This morning, both Nancy Pelosi and Paul Ryan called on John Conyers to resign. Just three days ago, Pelosi was defending Conyers as an "icon" and claiming that the women accusing him of misconduct were unknown to her. Suddenly, Pelosi says that the accusations are serious and credible. Meanwhile, Conyers went into the hospital today.
What's going on? The claims against Conyers must be really serious stuff if Pelosi has suddenly changed sides on the dispute. The Democrat leader is not a genius but she always knows which way the wind is blowing. For her to take on the senior member of the Congressional Black Caucus means that there is some really much more dangerous stuff that she knows but the public has not yet been told. This is Pelosi trying to get out in front of the story (in my opinion.)
The truth is that Conyers is not the real issue here. The true issue is Franken and Moore in the Senate. It's looking more and more like Moore will win in Alabama. There is no way that the Democrats could try to prevent Moore from entering the Senate if they leave Conyers in place in the House. But that plan also puts Franken at risk. And one has to wonder how many more senators and representatives are on the short list for expulsion if the payments from the congressional slush fund are made public. $17 million buys a lot of silence about a lot of misconduct. What if it turns out that some other big name Democrats are on that list, people like Schumer or Hoyer or even Obama? We just have no idea now who is on the list, but it's going to be big news once it breaks.
UPDATE: Jim Clyburn, the congressman who defended Conyers by noting that all his accusers were white and who then compared the women to a murderer, has now joined the chorus calling for Conyers to resign. There really must be some awful stuff there.
What's going on? The claims against Conyers must be really serious stuff if Pelosi has suddenly changed sides on the dispute. The Democrat leader is not a genius but she always knows which way the wind is blowing. For her to take on the senior member of the Congressional Black Caucus means that there is some really much more dangerous stuff that she knows but the public has not yet been told. This is Pelosi trying to get out in front of the story (in my opinion.)
The truth is that Conyers is not the real issue here. The true issue is Franken and Moore in the Senate. It's looking more and more like Moore will win in Alabama. There is no way that the Democrats could try to prevent Moore from entering the Senate if they leave Conyers in place in the House. But that plan also puts Franken at risk. And one has to wonder how many more senators and representatives are on the short list for expulsion if the payments from the congressional slush fund are made public. $17 million buys a lot of silence about a lot of misconduct. What if it turns out that some other big name Democrats are on that list, people like Schumer or Hoyer or even Obama? We just have no idea now who is on the list, but it's going to be big news once it breaks.
UPDATE: Jim Clyburn, the congressman who defended Conyers by noting that all his accusers were white and who then compared the women to a murderer, has now joined the chorus calling for Conyers to resign. There really must be some awful stuff there.
No comments:
Post a Comment