If there was actual leadership in the United States House of Representatives, the bill proposed on Wednesday by two Freedom Caucus loonies, only one of whom is currently accused of turning a blind eye to the sexual abuse of college athletes, to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein would be consigned to the dustbin of dustbins, and its sponsors read into the outer darkness of the House Committee on Small Business.

Instead, because Speaker Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny starver from the state of Wisconsin, largely has taken leave of a job he wasn’t doing anyway, we actually have to deal with a piece of legislation that is merely a thinly camouflaged direct-mail appeal. From CNN:

The resolution to impeach Rosenstein, which Meadows and his conservative allies have been threatening for weeks, is the strongest step that conservative allies of President Donald Trump have taken in their feud with Rosenstein and the Justice Department. In a statement, Meadows said Rosenstein should be impeached because of the Justice Department's stonewalling of congressional subpoenas and hiding information from Congress, and for signing one of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant renewals for Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page. Rosenstein has fiercely pushed back against his House Republican critics, warning in May that the Justice Department is "not going to be extorted" amid threats that he could be impeached.

Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan have no formal positions in the barely discernible leadership of the House majority, but they command the loyalty of the Goobers and Gomers claque without whom Ryan couldn’t do his job, even if he wanted to do it. (Ryan just came out against the measure.) So, this little stunt got coverage all out of proportion to its actual importance. It is not filed as a privileged resolution, so the odds of it ever coming to a vote are extremely long, assuming Ryan doesn’t disincorporate entirely. And, even if it did, would you like to be a swing-state congresscritter who votes in favor of this resolution, simply to pull out of the fire the chestnuts of Carter Page, Ph.D.?

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It has been argued by people that I respect that this resolution is merely the opening shot of a joint Congress-White House operation aimed at getting rid of Rosenstein for the purpose of getting rid of Robert Mueller. That seems a touch Machiavellian even to me. If the president* wanted to do this, he could fire them both. And if you argue that he needs the impeachment resolution as “cover,” then that means it has to come to a vote, and I don’t think that’s going to happen.

I think it’s a fundraising gimmick, and a noisy distraction aimed at deflecting attention from Michael Cohen and his Time-Life Treasury of Graft collection, which has rocketed to the top of the charts this week. And Robert Mueller, with no expression on his face, reaches across the desk for another document.

Update (2:18 p.m.): As Thursday ground on, the Meadows-Jordan resolution looked even more and more artificial. Ryan summoned up

Ryan (R-Wis.) said it is important for the House to be able to conduct oversight of the Justice Department and that he sympathized with the frustration voiced by his colleagues. But Ryan said he’d seen nothing that rises to the standard of impeachment. “I don’t think we should be cavalier,” he told reporters. “I don’t think we should be cavalier. I don’t think this rises to ‘high crimes and misdemeanors.’”

Hey, small steps, right.

Conservative hard-liners earlier agreed to hold off on pushing for an impeachment vote on Thursday after securing a commitment from GOP leaders to punish Justice Department officials with a contempt of Congress if they do not deliver specified documents in the coming weeks. The deal essentially puts off the showdown until after lawmakers return from a five-week recess set to begin after Thursday’s votes. The lawmakers spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Of course, this will give Jim Jordan a chance to nurture further what are now epic delusions of grandeur. From CNN:

"I plan to run for Speaker of the House to bring real changes to Congress," Jordan wrote in his letter. Jordan's pitch was a more conservative vision for the House conference. He outlined his commitment to repeal the Affordable Care Act -- more commonly referred to as Obamacare -- once and for all, reform the welfare system, boost border security and make the tax cuts Congress passed in 2017 permanent. "I believe we have given the American people reason to question our commitment to reform," Jordan wrote.

In terms of wingnut bubble-speak, this may be Shakespeare. Consider everything that’s going on in this letter. First, Jordan is premising his candidacy on killing a program currently enjoying its greatest popularity, partly because the idiot attempts to strangle it over the past two years have sharpened its appeal among people who realized that they’ll lose their healthcare if Jordan gets his way. It also assumes that it will be the Republicans who elect a Speaker in the next Congress, which is not looking very good right now. And, finally, Jordan personally is rather stuck in the mud right now.

The clown car apparently never will empty completely.

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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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