The Republican Circular Firing Squad Has Assembled

     Some of its members have distinguished histories:

     Once highly respected, former South Carolina Congressman Trey Gowdy has proven to be an abject disappointment, particularly when it comes to spewing asinine rhetoric as a Fox News contributor against President Trump and his allies.
     […]
     Gowdy said he liked most of Trump’s picks but unloaded on Gaetz’s selection. He called the pick “dumbfounding” and smeared Gaetz as “corrupt,” alleging he only resigned to avoid being sanctioned by the House Ethics Committee.
     “You don’t root out corruption at the Department of Justice by picking a corrupt person to lead it,” Gowdy whined. “They’re (the media) talking about this wild card pick of someone who had to get out of the House to avoid being sanctioned by the House Ethics Committee. That dumbfounding pick is just sucking the oxygen out of all the good ones he made.”

     I one admired Gowdy as a forthright and effective conservative Congressman. His devolution since leaving office is distressing. Yet the worst of it is in the unsubstantiated accusation he makes above, in declaring Matt Gaetz “corrupt.”

     This must cease. Of course, it won’t do so of its own accord. Accusations of corruption, deceit, nepotism, double-dealing, racism, sexism, homophobia, and whatever other sins and pseudo-sins you can name are some of the most popular weapons in politics. The practice must be brought to a halt by the swift and unbending use of the only possible counter-weapon: the slander or libel lawsuit.

     Were Gowdy required to produce actual evidence of Gaetz’s corruption in a court of law, where witnesses could be cross-examined and physical items could be examined by experts, do you think that he would be able to convince a jury? I don’t, for a simple reason: he hasn’t done so in any forum to which he’s had access. Were Gaetz to compel him to put up or pay up, we could discover whether his accusation was substantive, or pure spite over Trump not selecting him for some appointive post.

     Remember that in the campaign that just ended, the Left did its most effective “work” by defaming President Trump as a racist, a fascist, an abuser of women, et cetera ad nauseam infinitam. Such defamations probably improved their totals by millions of votes – and success breeds imitators. Successful tactics will be reused and emulated. To prevent it, they must be punished, however little we like the idea of more lawsuits. Nothing else will work.