The rules of the road, have been lodged/It's people's games, you've got to dodge
—Bob
On Tuesday afternoon, Rep. Jim McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts—Worcester! Represent!—released the text of a resolution on which the House will be voting as regards the procedures for the upcoming public portion of the impeachment inquiry. The part of the resolution that's going to be driving the Republicans even crazier than they are is that the resolution further empowers Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and the official bete noire in all the paranoid fantasies roaming around Camp Runamuck. This, for example, from Section 3, is a deadly bit of legislative poison.
The chair of the Permanent Select Committee or the chair of any other committee having custody of records or other materials relating to the inquiry referenced in the first section of this resolution is authorized, in consultation with the ranking minority member, to transfer such records or materials to the Committee on the Judiciary.
See the fangs in there? "Other materials relating to the inquiry referenced in the first section of this resolution is authorized..." It means that Adam Schiff is going to get to decide what the "other materials" are and how they are "related to the inquiry." That can mean almost anything, including the ratfcking of the 2016 election as precedent for the attempts to ratfck the next one. Of course, it still all has to go through the House Judiciary Committee, where the minority is represented by the likes of Louie Gohmert, Jim Jordan, and Matt Gaetz. If the process is very lucky, they'll all be off having the propellers on their beanies repaired. But we are not going to be that lucky, and those hearings are going to be three-rings-and-a-spare. Buckle up, America.
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Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976. He lives near Boston and has three children.
