McCarthy makes clear his vision of the GOP's future

 Recall that we could have had an investigation into 1/6 conducted by people from outside o government without political implications at stake, but that wasn't good enough for the Trumpists.

So now House Speaker Pelosi in forming a select committee of House members to look into it, and while Democrats on that committee will certainly bring an agenda to their work, credit must go to the speaker for including Liz Cheney, whose conservative bona fides are impeccable. 

It will make for a bit of balance, and set a precedent for others interested in being agents of balance to follow - except maybe not. Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy weighs in on that with an unmistakably intimidating tone:

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday issued a blanket threat during a meeting with freshmen members of his caucus that he would strip any Republican member of their committee assignments if they accept an offer from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to serve on the select committee to investigate the January 6 insurrection, according to two GOP sources with knowledge of the matter. 

McCarthy's threat comes after the House voted to establish the committee. Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois were the only two Republican members to vote in favor of its formation. Pelosi, who can appoint eight members to the committee, announced Thursday that Cheney will serve on the committee. 

McCarthy said Thursday that it's "shocking" that Cheney would accept an appointment to the select committee and did not deny that Cheney could lose her committee assignments as a result.

"I'm not making any threats about committee assignments, but you know how Congress works," McCarthy said when asked why Cheney would lose her committee assignments over the appointment. "You get elected by your district and you get your committees from your conference ... I don't know in history where someone would go get their committee assignments from the Speaker and expect to have them from the conference as well."

McCarthy sure seems less concerned with the events of January 6 and their ramifications with the distance of some time. As those events were unfolding, he minced no words in a phone conversation with the Very Stable Genius.

Alas, within a couple of weeks, McCarthy was making the pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago and the distancing from that day's intensity had begun.

I don't know what can be read into today's pronouncement other than the message that party unity is essential as the 2022 election cycle looms and that such unity is going to look like something that Donald Trump would approve of. That takes precedent over anybody's safety or dignity, or the party's traditional fealty to the Constitutional order.

Let's hope that someone among Liz Cheney's colleagues is also willing to put an interest in what happened that day before his or her political prospects. That would be the only hope for a possible rescue of the Republican Party's soul.