Secret taping gone amok

Hard-line conservative Republicans in the House recently hit a roadblock in their effort to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein when Speaker Paul Ryan opposed the move. But one of those conservatives, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., gave a different explanation to donors recently when asked why the impeachment effort had stalled.

He said it's because an impeachment would delay the Senate's confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

  NBC

No doubt about it.

Nunes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, made the statement in an audio recording surreptitiously made by a member of a progressive group who attended a Republican fundraiser on July 30 in Spokane, Washington.

They're gonna have to start giving loyalty tests at the door.

"So if we actually vote to impeach, OK, what that does is that triggers the Senate then has to take it up," [Nunes] said on the recording. "Well, and you have to decide what you want right now because the Senate only has so much time.”

He continued: "Do you want them to drop everything and not confirm the Supreme Court justice, the new Supreme Court justice?"

And if they don't confirm Kavanaugh, then how will Trump avoid impeachment?

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., commented a day after the resolution was introduced: "Do I support impeachment of Rosenstein? No, I do not.”

He also said at the time that if an impeachment resolution were to pass the House, it would "tie the Senate into knots," and could delay the confirmation of Kavanaugh.

So....why is Nunes' comment a story? Because it went to Rachel Maddow. She can make ANYthing a yuuuuuuuge story.

And I've been seeing this slapped all over Twitter as a big scandal:

Nunes also said that "if Sessions won't unrecuse and Mueller won't clear the president, we're the only ones. Which is really the danger," according to the audio.

"I mean we have to keep all these seats. We have to keep the majority. If we do not keep the majority, all of this goes away," he added, apparently referring to keeping Republican control of the House in the 2018 midterm elections.

Seriously, people. Let's calm down. That's hardly an admission of nefarious activity. There's plenty of nefarious activity buried in the Mueller investigation. Let's not give Trump supporters a reason to dismiss everything by throwing everything at the wall.

And I have another suggestion: If you're going to have plants at GOP fundraisers, don't publish what's not criminal or at least jaw-dropping and tip them off. I'm looking at you, Rachel.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.