That Whole Saturday Night Massacre Thing, Con't

GOP Rep. Mark Meadows has folded his cards on impeaching Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein almost as quickly as he introduced his motion earlier this week.

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) says he is tabling his efforts to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein after having several meetings with Republican leadership, stating that he would instead pursue contempt if the Justice Department (DOJ) does not turn over documents Congress is seeking.

While the impeachment option remains on the table, Meadows told reporters Thursday he now hopes it will be a contempt process rather than impeachment.

When asked what will happen if he does not receive the documents two House committees are seeking by the time the House returns from August recess, Meadows said, "I think the very first order of business would be moving the House to a contempt vote." 

"I think it is our desire to have more of a contempt process, which obviously has to have a partner with the Speaker, and I think hopefully they will at least acknowledge we've made some reasonable concessions to give DOJ and FBI," Meadows told a scrum of reporters. 

Meadows, the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus and fierce DOJ critic, said his decision to table impeachment comes after he had "very good, good conversations with the leadership team [and] with Chairman [of the Judiciary Committee Rep. Bob] Goodlatte [R-Va.] on a path forward." 

This, he added, would be the DOJ's and FBI's "one last chance to comply."

And of course back home in NC, Meadows will still tell voters that impeachment is "still on the table" but mean 'ol Paul Ryan is stopping him, and that won't be the case when fellow Freedom Caucus member (and sexual abuse enabler) Jim Jordan magically becomes Speaker of the House in January, in whatever fantasy world Meadows is living in.

Smart readers will note the Meadows contempt threat remains the exact status quo ante that existed before the impeachment push, which means that both Meadows and Jordan have something "shiny and new" to bring home now from DC during campaign season, while not actually doing anything.  All voters will know is "Jordan's gonna impeach Rosenstein and stick it to those damn libs" and that's all that matters.

So it wasn't even cover for Trump firing Rosenstein, at least not yet, but more symbolic fundraising nonsense from the House Freedom (Free Dumb?) Caucus.

Nobody's GOP campaign ever went broke underestimating the stupidity of Republican voters, I guess.