Dem
51
GOP
49
Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Liz Cheney (R-WY) do not have a lot in common. Thompson (74) is a Black liberal Democrat from Mississippi who remembers that racist Jim Crow laws denied his father the right to vote. Cheney (56) is a white conservative Republican who grew up in the halls of power when her father was a congressman and later the vice president. Yet the two of them worked closely together producing the 1/6 Committee hearings and the report that came out of them.
They released separate forewords to the Select Committee's 845-page report on the coup attempt. In his, Thompson wrote:
The Capitol's shining dome, topped with the statue of goddess Freedom, was built partially by the labor of enslaved people in the 18th and 19th centuries. Dark chapters of America's history are written into the building's marble, sandstone, and mortar. And yet in the halls and chambers of this building, leaders of courage passed amendments to our Constitution and enacted the laws that banned slavery, guaranteed equal rights under the law, expanded the vote, promoted equality, and moved our country, and her people, forward.
In hers, Cheney wrote:
In April 1861, when Abraham Lincoln issued the first call for volunteers for the Union Army, my great-great grandfather, Samuel Fletcher Cheney, joined the 21st Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He fought through all four years of the Civil War, from Chickamauga to Stones River to Atlanta. ... At the heart of our Republic is the guarantee of the peaceful transfer of power. Members of Congress are reminded of this every day as we pass through the Capitol Rotunda.
Both of them know the nation's history and both refer back to the nation's second founding after the Civil War. More importantly, both of them suppressed the usual congressional response to fight the other party. Instead, they worked together in a common cause. Before each session, each one gave an opening statement. After each session, each one gave a closing statement. Thompson gave the big picture: A marauding mob threatened democracy. Cheney filled in the details: It was the fault of one man: Donald J. Trump.
Even though Thompson was chair and Cheney was vice chair, they shared the spotlight equally. They also junked the usual format in which each member gets 5 minutes to grandstand while a witness sits silently in a chair in front of them. Instead, each member got a turn in the spotlight and was able to weave a narrative about the subject of the session. That was vastly more effective than the usual format.
Maybe the two argued sometimes in private, but there were no reports of that. They seemed to work together effortlessly and the show came off very well. It would be nice if this were a model for other congressional committees, but our staff pulmonologist suggests that you don't hold your breath waiting for the next time this happens. (V)