to his WEB PAGE.
But with a pandemic overrunning our hospitals, with people dying in record numbers from the virus, with people losing their jobs and with businesses shutting down, instead of devoting his time and energy to leading the fight for some sort of economic relief for his constituents, he spends his energies on behalf one constituent: Donald J. Trump.
Mike Johnson should recognize and acknowledge the fact that his priorities do not include a man who cheats on his wife, fondles women as if they were his personal chattels, ridicules physically-handicapped people, consorts with murderous dictators, and who, rather than trying to reach some common ground, viciously attacks anyone who dares disagree with him. Instead, Mike Johnson has become part of the problem with a Congress that takes too many breaks (it’s on one right now) even as Americans are going without food, losing their health insurance coverage, and are facing evictions from their homes because of the pandemic.
Instead of striving to help hurting citizens of the 4th District, Mike Johnson was lamenting the fact that he wasn’t able to sign more Republican House members onto Paxton’s lawsuit because he “ran out of time.”
What happened to his “family values” credo? Doesn’t he realize that “family values” means keeping families together? Doesn’t he know that “family values” includes security, protection of jobs, healthcare and shelter? Apparently, he’s forgotten all that.
Perhaps Mike Johnson should be reminded that the people of the 4th District, the people of Louisiana, the people of America, are also running out of time.
Louisiana Voice 
So well said Tom. But oh, so depressing to so many of us who hold no hope that they will change nor will their constituents stop voting for them.
Interference in an election is against federal law, per the statute below. Why has no one been charged or sanctioned under this law? Oh, Bill Barr, right.
18 U.S. Code § 595.Interference by administrative employees of Federal, State, or Territorial Governments
Whoever, being a person employed in any administrative position by the United States, or by any department or agency thereof, or by the District of Columbia or any agency or instrumentality thereof, or by any State, Territory, or Possession of the United States, or any political subdivision, municipality, or agency thereof, or agency of such political subdivision or municipality (including any corporation owned or controlled by any State, Territory, or Possession of the United States or by any such political subdivision, municipality, or agency), in connection with any activity which is financed in whole or in part by loans or grants made by the United States, or any department or agency thereof, uses his official authority for the purpose of interfering with, or affecting, the nomination or the election of any candidate for the office of President, Vice President, Presidential elector, Member of the Senate, Member of the House of Representatives, Delegate from the District of Columbia, or Resident Commissioner, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.
Rep. Johnson prides himself on being an “expert” in constitutional Law.Well, I guess he had to flunk the exams on the subject. In reality, he has become a Whipping Boy-Ass Kisser of Gymmy Jordan & Lying Meadows a la Gaetz. Mr. Johnson has sold his nation, ethics, values (if he really had any) and shown no backbone nor morality. Could be that his wife will be grabbed by the p_______ by Trump and like Cruz, argue on his behalf!
Johnson and Kornpone both claim to be constitutional experts. I guess that means they see the hidden meaning in some of its provisions we mullets can only understand superficially and literally. Johnson is a true enigma. He is very smooth, very articulate, and comes across as sincere – he does not give the impression of putting on an act and unlike Kornpone, he has not changed his spots over time. It is clear that naked politics by the numbers guide Kornpone. Johnson may actually have a moral position that allows him to overlook all but a couple of things about DJT if he believes he and the Republican party can deliver them.
Since Trump is really not one of Johnson’s constituents, I can only think that Johnson is serving Trump as a way of getting something more valuable than votes.