Sunday Morning Comin' Down

Some of you might remember that once upon a time I did a weekly roundup of the crimes against journalism committed by the Sunday Morning Gasbag Cavalcade.  This gathering and collating of the lies and failures of our nation's premier network teevee political reporting did not change the course of events one micron, but I felt that, as we bloggers of olde used to say, "documenting the atrocities" was reason enough to do it.

I gradually tapered off because eventually it was clear that there was no one left to convince.  Either you got that programs like Meet the Press and This Week were the political media equivalents of hobble skirts and chopines -- horrendous freaks of contemporary fashion that our decedents will look back on in complete bafflement -- or you didn't.  Sure, the occasional "OMFG, can you believe Chuck Todd?!"-type remark would bubble up from the muggles when one of the Sunday Shows went so far off the tracks and into the tall grass that it brutalized their soporific indifference, but mostly the Gasbag Cavalcade remains the elevator music of our political discourse watched by people who have no idea how badly the Republican Party has wounded this country -- and, most importantly, don't want to know -- but instead want to give off the musk of an Informed Citizen should the subject come up.

They want to be able to quickly identify themselves as members in good standing of the Tribe of Reasonable Centrists by muttering "Isn't it a shame that Both Sides are so fucked up?" to the grunts and nods of their fellow tribesmen.

But this Sunday, Tim Scott, the Republican Party's One Black Friend went far enough above and beyond serving the agenda of a party built on the hatred of people who look like Tim Scott that I thought it deserved memorializing for posterity.

First there was this, which gave me cause to wonder --

Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) on ABC just now: "There is plenty of blame on race on both sides ... It’s kind of insincere, or at least not authentic, to suggest one side has a bigger problem than the other.” pic.twitter.com/5V0KaNi3ZY

— The Recount (@therecount) June 21, 2020

-- whether Michael Steele will be sending Tim Scott a cease-and-desist letter demanding that Scott stop doing Steele's Republican buck-and-wing act from 2009?


And then there was this little charade which depends entirely on --

“I do wish that Mr. Bolton would have come in to the House under oath and testified,” Sen. Tim Scott tells @jonkarl.

“The problem is that when you’re selling it in a book, you’re not putting yourself in a position to be cross-examined.” https://t.co/A5bLHxyed3 pic.twitter.com/OyUyOSsXlg

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) June 21, 2020

-- no one mentioning that just five month ago Scott was talking out of the other side of this mouth. 

Republican senator says he wishes John Bolton would've testified in Congress — months after he rejected calling for new witnesses during Trump's impeachment

Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina says he wished former national security adviser John Bolton would have testified before Congress — nearly five months after he voted against calling new witnesses to testify for President Donald Trump's impeachment trial...

Scott's comments come nearly five months after he joined his Republican colleagues to prevent new witnesses and evidence from consideration for President Trump's impeachment trial. On January 31, Scott voted along party lines against the measure in a 51-49 vote, which would have compelled Bolton and other White House officials to provide testimony of their knowledge about the Ukraine scandal.

"The fact remains, nothing presented so far, even as a theoretical, has shown [Donald Trump] committed an impeachable offense," Scott tweeted two days before his vote. "This continues to be just a Democratic political charade."

This is one of those really important "facts" that it would have been helpful to bring up in real time, but the person emceeing Tim Scott's open mic night was Jonathan Karl, and calling out Republicans for lying to his face is not something Karl does.

At this point I have no doubt that when this life is over, Scott will find himself where he has always dreamed of being -- at the Pearly Gates of White Heaven talking to Ronald Reagan.

What Scott does not understand is that he will never actually be admitted into White Heaven but will instead be posted outside where he will be forced to read “Battle Royal”, the first chapter of Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man, aloud over and over again for eternity for the amusement of White Heaven's members and guests.

No Half Measures