by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
Missouri 8th district congressman, Jason Smith, a Republican who also happens to be the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee thanks to the political largess of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, was on a tear in his email newsletter this week as he tried (in vain) to blame the current House of Representatives dysfunction (which centers on last week's removal of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker) on Democratic members of the House.
The move, which occurred when a member of the House, Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, a Republican, made a motion to "vacate" the Speaker's chair, a move which ultimately resulted in McCarthy being removed as Speaker. A total of eight right-wing radical Republicans joined in the effort to remove McCarthy, and those votes, along with the votes of the Democratic minority in Congress, were enough to get the job done.
Democrats did not make the motion to vacate. If the Democratic Party had held a majority in the House, which it did not, there would have been a Democratic Speaker and no need to replace the abysmally weak and ineffective McCarthy.
Republicans made the motion, brought the drama to a boil, and provided the votes that removed their Speaker from power. It was not, as Jason Smith would like his constituents to believe, some political coup d'etat by Democrats. Republicans removed Kevin McCarthy as the Speaker of the House of Representatives. It was (and is) their House and their mess!
On another note:
Those of us of a certain age can remember when the House Ways and Means Committee was an important element of Congress, but under Smith's lackluster leadership the once powerful committee has devolved into little more than a third-prong in the GOP's ill-fated attempt to impeach the President. The congressman from Missouri has spent a big wad of taxpayer money moving the committee around to various locations in the United States to hold public hearings, but these congressional mini-vacations come off as vain attempts to spread impeachment fever based on "evidence" that is little more than gossip and irrelevant innuendo.
As an example, on Wednesday, September 27th, Congressman Smith, who usually addresses the public from the safety of Fox News, was questioned by mainstream journalists over some of the flimsy "evidence" being put forth by his and two other congressional committees which are consumed with trying to build a case against the President based on the business affairs of his son. At a press conference that day, Smith was presenting "new evidence" which purportedly showed that Biden was using political influence to help his son.
NBC reporter Ryan Nobles declined to accept Smith's statement at face value and pointed out that in August of 2017, when the influencing supposedly took place, Joe Biden was not serving in any public office, nor was he running for any office at that time. Where was his influence? Congressman Smith stammered back that he was "not an expert on the timeline," but Nobles persisted. If Biden was not the President or the Vice-President at that time, "Where's the wrongdoing?"
Jason Smith got defensive and suggested that the reporter, Mr. Nobles, "will never believe us," to which Ryan Nobles replied:
"I'm not saying I don't believe you, I'm asking you a very direct question. You presented a piece of evidence that you say came on August 6, 2017, that demonstrates that Joe Biden was using political influence to help his son. I'm completely open-minded about this. I'm asking you specifically, how does that demonstrate that there is some sort of political influence being put over him, if at that time, he is not a political, he's not an elected official."
Ryan Nobles was pressing for an explanation, but Congressman Smith was either unable or unwilling to provide one.
All-in-all, Congressman Jason Smith has probably had better weeks.
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