Vladmir Putin’s favorite Congressman may have a lucrative career in opening “Nothing Burger” franchises when he is finally removed from his seat — by one of several qualified Democrats — in 2018. Because a “nothing burger” is exactly what lies between Dana’s ears.
I’ll get to the Russia stuff in a second, but OC’s own “I surf once a year so you’ll call me a Surfing Congressman” actually asked NASA if it was possible for an ancient civilization to have existing on Mars thousands of years ago. The OC Register played the story a tad straight, but Wonkette, the blog run by Commie Girl Rebecca Schoenkopf, had a lot more fun with the story.
From Wonkette:
The unlucky scientist who had to take Rohrabacher’s question without giggling even once was Ken Farley, project scientist for NASA’s Mars 2020 rover mission. Really, it was all his fault for saying that until about 3.6 billion (not thousand. Way more) years ago, Mars probably had lakes, rivers, and possibly even an ocean. Well, gosh, if it had all that, maybe there were Martians, huh? So if Mars was so different a few thousand years back, Rohrabacher wanted to know, “Was it possible there was a civilization on Mars thousands of years ago?”
A fresh-baked Mark Watney Martian potato (low-poop variety) to Farley for his very patient reply:
Farley: So, the evidence is that Mars was different billions of years ago, not thousands of years ago, and there is no evidence that I’m aware of that —
Rohrabacher: Would you rule that out? See, there’s some people that — anyway —
Farley: I would say that is extremely unlikely.
But back to Russia; the defense of Russia and Putin by Congressman Rohrabacher is far from a Nothing Burger. The Congressman has all but dismissed his efforts to overturn sanctions against Russia in spite of evidence to the contrary.
Paul Behrends, a top aide to Representative Dana Rohrabacher, has been ousted from his role as staff director for the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee that Rohrabacher chairs, after stories appeared in the press highlighting his relationships with pro-Russia lobbyists.
“Paul Behrends no longer works at the committee,” a House Foreign Affairs Committee spokesperson said on Wednesday evening.
Behrends accompanied Rohrabacher on a 2016 trip to Moscow in which Rohrabacher said he received anti-Magnitsky Act materials from prosecutors. The Magnitsky Act is a 2012 bill that imposes sanctions on Russian officials associated with the 2009 death in prison of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who had been investigating tax fraud. Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian attorney and lobbyist who met with Donald Trump Jr. at Trump Tower last year, reportedly brought up the Magintsky Act during the meeting.
Oddly enough, Behrends firing is tied to another member of OC’s GOP Delegation — Ed Royce.
From the Atlantic:
One of the sources with knowledge of the events suggested that Behrends was fired from the committee under pressure from House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Ed Royce.
There has been tension between Royce and Rohrabacher over Rohrabacher’s activities, and Royce scuttled Rohrabacher’s plan last year to screen an anti-Magnitsky film in Congress. Royce also nixed Rohrabacher’s plan to visit Moscow again earlier this year.
The LA Times is doing an amazing job of covering Rohrabacher’s Russian ties and isn’t taking orders for “Nothing Burgers.”
From the LA Times:
Yes, the Russian government asked Rep. Dana Rohrabacher to push back against sanctions on Russians, and he doesn’t see what the big deal is.
Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa) dismissed fresh reports on Wednesday detailing how the Russian government asked him to change his colleagues’ opinions about Russian sanctions as a “nothing burger trying to distract the American people from real issues.”
Many of the details in a Daily Beast article published Wednesday had been previously reported in a lengthy Politico article in November. The Politico story gave Rohrabacher, who has long been known for encouraging improved Russian relations, the nickname “Putin’s favorite congressman.”
But the story is getting new life amid an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and the effort’s potential ties to the Trump campaign. And it’s a pretty complicated story.
Rohrabacher has had multiple interactions with several of the people with Russian ties who attended a Trump Tower meeting with Trump’s eldest son Donald Trump Jr. and other campaign officials in June 2016.
There are several great Democratic candidates poised to take on Rohrabacher in 2018. On their worst day, none of these candidates is as bad as Dana is on his best day.
Time for a change in CD-48.
I think Dana’s question was more in the line of – “Can you please answer this so that some in the public understand that there was no ancient civilization on Mars.”