I wonder how many others were amused, as I was last week, to hear Senator Adam Schiff praise members of his party for the ouster of his fellow Californian and Democrat, Rep. Eric Swallwell, from Congress.
The tale, as told on this website on Sunday, is that Swallwell — one of Schiff’s closest colleagues pushing the Russiagate gambit against the first Trump administration — was pressured to resign over the massive amount of complaints against him for sexual harassment and other unwanted sexual advances. There is even an accusation of rape.
Also resigning was a Republican from Texas, Tony Gonzalez, for similar reasons.
Schiff — who claimed to be “sickened” and “aghast” at the accusations and what Swallwell “has done” — followed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in scorning the Republicans for postponing dealing with the Gonzalez problem. He accused the Republicans of not wanting to abandon Gonzalez because they wanted to continue to maintain their majority in the House.
But this works both ways. Sure, Republicans postponed pressuring the ousting of Gonzalez until Democrats likewise agreed to pressure Swallwell to resign. Both parties maintain the previous balance. This is politics. Not great high-mindedness. On either side.
Further, the big issue was Swallwell’s gubernatorial run — contributing to the splitting up of Democratic votes thereby threatening to allow two Republicans to appear on the run-off on Election Day in November in California’s screwy Top Two system.
Finding an excuse to undermine Swallwell’s run was surely a big part of the magnanimous Democratic effort to remove him from Congress.
“You think you know someone, and it turns out you don’t,” said Schiff about Swallwell. “I didn’t socialize with Eric Swallwell, but I worked with him on the Judiciary Committee — I would never have imagined that he was capable of something like this.”
I think we know quite enough about Schiff and his partisanship, as we do so many in Congress. They are capable of anything.
Meanwhile, the vote to expel Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) — accused of expropriating FEMA funds to the tune of $5 million — has not exactly proven the AOC-Schiff thesis on swift Democratic self-policing. She’s still in Congress, though a vote may occur tomorrow, we’re told.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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One reply on “The AOC-Schiff Thesis”
As appalling as was the extra-marital affair of Gonzalez with an aide, no evidence has been produced that he sexually assaulted anyone.
The Democrats now patting themselves on the back called for Swalwell to abandon his campaign for Governor of California, but initially said nothing about him resigning from Congress. Their hands were subsequently forced by a Republican who also sought the ouster of Gonzalez, and will soon go after a few more malefactors.
The Democratic panic about the small possibility of a Republican Governor seems odd to me. They have a supermajority in the legislature, and have gerrymandered the districts. Moreover, the most recent Republican Governors of California haven’t been conservative or libertarian firebrands, but technocratic moderates.