July 06, 2023 11:45 AM UTC

"House Crazies" Threaten Buck's Commitment To Law, Order

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• by: Colorado Pols

As Politico’s Jordain Carney reports:

House Republicans are taking their fight with the FBI and Justice Department to a new level — weighing punitive steps against both agencies that would have been unfathomable a decade ago.

Half a year into their majority, and with an increasingly restless right flank, the House GOP is ready for a confrontation after a spate of recent decisions it sees as either anti-Trump or pro-Biden. At the top of the list: Hunter Biden’s plea deal with federal investigators and Donald Trump’s indictment over his handling of classified documents…

Whether they prevail in the form of budget cuts, impeachment, or other measures remains to be seen. Conservative efforts could backfire, instead exposing tension with centrist and more establishment Republicans who embrace the party’s pro-law enforcement roots [Pols emphasis] — the prevailing sentiment inside the GOP before Trump came along.

Among the “centrists” (though in this case far from the political center) questioning the assault by MAGA Republicans on the Justice Department driven by loyalty to Donald Trump is former Weld County DA-turned Congressman Ken Buck–who despite his embarrassing attempts to cover for Trump by slamming the grand jury process that led to one of Trump’s indictments does not appear interested in materially damaging federal law enforcement institutions for political vengeance:

The fault lines emerged during closed-door House GOP spending meetings in recent weeks, as some lawmakers warned others to think twice about how they use spending bills to target specific agencies. In one session, conservative Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) said he privately urged his colleagues to “be careful” about how they talk about Justice Department funding, adding: “I’m not in favor of cutting DOJ.” [Pols emphasis]

Buck’s reluctance to go along with the punitive action desired by the MAGA faction drew a rebuke yesterday from none other than Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, taking a break from her ongoing foul-mouthed feud with Rep. Lauren Boebert to clap back at another fellow Republican:

That’s an unveiled shot at Buck’s authorship of a book literally titled Drain The Swamp, in which Buck decries corruption pretty unsparingly on his own side of the aisle. The “Holman Rule,” to very briefly explain, is a constitutionally dubious rule adopted by Republicans allowing Congress to fire individual federal employees, most famously attempted during the McCarthy era where it failed in court in the case of United States v. Lovett.

Within the caucus, the whole conflict boils down to whether you respect the Justice Department as an institution or are personally loyal to Donald Trump. Buck, who is no friend of Speaker Kevin McCarthy but also has no real loyalty to Trump, has little incentive to participate in a campaign against the Justice Department he used to work for, albeit not without scandal, as an assistant U.S. Attorney.

As Trump’s legal troubles continue to pile up, More Republicans will probably wish they had sided with Buck.