Tip of the hat to http://all-hat-no-cattle.blogspot.com

If you would like to help elect Democrats, all four Iowa Republicans have Democratic challengers for 2024:  We need Democratic representation in congress.

(IA-01) D Sarah Corkery  v R Ashley Hinson;
(IA-02) D Christina Bohannan v R Mariannette Miller-Meeks;
(IA-03) D Lanon Baccam or D Melissa Vine  v R Zach Nunn
(IA-04) D Ryan Melton v R Randy Feenstra

Iowa’s political make up is approximately 1/3 Republicans, 1/3 Democrats and 1/3 no party. But somehow our representation at both the federal and state level is one party –  Republicans (except for Rob Sand, state auditor, Iowa’s only statewide elected Democrat).

All four of our members of congress are MAGA-Rs – Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA-01) , Randy Feenstra (IA-04), Ashley Hinson (IA-02) and Zach Nunn (IA-03). At the state level, the governor’s office and both the state senate and statehouse are controlled by one party, Republicans.

Yesterday, all four members of the Iowa congressional delegation offered up the usual Republican rhetoric to explain why they voted yes to an impeachment “inquiry” of President Joe Biden.  You can read their statements here.

The impeachment “inquiry” is about one goal – establishing a negative false media narrative to hurt President Biden’s electoral chances.  They are counting on getting away with lying about their lack of evidence (thanks to our broken media who seem to have no idea what a follow-up question is).  And they are betting the fact of their lying will not reach enough voters to vote them out of office. They believe (and why shouldn’t they?) the gullible, complicit corporate media will have a heyday with it and report on it as if it is a real thing.  They are confident their propaganda machine in the form of Fox , Newsmax,  right wing talk radio and conspiracy websites will succeed in saturating the public dialogue with suggestive generalities of wrong doing, creating the false impression they want to promote. They understand most people will likely never find out they have no evidence and are making it up.

Republicans are so lackadaisical about possible consequences of their actions, some are  admitting outright they have no evidence against President Biden but they are doing it anyway.

newrepublic.com/republicans-admit-no-incriminating-evidence-joe-biden

aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/14/no-evidence-but-us-republicans-approve-biden-impeachment-inquiry

vanityfair.com/news/fox-news-hosts-say-republicans-have-no-evidence-to-impeach-joe-biden

newsweek.com/mccaul-admits-gop-has-no-evidence

No evidence! These are just a handful of reports, the first ones that showed up on Google when I did a search. It’s everywhere. They have no evidence. They admit it.

Well, some of them admit it. Others, like all four of our representatives in congress, are engaging in various forms of dishonest rhetoric to justify their actions to voters and possibly to themselves. In their public statements yesterday about why they voted for the impeachment “inquiry,” they put forth generalizations and Republican talking points to give a vague impression of righteousness.

I didn’t catch all of the coverage, but KCRG had film of Miller-Meeks attempting to explain why she voted for it and keep a straight face. The only characteristic that I can see differentiating her from other MAGA-Rs is when she doesn’t tell the truth, her face actually reflects self-awareness like she’s conscious it might be obvious. The rest of them just look stone faced. My other observation is she looked scared. It made me wonder what she was told would happen if she didn’t vote right. Check out this video and see if you agree.

The so-called whistleblowers have been debunked. If “more and more” are coming forward, they are likely fake whistleblowers similar to the fake electors. Too bad we don’t have an Iowa media that would ask MMM what about the 65 page report released in May by the House Oversight Committee indicating that no evidence was found.  The report indicated the House GOP “were unable to provide any actual evidence linking the president to any wrongdoing.”

And yet here we are, all four Iowa members of congress voting for an impeachment inquiry after years of looking for something and coming up short.

Putting this in its proper context, popular American historian Heather Cox Richardson summed it up in her newsletter Wednesday quoting Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) who said, “The story is not what they are doing. The story is what they are not doing.”

“Schatz was referring to specific, vital measures that are not getting through Congress: the outstanding funding bill for aid to Ukraine and Israel, border security, and humanitarian aid for Gaza; the Farm Bill, which governs the nation’s agricultural and food assistance programs and needs to be renewed every five years; and the regular appropriations bills that Congress must pass and that House extremists tossed out former speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) over because they wanted deep cuts that he had agreed with President Joe Biden not to make.

But there is a larger point behind Schatz’s observation. Republicans, especially the extremist wing, have garnered power by promising to stop the government from acting… their role was not to offer real legislative solutions to problems, but rather to gin up support for the party nationally by pushing party talking points on right-wing media. Those talking points focused on slashing the government, which they claimed was hurting their constituents by defending secular society and providing benefits to undeserving minorities and women.

Now the Republicans are in charge of the House of Representatives, and they actually need to get work done. But extremist Republicans’ skill set involves pushing talking points to create a false reality that demands gutting the government, not legislating, which requires compromise and deep understanding of issues.

We appear to be watching Republicans’ fake image crash against reality.” – Heather Cox Richardson

The sooner the better.