House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's decision to reject freely two minority-party appointees to a committee on the Jan. 6 Capitol attack was unprecedented, but as she said, so was the attack itself.
Columnist E.J. Dionne writes that with this one dramatic act, Pelosi (D-Calif.) called out the extremists in what was once the "Grand Old Party" and exposed our political dysfunction.
"It is no longer possible to proceed normally when Republicans answer to a leader and his loyal base for whom reality is an inconvenience, fairly counted elections are a hindrance and outright lies are an accepted currency of politics," Dionne writes.
The two appointees, Reps. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), have disqualified themselves. They undercut the committee's purpose since the beginning, representing how Trump Republicans have been living in their own reality since Jan. 6.
"Instead of joining across party lines to get to the bottom of a violent attack on our democratic process, lawmakers are treating an insurrection as a partisan matter," Dionne writes.
Dire warnings about the possibility of artificial intelligence running amok and endangering civilization distract from its pernicious effects in the here and now.
Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy pulls all five Republicans off the House bipartisan committee to investigate the Jan. 6th attack on the Capitol after Speaker Nancy Pelosi blocked Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Jim Banks (R-Ind.) from sitting on the panel.
President Biden has often spoken about the importance of winning the global contest between liberal democracy and autocracy; Moldova now offers a tangible opportunity to gain some ground.
The fact that in just its first half year in office the administration has notified Congress of three major weapons sales to notoriously abusive governments is highly troubling.
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