The GOP Is Freaking Out Over Merrick Garland. So What's Up with All That?

[Nevilledog]

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Jay Kuo
@nycjayjay
What a circus yesterday’s Senate hearing was. Why the bluster and frothing at the mouth, GOP? Well, we actually know why. And cool, calm Garland didn’t take the bait. My newest piece is out, don’t forget to sign up for my daily updates!

The GOP Is Freaking Out Over Merrick Garland. So What’s Up with All That?
Yesterday’s Senate hearing ballyhoo over the testimony by Merrick Garland are an indication of where the GOP’s head is these days. It’s quite revealing. GOP senators took turns blasting Garland, and...
statuskuo.substack.com
8:40 AM · Oct 28, 2021

https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/the-gop-is-freaking-out-over-merrick

*snip*


So what has got these GOP senators into such a lather? Had the FBI and the DoJ gone authoritarian overnight and begun arresting GOP operatives and political leaders?

No. Apart from their apparent desire to create sound bytes for right-wing media, the senators were apparently outraged that the Department was, well, doing its job. Attorney General Garland had issued a memo earlier this month that addressed the rising threats of violence against school board members across the country. For some context, these threats are being egged on by coordinated groups on the far-right that are messaging negatively around so-called “Critical Race Theory.” They are successfully weaponizing scared parents, who now believe their children are being indoctrinated into leftist, liberal thinking by being required to read books by, for example, Toni Morrison. (Morrison’s book “Beloved” was featured in an ad by the GOP Virginia gubernatorial candidate where a parent sought to have the book banned from the curriculum.)

These parents have filled acrimonious school board meetings demanding that their districts not teach history or literature that makes white children feel bad about their own race. As tempers and the rhetoric have become more heated, threats of violence have increased against officials, to the point where the National School Board Association sent a letter to President Biden requesting assistance in addressing these threats, which in its view sometimes rose to the level of “domestic terrorism.” (Following an uproar, the NSBA apologized for the use of that admittedly loaded term.)

The Biden White House referred the letter to the Justice Department, as it should, which took the request seriously, as it also should, given the real and rising instances of threats against school board members. But the memo was at pains to make it clear that only a check-in was needed. As Garland explained during his testimony, “The purpose of this memorandum is to get our law enforcement to assess the extent of the problem, and if there is no problem—if states and local law enforcement are capable of handling the problem, then there is no need for our involvement in it.”

*snip*

[senseandsensibility]

1. Trying to "dirty up" Garland in case he brings

charges against them or their cronies.

[panader0]

2. Yep

[Eyeball_Kid]

7. GOPers wouldn't dare question Garland about the insurrection investigations.

That's a hot wire for them.

But, IMO, Garland's DOJ is working feverishly on acting in a rational, systematic way to bring indictments to a wide array of GOPers who helped with the insurrection. All of them are on the agenda.

The DOJ's silence, and now, the Congressional Dems' silence, on the issue is telling us that we're getting closer to indictments and arrests.

Garland knows that if he isn't working on it and isn't going to issue indictments, the nation will collapse, and his DOJ will be rendered a political tool for the next Trump. Garland knows that he has to reduce cynicism and bring confidence in the DOJ back from the brink. The ONLY way that can be accomplished is to indict Trump and his circle of enablers. It must be done.

[FoxNewsSucks]

27. Your last paragraph is 100% fact

and I hope Garland does indeed know it, and is working as you describe.

We're fucked if not.

[Susan Calvin]

26. That was my first thought. nt

[berni_mccoy]

29. Yep

[olegramps]

33. Standard behavior for the stinking, filthy, fascist Republicans.

[IronLionZion]

34. Maybe he's close then. If they're feeling the heat

[gab13by13]

35. You missed a step,

they are trying to intimidate Garland so he doesn't investigate.

[PortTack]

3. Read there Garland is getting some indicted insurrectionists to flip on gqp congress critters

[Thunderbeast]

4. Garland has some of their favorite body parts in a vice.

He is about to start turning the handle.

[2naSalit]

17. I think Garland...

Has a nonsensational manner, he's not parading in front of the cameras and not revealing many of his actions, as it should be. I recall Garland stating that getting to the bottom of the insurrection was his prime objective as AG. Said that during his confirmation hearing. So I suspect he just isn't broadcasting what should not be broadcast especially since so many probable suspects are so close at hand and some in positions of oversight of his actions.

It's a tightrope maneuver and we can't all be up on the rope with him while he's doing his thing.

People have to get back into recognizing that investigations, especially at the level necessary for these cases, will not be televised. Just because the last admin was a gang of buffoons looking take power by exposing everything in order to weaponize everything doesn't give license to the following admins to do the same. What we have in the current admin is a massive effort to right a capsizing ship with only half of the passengers cooperating to various degrees.

[FoxNewsSucks]

30. You're not the only one

Even if the GQP doesn't see it as vindication, that's how they and the corp media are portraying it to the inattentive public.

I was traveling and didn't see Garland's hearing. The clips shown on the news made him look weak, and like he was caught doing what the rightwing crazies were shouting about. I hoped that there would be some clips of him fighting back that would make their way here, but I guess there are none.

If he just wanted to remain "classy and neutral", he should have just followed Elizabeth Warren's example of how to handle rightwing jackasses at a hearing. She clearly showed backbone and took none of their crap while remaining civil.

[Cracklin Charlie]

5. They need a villain.

Someone to rally the base against. It helps if the name is easy to pronounce, and can be spit out as though disgusted. (Think Pelosi, Fauci, Hillary, etc…)

So, Garland is just the latest boogeyman.

[RAB910]

13. Ironic since they are the villians

[AZSkiffyGeek]

6. Trying to activate the angry housewife contingent in suburban VA nt

[Septua]

8. The sam ol'...

..distraction/diversion/deflection/digression tactics to avoid admission of the true problem.

[sarisataka]

9. Yeah, what's up with that?

We are the only ones allowed to freak out over him.

Or is he our hero again? It's hard to keep track when it can change so quickly.

[Under The Radar]

10. Being crazy and confrontational raises so much more money!

Being diplomatic, polished and professional will only get you primaried.
Marjorie Taylor Greene has become a rising star on the right because with each and every rant against Democrats and “establishment” Republicans alike she raises money to the tune on $1 million a month. Money = power in Washington and Americans love to watch a train wreck, and steel chairs in the wrestling arena.

[RAB910]

12. Excellent article that really shows just how sick and evil these people are

[jcgoldie]

14. GOP figured out years ago...

The more they cast centrists as radical leftists, the more they push the center of the debate to the right.

[spanone]

15. They are the insurrectionists.

[aeromanKC]

16. Intimidation and Projection with a dose of faux outrage

They are taking a page out Trumps playbook.

[2naSalit]

18. And as...

They have had four years as apprentices to the orange guy, they have learned their lines well, it's just that they were shitty actors taking lessons from a shitty actor.

[GoCubsGo]

32. Yep, that and fear.

They're trying to intimidate and dirty up Garland in order to cover for themselves and each other after he drops the hammer on them. And, as has been pointed out by others here, it's looking like that hammer is about to come down at any time.

[moondust]

19. Hoodlums craving attention.

And they'll use any platform they can get. Some like HeeHawley and Cottonpicker want to run for President so they may try to out-crazy TFG.

[Mr. Sparkle]

20. All crooks hate the cops, its their natural instinct.

[ashredux]

21. One can smell the FEAR...

[msfiddlestix]

23. Doing his Job is correct.

Unfortunately, Garland isn't able to communicate that fact clearly and decisively.

The only thing these white supremacists fascists understand besides locked loaded, are full throat-ed denunciations of their whiny childish, tantrum throwing assertion cs and accusations.

It's clearly not in Garland's DNA, which for this job, for this office, at this point in time in history is necessary.

His quiet. soft spoken, polite demeanor (totally acceptable in my home) does not a strong leader make.

[bucolic_frolic]

24. THey're trying projection and scare tactics because they know he's the Sheriff

and justice is coming for Trump

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

25. They're the real snowflakes

[rickyhall]

28. GOP doesn't really need a reason to freak out. They're just freaks.

And not in a good way either.

[Hassler]

36. This was another production of GOP Outrage Theater, with

Understudy Tehran Tom appearing in the Lindseed Graham role.