Idaho Republicans vote against bipartisan commission to investigate Jan. 6 insurrection

Following closely on the heels of my last column where I applauded a bipartisan effort to crack down on China’s human rights abuses and its unfair trade policies, came a vote to create a bipartisan commission to study the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol. The riots were nothing short of an insurrection, as armed domestic terrorists threatened the lives of our elected representatives while those whose job it was to protect the Capitol were caught flat-footed. Whatever outside assistance came to help was too late and too little.

It’s hard to imagine why there would not be bipartisan support for such a commission, given all we don’t know about how this happened. Why was there such a delayed reaction from the National Guard? Who in the administration may have interfered with what should have been a more urgent response to the riots? What led up to the organizational capacity of right-wing militia forces to descend on Washington causing death and destruction and how were we caught so unaware? How can we prevent such a thing from ever happening again?

And yet two members of Idaho’s Republican congressional delegation — Sen. Mike Crapo and Rep. Russ Fulcher — voted against the effort to investigate what went wrong at the Capitol that day, and Sen. Jim Risch is listed as not voting.

The proposed commission consisted of an equal number of Republicans and Democrats, no doubt mainly for the purpose of reassuring Republicans that commission efforts would not morph into an anti-Trump campaign, since it was Trump who urged the rioters on that January morning.

The use of subpoenas — one of the fears Republicans had of such an investigation — would require bipartisan agreement, and the commission’s work was to be completed by the end of 2021 so it did not interfere with the 2022 election cycle, another fear of the Republicans.

The judicious approach its sponsors took to creating the perfect balance between the two parties paid off with 35 House Republicans joining the Democratic majority supporting creation of the commission. One of those Republicans was U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, who has often decried the rise in partisanship in Congress and has worked with the other side of the aisle on projects important to Idaho. Idaho’s other House member, Rep. Fulcher, is hardly worth mentioning in this regard. His partisan instincts on any given day in the House of Representatives will override the national interest as it did in this case.

Any whiff of bipartisanship that may have drifted over from the House vote to the Senate was fumigated from the Senate chambers by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. He doesn’t have a bone in his body that would place an investigation of the Capitol Hill insurrection above his own agenda of returning to the office of majority leader. Only six Republican senators joined Senate Democrats in voting for the commission.

As usual, McConnell could count on his two lackeys from Idaho, Sen. Risch and Sen. Crapo. Both marched in lockstep with McConnell as he argued against a commission to learn how such an assault on our democracy could occur and how to prevent such an occurrence in the future.

Sen. Crapo passes himself off as the thoughtful Harvard Law grad, but he apparently could care less about solving this matter of national security. His interest lies in appeasing the Republican base, which still worships at the altar of Donald Trump, so they support his reelection efforts next year. Crapo’s naked partisan claims are most evident and contradictory during Democratic administrations when he cries crocodile tears over the rising national debt, then says nothing during the Trump administration when the national debt ballooned. Crickets!

The vote to create what was to be a bipartisan commission to study the insurrection at the Capitol should be seen as one of the most important votes in the careers of our representatives in Washington. Risch, Crapo and Fulcher took an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States and no matter your politics, the insurrection was an effort by radicals to attack the very government of the people our Constitution guarantees to every American. To paraphrase President Roosevelt’s characterization of the Pearl Harbor attack, Jan. 6, 2021, is another day which will live in infamy.

Risch, Crapo and Fulcher know better. They know the storming of the Capitol occurred because of Trump’s lie that the election was stolen. They also know that the mob was not a friendly group just visiting the Capitol that day as some of their Republican colleagues have implied in their efforts to paper over the truth.

Unfortunately, it is highly unlikely they will be held accountable for their positions. They come back infrequently, and when they do, they deliver their political pablum, either ignoring issues they feel uncomfortable defending or issuing blatant misrepresentations of the actual facts of the issues.

Idahoans are often ill-prepared to counter the manufactured and distorted versions of reality they hear in response to simple questions like, “why did you vote against a bipartisan effort to explore how the greatest democracy on earth could fall victim to an armed attack by its own citizens in 2021?” When they are invited to speak at business and community gatherings, they are often allowed to avoid controversial issues. When is the last time they have appeared at a town hall to be held accountable to voters?

It’s time for Idahoans to revoke the free passes Idaho’s lawmakers in Washington have had for years. It’s time for the tough questioning. Do not let these elected officials out of the room without asking them for an accounting of their lame voting records when it comes to the future of this Republic and efforts to assure it will not be attacked again. It’s time for challengers to take them on and give the voters of Idaho a choice.

Enough is enough.

Bob Kustra served as president of Boise State University from 2003 to 2018. He is host of Reader’s Corner on Boise State Public Radio and is a regular columnist for the Idaho Statesman. He served two terms as Illinois lieutenant governor and 10 years as a state legislator.