Trey Gowdy goes out with a whimper
Not that long ago, Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy was on track to become one of the most notoriously corrupt villains in the history of Congress. His sham hearings into Benghazi, clearly aimed at smearing Hillary Clinton during the election, were borderline criminal. After Donald Trump took office, Gowdy inherited even more power. Then, somewhere in there, he decided to quit Congress altogether. Now, in his final days on the job, he’s going out with a whimper.
Two things are now apparent about Trey Gowdy. First, as he’s publicly stated, he really wants to become a prosecutor or judge someday. He’s spent the past several months trying to say the right things, in the hope of transforming his reputation from that of corrupt partisan hack, to that of reasonable judicious bipartisan. Second, he’s so burned out or jaded, even he doesn’t seem to think he can pull it off.
Take this past week, for example. When Ivanka Trump’s personal email scandal exploded, Trey Gowdy announced that he was going to launch a swift investigation into it during the brief time he has left as a House committee chair. After all, this was his big chance to prove that his deranged obsession with Hillary’s emails was indeed all about national security, and not about dishonestly sabotaging a presidential candidate. The trouble: Gowdy seemed to quickly figure out that, by going after Ivanka’s emails, he was merely reminding everyone of how monstrously he handled Hillary’s emails.
Now, Trey Gowdy’s fellow House Republicans are trying to haul in James Comey and Loretta Lynch for one last round of pro-Trump sham hearings before they lose the majority. Comey is insisting he’ll only testify publicly, so the House GOP can’t simply lie to the public about what he says. Now here comes Gowdy’s big principled stand on the matter: he wants Comey to testify in private, but have it videotaped. No, really.
So this is what Trey Gowdy has now become. He’s clearly incapable of transforming from bold and defiant villain to bold and defiant good guy. Instead he’s reduced to offering meek compromises that only serve to leave both sides laughing. As far as corrupt GOP villains go, Gowdy was once on his way to becoming Mitch McConnell. Instead he’s going out while coming off more like Paul Ryan. Trey Gowdy wants to be a judge in court? He lacks the gumption to be a judge on American Idol.
