Amid All the GOP's Profiles in Political Cowardice, None Is So Stark as That of Mike Gallagher

[Nevilledog]

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John Nichols
@NicholsUprising
Marjorie Taylor Greene voted against a bipartisan investigation of Jan. 6 violence.

Matt Gaetz voted against a bipartisan investigation of Jan. 6 violence.

Mike Gallagher voted against a bipartisan investigation of Jan. 6 violence.

Three of a kind.

Amid All the GOP’s Profiles in Political Cowardice, None Is So Stark as That of Mike Gallagher
The congressman, who once enjoyed praise for calling out Trump and demanding accountability, is now blocking a January 6 inquiry.
thenation.com
7:36 AM · May 22, 2021

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/mike-gallagher-insurrection/

When House impeachment managers made the case for convicting former president Donald Trump on charges of inciting the January 6 insurrection, some of the most compelling arguments came from Republicans. “Current and former officials immediately recognized that the president had incited the crowd, that he alone was capable of stopping the violence, that he did this and he had to call it off because he was the only one who could,” explained one of the managers, Representative Joe Neguse (D-Col.) as he showed members of the Senate clips of prominent Republicans pleading with Trump to call off the violent mob that stormed the Capitol after the president urged them to “fight like hell” against certification of 2020 election results.

The star of the montage, and of a presentation by another manager, Texas Representative Joaquin Castro, was Wisconsin Representative Mike Gallagher, an ambitious young Republican who on January 6 used social media and a dramatic cable news appearance to speak directly to Trump. “Mr. President. You have got to stop this. You are the only person who can call this off. Call it off,” the congressman declared, in a video posted from his Capitol Hill office. “The election is over. Call it off. This is bigger than you. It is bigger than any member of Congress. It is about the United States of America, which is more important than any politician.” Later, Gallagher appeared on CNN, called the rioting “insane,” compared it to violence he’d seen in Iraq, and announced that “the President needs to call it off.”

Gallagher’s profile rose in the aftermath of the January 6 attack, as he told of how he had barricaded his House office and taken a Marine sword from the wall because “it seemed the most practical weapon with which I could defend myself, if it came to that.” Editorials hailed him for what was seen as a politically courageous rebuke to his own party’s president. Talk about Gallagher as a gubernatorial prospect, or a possible successor to US Senator Ron Johnson—should the conspiracy-theory peddling Republican chose to stand down in 2022—amplified in Wisconsin and nationally.

Here, it seemed, was a strong, sensible Republican with the political courage to stand up to Trump and steer the Republican Party away from the Big Lie.

*snip*

[MyOwnPeace]

1. I guess I'm just too old.....

to ever understand how one person can chance SO much when you have a job that expects you to have integrity and convictions - and at one point you actually proved that you did - and suddenly...... lose it all.

We have problems, fellow Democrats, and we've GOT to find a way to fix them. Our DEMOCRACY depends on it.

[Midnight Writer]

2. Republicans don't need an investigatory commission. They already know exactly what happened.