Remember when Kevin McCarthy wanted to please his Master so badly that he tried to sabotage the January 6th Commission by refusing to appoint any Republican members?

Which…wait. Actually, first, he tried to appoint members to the committee who would sabotage it by their very presence. Such as human trashcan Jim Jordan, himself a target of the panel. (The same Jim Jordan who felt the best use of his congressional time on the opening day of the hearings was to Tweet an endless string of whatabouts.)

Then, after failing to place obvious saboteurs on the committee itself, that’s when McCarthy announced that Republicans would boycott the panel altogether.

McCarthy Tried to Walk the Dog, But Ended Up Carrying a Huge Bag of its…Well…

So McCarthy had Republicans boycott the panel, thinking that would please his Master. And it did: Trump endorsed McCarthy’s reelection bid in California this year.

Then the panel began presenting damning evidence. And more damning evidence. And even more damning evidence and testimony from some of Trump’s inner circle of senior advisors (and even from apparently ‘checked out’ family members).

Now, this might come as something of a shock to you, gentle reader, but the “I need loyalty” president is not actually so loyal himself. Faced with weeks of this damning testimony about his desperate attempts to stay in power at any cost, Former President Trump has once again turned on McCarthy.

“Unfortunately, a bad decision was made,” Trump told conservative radio this week. He added: “It was a bad decision not to have representation on that committee. That was a very, very foolish decision.”

This is what happens when a party’s most extreme members are allowed to do its thinking for it. The tail wags the dog.

“Because they try to pretend like they’re legit, ” Trump went on. “And only when you get into the inner workings, you say, ‘What kind of a thing is this?’ It’s just a one-sided witch hunt.”

Investigating Wrongdoings Is Not A Witch Hunt

“There’s no cleaner example of the menacing spirit that has devoured the American left than the disgraceful performance being staged by the ‘unselect’ committee,” Trump told a crowd at last weekend’s Faith & Freedom Coalition’s “Road to Majority” conference. “They’re con people. They’re con artists. Every one of them is a radical left hater, hates all of you, hates me even more than you, but I’m just trying to help you out.”

The basic problem with the Select Committee, as Trump sees it now, is that it’s turned out to be compelling television. It’s building, for the viewer, a concise, deliberate, argument against him. Trump knows it’s making him look bad. And there’s evidence that it’s having an impact with a broad American audience. According to polling conducted by ABC-Ipsos, “While Democrats have consistently thought Trump should face criminal charges, only about 1 in 10 Republicans did in that April poll. In the new ABC-Ipsos poll, that jumped to nearly 1 in 5.”

Kevin McCarthy did Trump’s bidding back in 2021 when he boycotted the proceedings altogether. He imagined that attacking the committee as partisan would work to Republicans (and Trump’s) advantage. It hasn’t.

Now the tail is wagging the dog. For McCarthy, the Trump love-well has run dry (again). But you can bet it won’t stop him groveling at Trump’s feet once again.