13 November 2019 — 1924 mst

George Kent and William Taylor: two good men
Devin Nunes and Jim Jordan: two national embarrassments

Today’s impeachment inquiry displayed America’s best and worst. The best came from two quintessential public servants, George Kent and William Taylor. Their careful, professional, testimony was the product not just of their indisputable expertise but also of their unflinching integrity and unchallengeable loyalty to their nation.

Listening to them present the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, reminded me of the motto of West Point, Taylor’s alma mater: duty, honor, country. They are patriots of great courage and wisdom, the kind of men produced by America at its finest. They made me proud of my country.

Rep. Nunes (R-CA) and Rep. Jordan (R-OH) embodied America at its worst. Nunes, a natural bully, reminded me of a true believing, not overly intellectual, Bulgarian commissar with the social graces of a loan shark’s collector of past due accounts. He was malicious and mendacious, contemptuous of fact, determined not to seek the truth but to argue that an honest inquiry into the President’s conduct was an illegitimate partisan witch hunt.

Jordan, a wrestling coach turned politician, lived up to his reputation as a brawler and bully. He was there to abuse the witnesses, not to seek the truth. Indeed, like Nunes, he was determined not to get at the truth lest the facts discredit Trump. And, as the Washington Post’s Robin Givhan observed, he appeared in shirt sleeves to display his disrespect for the witnesses. Altogether, the Devin and Jim show was America at its worst.

The inquiry is just beginning. I hope both the children and their parents are watching.