Kap Kops Secretly Surveil Republican Congressman

We have two burning issues today, the secret surveillance of Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) by the Nancy Pelosi's Capitol Police, and the masking debate coming to a boil. Regarding the first, briefly, the Capitol Police entered the office of the representative over a weekend, claiming it had been left open. The saw writing about body armor on a white board, and took multiple pictures in the office, claiming to want to document what was there, in case something was reported stolen. All well and good, sort of. But then, instead of reporting the incident to Nehls and his staff, a few days later they sent officers dressed as construction workers to enter the office. The officers then questioned one of the staffers regarding the body armor (which was part of a legislative plan to buy police body armor). Incidentally, Rep. Nehls is a former cop himself, and was on the front lines in resisting Capitol intruders on Jan. 6. Politico, Troy Nehls says the U.S. Capitol Police entered his office and took photos of confidential information. At Da Wire, GOP Congressman Accuses Capitol Police Of Spying On Him. TNP, BREAKING: Pelosi’s Capitol Cops Tried to Sneak Into GOP Congressman’s Office Dressed as Construction Workers, Illegally Took Photos of Legislative Documents. KT at Haut Hair, Rep. Nehls: Capitol Police Intelligence division secretly entered my congressional office and took photos. From the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 02.08.22, Nice Deb at Am Great, IG Opens Investigation into Allegations That U.S. Capitol Police Have Been Illegally Spying on GOP Lawmakers. 'Bonchie' at Red State, Capitol Police Caught Spying in Republican Congressional Office, Investigation Launched. Fox, Republicans demand Pelosi, leadership investigate reports of Capitol Police 'monitoring' citizens, lawmakers. Athena Thorne at PJ Media, Inspector General Investigating Capitol Police for Improper Surveillance of Lawmakers, Staff and Visitors. Ace, Inspector General Opens Investigation Into US Capitol Police Being Caught Spying on Republican Congressmen, "Say-- Nancy Pelosi is ultimately in charge of the Capitol Police, right?" At Am Think, Andrea Widburg thinks (no, not yet) that The Capitol Police have been fully weaponized against Republicans. Probably not fully, but close. Democrats may not enjoy their turn in the barrel. 

The RNC censuring Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for their double dealing continues to spark controversy. Politico, cited at Haut Hair, is pleased to report Censures inflame GOP tensions. AP is orgasmic as McConnell rebukes RNC, calls Jan. 6 ‘violent insurrection.’ WaT, McConnell calls Jan. 6 a ‘violent insurrection,’ pushes back on RNC censure. Sundance, McConnell States the People Can Never Be Permitted a Voice in Politics, and January 6th Was a Terrorist Attack and President Trump Issues an Important Statement, The United States Government Is “Desperate to Hide the Truth” and  Biden Dept of Homeland Security Identifies the First Amendment as Biggest U.S. Terrorist Threat. Mediaite reports Joe Scarborough Ridicules Nikki Haley for Bashing Mike Pence: ‘She Was a Lot Harsher on Donald Trump Than’ He Was. At Am Think Andy Coy asks What's the Deal With Mike Pence?. Who cares? He's not going anywhere. Fox radio, Chris Christie: ‘Inexperienced’ DeSantis Gets ‘Too Cute’ In Avoiding Questions on Trump, Vaccines. Christie doesn't really think he has a shot in 2024, does he? Fox, DeSantis insists narrative of Trump rivalry is 'total bunk': He's 'a friend of mine'.  At Mediaite, Brian Kilmeade Blasts Trump Over 2020 Election Claim: ‘That’s an Outright Lie’. Rick Fuentes at Am Think, And the Band Played On

From the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 02.08.22, Scott Johnson at Power Line Felony Murder In A Good Cause – Questions For Merrick Garland, "Showing leniency towards a career criminal who committed murder is bad enough. But justifying the murder because the career criminal shares the Biden Administration’s politics is beyond the pale."

Masking policies in places across the nation have come to a head. At the center of the carbuncle are Virginia, Loundoun County, and Glenn Youngkin. MSN cites the Guardian ‘A slap in the face’: uproar in Virginia as governor relaxes school mask rules. At WaEx, Loudoun official coached principals on getting warrants for unmasked students. At NYPo, Loudoun County school staff reportedly trained to get warrants for mask refusal. Matt Margolis at PJ Media, Bombshell Email Reveals Plan to Arrest Maskless Students in Loudoun County. From the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 02.08.22,  As Alison Schuster at Da Fed notes, In Loudoun County Public Schools, Not Wearing A Mask Gets Punished Faster Than Rape. Analysis, true. "The same school where a male student’s rape of a 15-year-old girl was covered up is suspending students for 10 days for not wearing a mask." ABC 13 News, Dates set for hearings on Loudoun County school mask lawsuit by Youngkin, Miyares. But this may be moot as WaEx reports the Virginia Supreme Court throws out challenge to Youngkin mask order. From the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 02.08.22, Geller Reports Virginia Supreme Court Sides With Youngkin On Executive Order Against School Mask Mandates.  AllahPundit at Haut Hair whines Checkmate? Virginia senate passes bill to make Youngkin's school mask opt-out a new state law, with a strong majority, including most Democrats. Wa Free Bee, WATCH: GOP’s Youngkin Was Villain for Lifting Mask Mandate. Dem Phil Murphy a Hero for Doing the Same. It's an amusing video, but I won't embed it. Mike La Chance at LI, Professor Apologizes After Being Recorded Calling Glenn Youngkin a ‘Trumpist Retard’ in class. 

But pockets of resistance remain. As sundance at CTH observes, American Civil Liberties Union Files a Lawsuit to Stop Allowing Civil Liberties in Virginia, "The ACLU is filing a lawsuit today in Virginia demanding that mask mandates against parents and student civil liberties be reinstated. The ACLU wants the Virginia mask mandate reinstituted.  The ACLU does not want parents and students to have a choice on whether to wear a mask." At Mediaite, Jen Psaki Defends NJ Relaxing Mask Guidelines to Fox News: Not the Same as Youngkin ‘Making it More Difficult’ to Keep Masks. Politico, Biden lags behind Dem govs on easing mask mandates Brandon Morse at Red State Illinois School Board Tries to Walk out on Bosnian Immigrant Warning Against Tyranny but Parents Stop Them Cold, Jazz Shaw at Haut Hair, School masking advocates trying to make an end run around the law in PA

The way that these carbon-copy lawsuits are showing up all over the state in a scattershot fashion is hard to overlook. Someone who wants to force all of the children back into masks clearly cooked up the strategy and has since been sending attorneys around to the various school districts and looking for parents who agree and are willing to act as the plaintiffs in these suits. Since the students involved are kept anonymous for privacy and health records reasons, it’s difficult to track down all of the data. But we should be “following the money” as the saying goes and determining who is funding the effort.

But it's not only in Virginia where the political winds are shifting. Jordan Boyd at Da Fed, Mask Bullies Have Tormented Kids For Two Years But Parents Are Done. American Power, Majority of Americans Says It's Time to Live With the Virus. Ace, CNN's Expert In The Science (TM): The Science (TM) on Masking Has, Coincidentally, Changed at the Exact Moment That Public Polling Has Turned Against Democrats In an Election Year. At PJ Media Stephen Kruiser , MSM Busy Tossing Their COVID Failures Into the Memory Hole and Stacy Lennox, Democrats and the Corporate Media Are Trying to Rewrite the History on Their COVID-19 Response. Virginia Kruta at Da Wire, Democrat Rep. Credits ‘Biden’s Leadership’ For Vanishing Mask Mandates, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). Omicron just flat ran out of potential people. Breitbart,  Illinois Gov. Pritzker to End State Mask Mandate ‘Before March 1’ and Oregon to Lift Mask Requirement ‘No Later than’ March 31. PM, California drops indoor mask mandate for vaccinated people except school children, "The state will end its indoor masking requirement next week, but the rules will remain in place for school children, state officials said." The people who need it least. Red State, In the 'Hell Freezing Over' Category, L.A. County Private Schools Refuse Access to COVID Health Inspectors. Capt. Ed at Haut Hair finds even rAndi Weingarten looking for a way off her high horse, Weingarten: Maybe the CDC should give us an off-ramp for school masking

Katharine McPhee

At Outkick, More Maskless Stacey Abrams School Photos Released. I won't offend you with them. Fox News reports CNN, Washington Post use Republicans 'seize' narrative on Stacey Abrams maskless photo, "'Stacey Abrams...was not flaunting regulations purposefully,' CNN's Bakari Sellers said." At Breitbart, Singer Katharine McPhee Blasts Unmasked Stacey Abrams Surrounded by Masked Children: ‘The Hypocrisy Continues’. The Bulwark, supposedly a site for Republicans unhappy with Trump, Memo To Dems: Stop Taking These Maskless Pictures,  "It’s simple. Don’t make others do shit you don’t do."

From the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 02.08.22,  Behind The Black sees  Pushback – Conservative Latina Student Defeats Effort To Blacklist Her Gabe Kaminsky at Da Wire, Amid Demands For Curriculum Transparency, Poll Shows Americans Want Parents To Shape Schools. 

John Sexton at Haut Hair, As GOP tries to retake the House, women and minority candidates lead the way. In a blow the Democrat Gerrymandering the Center Square reports Lower court recommends Legislature-approved congressional map to Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Commonwealth Court judge Patricia McCullough’s 228-page report to the high court Monday followed days of hearings on 13 proposed congressional maps submitted by lawmakers, Gov. Tom Wolf, advocacy organizations and others.

McCullough, assigned as a special master last week by the Supreme Court, “recommends that our Supreme Court adopt and implement HB 2146 as a matter of state constitutional law as it meets all of the traditional criteria of the Free and Equal Elections Clause, and does so in respects even noted by the governor’s expert, as well as the other considerations noted by the courts.”

From the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 02.08.22, Don Surber thinks  The Voting Rights Act seems unconstitutional. Well, yeah. 

Proudly criminal, Hillary Clinton Resorts to Selling Mugs Mocking Her 33,000 ‘Acid-Washed’ Emails (NN).

Althouse observes New lefty spin "Donald Trump Promised He Wouldn’t Nominate a Black Woman to the Supreme Court." Claims Garrett Epps at Washington Monthly because none were on the list of candidates he adopted from the Federalist society. Insty, THE NEW LEFTY SPIN: “Donald Trump Promised He Wouldn’t Nominate a Black Woman to the Supreme Court.”

Well, there was a list, and there were no black women on the list. But if you made this sort of claim about a Democrat you’d get “insufficient context.”

Related: “Yes, and Biden would be in a very different position if he’d said nothing about choosing a black woman and had just done it. That’s the traditional way of adding diversity to the Court. You say you’re picking the very best person for the job and the person you chose is accorded the dignity of being called the best person and not merely the best within a constricted pool.”

A little late, the Wombat posts Rule 5 Sunday: Return From Reno Double-Scoop Edition.