Lord save us. Apparently, a mob of angry white people committed a dangerous breach of national security Wednesday morning on Capitol Hill. No shots were fired in the incident. From The Guardian:

House Republicans brought their phones into the secure area of the Capitol where Laura Cooper was set to testify in the impeachment inquiry, marking a major breach of protocol...

House Republicans who tried to storm the secure area in the Capitol where Laura Cooper, the top Pentagon official on Ukraine, was testifying have effectively shut down the interview, according to a senior Democratic lawmaker...More than two dozen House Republicans, led by representative Matt Gaetz, tried to force their way into Cooper’s deposition, even though they are not members of the three committees leading the inquiry...

It’s worth noting that the dozens of Republican lawmakers who do sit on the three investigating panels have been able to watch the interviews so far. What Gaetz and his allies are demanding is that lawmakers who are not members of those committees be allowed to participate, which the House parliamentarian has already ruled is not in line with congressional procedure.

Here's the video, courtesy of Scott Thurman on the electric Twitter machine. You can pick out your favorite wingnuts if you have your Bingo card handy. That Gaetz (R-Breathalyzer) is at the head of this foolishness, of course, is no surprise. And reports indicate that Louie Gohmert, perhaps sensing that his position as Padishah Emperor of the Crazy People is under threat from Gaetz, got into the secure room and started yelling about stuff. It is here where I point out that violating protocol in what is called a SCIF—Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility—is very serious business. So is bringing a cellphone into one, which many of these meatheads did. Try it yourself some time. Wear Kevlar.

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WATCH: here's the video of when 2 dozen GOP members, led by @mattgaetz entered the secure hearing room (SCIF) to interrupt witness testimony in the #ImpeachmentInquiry as they demand access, despite not being committee members. They're complaining it's a "Soviet-style process". pic.twitter.com/8KddYz3r9D — Scott Thuman (@ScottThuman) October 23, 2019

Here is the real threat, however: Again, I warn you that a lot of these people, including most of the higher profile idiots, sit on the House Judiciary Committee, through which any articles of impeachment must pass. (I suppose someone with better parliamentary skills than I have will point out some arcane method by which the Democratic leadership can bypass the committee process on the grounds that the HJC is full of crazy people, but that might set off a full-scale meltdown that would derail the entire Congress.) The committee hearings on those articles are already chaotic and they haven't even opened yet. You got a preview of what they're going to be like on Wednesday morning. Imagine what Gaetz and Gohmert and Jim Jordan are going to be like in the committee on which they actually sit. Oy.

Here's something else to ponder: if all the Reasonable Republicans need something to do besides complaining about the Democratic presidential field, how about they primary every one of the real nutballs. They know who they are. Put the entire muscle of the party and its donor base behind someone who isn't Matt Gaetz. Find a handsome young assistant DA in Ohio to run against Jordan. Wring the crazy out of your party. Meanwhile, the rest of us have to live with this vaudeville.

Update (1:50 p.m.): These crazy fckwads have been texting from inside the secure facility.

Gaetz.

Rep. Andy Biggs.

The "tweeted by staff" is particularly cowardly. To quote Mr. Doyle Lonegan, not only is Gaetz a cheat, he's a gutless cheat as well.

For the past year, I've seen protesters in wheelchairs, and elderly women, hustled out of hearing rooms in zip-ties because they disrupted a congressional hearing. Where the hell are the Capitol Police? Where's Matt Gaetz's zip-tie? It's not like he doesn't have experience with them.

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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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