(Permanent Musical Accompaniment To The Last Post Of The Week From The Blog's Favourite Living Canadian)

I decided against going to CPAC, the annual wingnut hootenanny in Washington, this year because, frankly, there was nobody there I wanted to see and nobody's ideas I wanted to hear. Instead of rising Republican politicians and political superstars, what they had was a Double-A ball club of people who were auditioning for whatever slots Fox News has open in the early morning hours.

However, on Friday, there was one scene I was sorry I missed. From the Kansas City Star:

Sen. Josh Hawley capped a tumultuous week Friday with his debut appearance at the American Conservative Union’s CPAC conference — and receiving a subpoena as he left the stage. Elad Gross, a Democratic candidate for attorney general who is suing Missouri Gov. Mike Parson’s office, said on Twitter that the Missouri senator was served moments after he completed his appearance. “We got him,” Gross said. “After more than two weeks of evading service, Senator Josh Hawley was personally served with the subpoena at CPAC.”

This absolutely made my week. Whoever dropped paper on Hawley belongs in the process-servers hall of fame.

Josh Hawley Bill Clark Getty Images

Gross is seeking to depose Hawley about his handling of the Missouri Sunshine Law as the state’s attorney general leading up to his 2018 Senate election. Hawley is seeking to quash the subpoena. “This is another political stunt by a political candidate,” said Kelli Ford, Hawley’s spokesperson. “The reality is that Mr. Gross has been evading a court date to discuss the matter.” It was the end to a week where the 38-year-old freshman dominated headlines both in Missouri and in Washington.

If nothing else, Hawley deserved to be served for hanging out in the dingier precincts of American politics.

His interview followed a speech from Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin, who asked those in the crowd who have been banned by Twitter and other online platforms to stand up. Laura Loomer, a far right activist and conspiracy theorist who has been banned from Twitter for anti-Muslim rhetoric, waved her hands at Malkin from the media area. Loomer is a former employee of Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe, a conservative provocateur who was listed as appearing on a panel with Hawley on the official CPAC schedule for CPAC distributed at the event. CPAC organizers said earlier in the week this was a mistake. Instead, Hawley took the stage for a one-on-one interview with [Kimberley] Strassel. O’Keefe took the stage later for an interview with CPAC spokesman Ian Walters instead of Strassel.

Good lord, Senator. Bob Kraft is in court for hanging out in classier joints.

Scott Hechinger of the Brooklyn Defender Service took to the electric Twitter machine to call attention to the fact that Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch are itching to demolish yet another important precedent. In this case, it's Gideon v. Wainwright, the 1963 case in which was established the principle that states are required under the Sixth Amendment to provide counsel for indigent defendants.

Hechinger, and Steve Vladeck, point to passages in the dissent written by Thomas and joined by Gorsuch in the case of Garza v. Idaho, in which the Court reversed a decision and ruled that the failure of an attorney to file a requested appeal constituted ineffective counsel. As Hechinger and Vladeck point out, Thomas and Gorsuch are hunting big game. Here's Thomas:

The Court began shifting direction in 1932, when it suggested that a right to appointed counsel might exist in at least some capital cases, albeit as a right guaranteed by the Due Process Clause. Powell, supra, at 71. Soon there- after, the Court held that the Sixth Amendment secures a right to court-appointed counsel in all federal criminal cases. Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U. S. 458, 462–463 (1938). And in 1963, the Court applied this categorical rule to the States through the Fourteenth Amendment, stating “that in our adversary system of criminal justice, any person haled into court, who is too poor to hire a lawyer, cannot be assured a fair trial unless counsel is provided for him.” Gideon, supra, at 344. Neither of these opinions attempted to square the expansive rights they recognized with the original meaning of the “right . . . to have the Assistance of Counsel.”

Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, nominated by President Trump and confirmed in 2017. Tom Williams Getty Images

Before the Court decided Gideon, the Court noted that “most of the States have by legislation authorized or even required the courts to assign counsel for the defense of indigent and unrepre- sented prisoners. As to capital cases, all the States so provide. Thirty-four States so provide for felonies and 28 for misdemeanors.” Bute, 333 U. S., at 663 (internal quo- tation marks omitted). It is beyond our constitutionally prescribed role to make these policy choices ourselves. Even if we adhere to this line of precedents, our dubious authority in this area should give us pause before we extend these precedents further.

Someone will have to explain to me (again) how Hillary Rodham Clinton's warnings about the Supreme Court during the 2016 election constituted blackmail.

Weekly WWOZ PIck To Click: "New Orleans Walking Dead" (The North Mississippi All Stars): Yeah, I still pretty much love New Orleans.

Weekly Visit To The Pathe Archives: Here's the latest in lunar landing craft in 1963. The big faucet on one side is a nice touch.

Is it a good day for dinosaur news, Science Daily? It's always a good day for dinosaur news!

Oviraptorosaurs were a diverse group of feathered, bird-like dinosaurs from the Cretaceous of Asia and North America. Despite the abundance of nearly complete oviraptorosaur skeletons discovered in southern China and Mongolia, the diet and feeding strategies of these toothless dinosaurs are still unclear. In this study, Lee and colleagues described an incomplete skeleton of an oviraptorosaur found in the Nemegt Formation of the Gobi desert of Mongolia. The new species, named Gobiraptor minutus, can be distinguished from other oviraptorosaurs in having unusual thickened jaws. This unique morphology suggests that Gobiraptor used a crushing feeding strategy, supporting previous hypotheses that oviraptorosaurs probably fed on hard food items such as eggs, seeds or hard-shell mollusks.

Shellfish is very healthy, but provides no demonstrated protection against asteroids or volcanos. Nevertheless, even thick-jawed dinosaurs lived then to make us happy now.

The Committee had a hunch that the collapsed summit would be the source of this week's prime snark. And Marilee Jeane DeWitt came through like a champ.

Why do they insist on calling it a 'summit?' It doesn't even qualify as a low-lying hill.

Indeed, even on the basis of metaphorical topography, these people are not to be trusted. Well done, MJD, and here are 81.22 Beckhams for your next expedition.

I'll be back on Monday as March comes in like a lyin' liar. Be well and play nice, ya bastids. Stay above the snakeline, and don't eat your hard-shell mollusks too fast.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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