My regular reader (Hi Jeff!) will recall I often write on a favorite regular feature found here at Colorado Politics, and today is no different. Let’s talk Court Crawl!

Now, a cynical person, like, say, a hypothetical editor (Editor: wait a minute…) might think that I just want to find a way to sneak a commentary on Donald Trump into a column that is supposed to focus on, well, Colorado politics (Ed: is that so hard?).

Now, I’d like to talk about the most recent eruption of false outrage and stunning hypocrisy and mention in particular House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. It seems the Speaker was so outraged at Trump being indicted that he announced a plan – well, sort of a plan – to use the vast powers he has as leader of the House to smash the long-existing barriers between the federal legislative branch of government and a local judicial branch.

McCarthy insists he will wield this vast power to go after a local official, the NYC District Attorney, who had the audacity to investigate payments allegedly made by then-NYC citizen Trump to yet another former mistress to keep her silent during his presidential run in 2016. As you know, paying off a porn star might be seen by some in his fundamentalist base as being, well, wrong. So, Trump wants to cover it up using what appear to be sleazy and likely illegal bookkeeping practices. And, again, this is a man on his third wife, whom he appears to have cheated on, as he did he two prior wives.

You know, family values.

I’d really like to write on what Speaker McCarthy might say if a future Democratic majority legislative body decided to go after a GOP city official. I’m guessing there would be shouts of outrage and demands the federal overreach stop immediately. But McCarthy seems OK with establishing the precedent that national-level governmental bodies can just ignore the federalism that has been one of the hallmarks of our system of government since Madison wrote Federalist 10 and 51.

I truly don’t why so many in the GOP are so gutless, and continue to feel an absolute loyalty and obedience to an increasingly disgraced and unpopular former president, who never once got more votes than his opponents.

Finally, I’d like to talk about the GOP today, and how it continues to insist on a fact-free bubble in which it is OK for them to insist on massive federal powers, including deciding who gets to marry whom, yet decrying the Democrats for overreach when President Joe Biden tries to take, well, almost any action.

And talk about crocodile tears, did you happen to catch Sen. Lindsey Graham, with aforementioned tears in his eyes on Fox, begging the audience to please send big bucks to Trump, as the poor man (who claims to be a billionaire) can’t afford to fight a court case, plus the other cases soon coming to the forefront. This is the same Lindsey Graham who once said he was “disgusted” with Trump, and called him a “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot” who doesn’t represent the GOP or its values.

So, finally, Trump is to be arraigned on the least important of the multiple criminal lawsuits he faces, and the GOP leadership is acting as true acolytes do: they are supporting him unequivocally.

Readers of a certain age may recall when then-President Richard Nixon (a man of far greater gravitas and intellect than Trump) found himself caught by his own words on his own tapes, uttering phrases that assured his impeachment and conviction and removal from office, he was visited by three senior members of the Republican Party leadership. They told him flatly that his time in office was done, and he needed to resign. The great Arizona Republican senator Barry Goldwater stated the following to a meeting of GOP senators: “There are only so many lies you can take, and now there has been one too many. Nixon should get his ass out of the White House – today!” The next day, Goldwater told Nixon the same thing face to face, and within days, Nixon was gone.

Today, we see the same opportunity for bold and honorable leadership from this generation’s GOP leadership. But rather than grow backbones, this generation chooses to defend Trump from charges that, as of this writing, are not even announced. Where are today’s Goldwaters? Anyone seen a Hugh Scott walking the Senate halls? Or a John Rhodes in the House? Not so much. No, today’s GOP is wholly owned by a corrupt, twice-impeached and indicted future felon, and one can only wonder if any of the current crop will break through the bubble and the malaise to call out Trump for what he is: a petty bully and serial adulterer who puts his own perceived welfare far, far above that of the United States.

Oh, and I’m guessing if Trump ends up being convicted by a jury, the GOP will denounce – not the convicted felon – but rather the verdict itself, as they will have declared any trial corrupt that finds any fault with Trump. Kind of gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling about the respect for the rule of law in the United States, right? Remember when the GOP was pro-rule of law and anti-Russia? But I digress…

Well, anyway, that’s what I was going to write on, but I won’t.

Back to Court Crawl.

Aw shucks, out of room. I’ll do better on Friday, I promise (Ed: sure…).

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.