We all have contempt for Congress

Thursday the House voted 229 to 202 to hold the ridiculous Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress.

I have to admit, I laughed myself silly when I read the news. Congress is populated by a bunch of idiots.

Those morons just tossed a publicity hungry guy like Bannon right into the publicity briar patch. How stupid can you get?

But, really, who doesn’t hold Congress in contempt right now? If they’re going to start referring everyone to the DOJ who views Congress with contempt, the Justice Department will have about two hundred million referrals to deal with.

The January 6 select committee subpoenaed Bannon for records and testimony regarding whatever the hell Bannon was up to on January 6. And Bannon refused to comply, citing Trump’s executive privilege. Which makes zero sense since Steve Bannon was not a part of the Trump administration at the time having been fired in August 2017.

But when you’re a guy whose entire schtick is now predicated on convincing Trump supporters that you have some super-secret inside knowledge about all things Trump, you’d probably welcome getting the subpoena. Why? Because the Keystone Kops on the January 6 select committee just helped you sell your entire schtick.

If the January 6 committee was run by intelligent people instead of these halfwits, as soon as Bannon defied the subpoena, they would have laughed it off and mocked him for claiming Trump’s executive privilege somehow applied to him. Laugh it off, then with a dismissive wave a hand announce that Bannon is just too much of a non-entity to matter to your investigation.

Clearly the DOJ thinks Bannon is a non-entity. Of all the hundreds of people arrested for the 3-hour melee at the Capitol, Steve Bannon is not one of them. And those guys are arresting people whose only crime was going into the Capitol to snap a selfie or find a bathroom. The DOJ’s bar for arrest is that low, and still Bannon hasn’t been arrested.

By issuing a subpoena to Bannon, then holding him in contempt of Congress, these idiots just gave him the patina of importance he so desperately craves.

That patina of importance is exactly why, instead of arguing that Congress does not have the legal authority to conduct a criminal investigation, or subpoena a private citizen except in considering new legislation, Bannon went the executive privilege route.

Saying, “Hey, I’m just a private citizen. You have no oversight over me,” would have confirmed that Steve Bannon isn’t any kind of big shot. Whereas draping himself in executive privilege makes Steve feel like a big shot.

During Thursday’s debate, the odious Liz Cheney, in arguing in favor of referring Bannon for contempt, cited his January 5 podcast where he said “All hell is going to break loose.” Liz called it “shocking and indefensible.”

Well, as you can tell, I’m no special pleader for Steve Bannon, but it isn’t “indefensible.” The defense is right there in the First Amendment. He is an American citizen and has a right to free speech. It’s his podcast, he can make whatever predictions he wants.

Fact is, Bannon’s “all hell is going to break loose” prediction only proves just how out of the loop he really is.

According to Steve Bannon himself, when he made that remark, he was predicting that Mike Pence was going to send the electoral college votes from Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania back to the states. Bannon was certain Pence would refuse to certify the election and as a result, the Democrats were going to be so upset about it, all hell is going to break loose.

In other words, Bannon had no foreknowledge of the breach on the Capitol. He just made a prediction that ended up being completely and entirely wrong.

He does that a lot, by the way. On his podcast in late July, Bannon confidently predicted that the Maricopa County audit would be released before the end of the month. He had inside information, don’t you know, and was assuring his podcast audience that this would happen. His prediction was off by two months. The preliminary report wasn’t released until late September.

To explain away how he got the January 6 “all hell is going to break loose” prediction so wrong, Bannon said in an August podcast that his prediction would’ve been right if only Mike Pence hadn’t “blinked.”

By turning Steve Bannon into Public Enemy Number One and holding him in contempt of Congress, the Democrats in the House played right into Steve’s delusions of grandeur.

I may dislike Steve Bannon, but I still find it hilarious that, in his effort to fluff his own ego, he inadvertently managed to make these dinks in Congress look like fools.

In early October, President Trump was interviewed by Adam Shapiro from Yahoo News. Shapiro asked the former President if it was true that Steve Bannon was advising him in the final months of his administration. After a surprised “Excuse me?” President Trump told Shapiro, “No, not at all.” Trump went on to say that he hadn’t spoken to Bannon “almost at all,” but he knows Bannon has a very successful podcast.

Ouch.

Something tells me Trump’s dismissal of Bannon did more damage to him than Congress holding him in contempt.

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