Louisiana Voice

It’s always amazing to watch gymnasts and contortionists.

The control that gymnasts have over their bodies in the vault and floor exercises is absolutely jaw-dropping.

But equally mystifying is how some people can contort their principles and morals to accommodate the most outrageous positions and philosophies.

That is, of course, assuming they have any principles and morals to begin with.

Such questions certainly must now hang like the sword of Damocles over the heads of U.S. Sen. John Neely Kennedy and U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.

Kennedy, of course, completely bastardized any shred of dignity that remained in his soul back in 2016 when he proclaimed that he’d “RATHER DRINK WEEDKILLER” than betray one Donald Trump on who’s coattails he was running (for the third time after losing the first two) for the Senate.

At least he’s held to that dogma, especially with his latest appearance on Fox News where he completely buried his head in Trump’s flabby, pasty-white derriere by declaring, “We’re going to get President Trump’s nominees confirmed…I don’t take that as being a problem.”

Really? Well, then, Mr. Foghorn Leghorn, please tell us just what it would take for you to perceive something as being a problem.

Let me repeat that. One-time liberal Democrat now a John Birchite Republican U.S. Sen. John Neely Kennedy, a graduate of Vanderbilt University and a Rhodes Scholar actually said, “We’re going to get President Trump’s nominees confirmed…I don’t take that as being a problem.”

Let that soak in, folks.

• Kennedy apparently is just fine with having the likes of Matt Gaetz, who resigned just before a House Ethics Committee report on his alleged pedophilic activities was to be released (more on that in a bit), for nomination to the nation’s highest legal office, U.S. Attorney General, who will preside of the U.S. Department of Justice.
• Kennedy is okay with a secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth who has sexual assault charges hanging over his head as well.
• He’s hunky-dory with a health secretary (Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.) who is a complete, worm-brained nut case and a conspiracy theorist nonpareil.
• Somehow, he must be satisfied with Tulsi Gabbard, said to be a national security risk, as, of all things, director of national intelligence.
• And he apparently has no problem with puppy-killing Kristi Noem, aka “Airhead,” as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

Of course, once vetted, each of these nominees could be proven to be squeaky clean. It’s not at all likely, but it’s at least remotely possible.

But to give the blanket approval at this stage as Kennedy has obviously done amounts to nothing but a display of Kennedy’s continued unquestioning fealty to his lord and master – while managing to completely ignore any pretense of independence or any attempt to invoke the checks and balances system under which our government was established in the first place.

Now let us turn our attention to that other Louisiana demagogue – Mike Johnson.

As recently as Wednesday, Johnson told reporters that as speaker he could not be involved in deciding whether or not to release that ethics report on Gaetz.

But then, just as he did when the House was on the verge of approving a bipartisan border bill a couple of months ago, he talked to Donald Trump.

And things suddenly changed.

Wow, did they change.

Just as that border bill suddenly evaporated, so now is Johnson saying that he plans to urge House Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest NOT TO PROVIDE the Gaetz report to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Instead of a porn-monitoring app on his cell phone, perhaps Johnson should consider a Trump guidance-app in order to avoid future embarrassing leadership U-turns.

“The rules of the House have always been that a former member (remember, Gaetz resigned just before the report was due out) is beyond the jurisdiction of the Ethics Committee,” Johnson said just two days later, on Friday.

He offered that attitude adjustment immediately after meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. What a coincidence!

Releasing the report, Johnson said, would set a “terrible precedent” and “open up a Pandora’s box.”

Not so, said a spokesman for Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The spokesperson said there was “longstanding precedent” in both the House and Senate for releasing ethics investigations after a subject member’s resignation.

So, there you have it folks. The continued practice of the usual high standards of Louisiana politicians when it comes to supporting proposals that conflict with everything sane and logical.

It’s enough to make the most optimistic among us cynical.

But it’s just another day in the life of the political contortionist.