Kevin Kiley will represent us in Washington as he did in California: By trashing us

I had the faintest hope that U.S. Rep.-elect Kevin Kiley’s recently acquired national office might lead him to act like a mature legislator. Perhaps having won a seat in the House might lead to some personal growth. He might act accordingly like, you know, an adult.

I was so very, very wrong.

Our newly minted congressman has been as busy as ever spreading disinformation through various right-wing outlets in recent days. Kiley told Fox News, for example, that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had abdicated Congress’ oversight responsibilities “just in order to avoid making Joe Biden look bad.”

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Quick question: Did Pelosi abdicate Congress’ oversight responsibilities by forming a committee on the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection after Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy tried to kill the investigation?

Kiley, being Donald Trump’s handmaiden, can’t be expected to show any moral leadership on that particular bit of oversight. He and his new nutty buddies in the Freedom Caucus prefer to investigate “the misuse of law enforcement and counterterrorism resources to silence parents at school board meetings,” he said.

Maybe a coup attempt is just a blip compared with the high crimes related to Hunter Biden’s laptop. And don’t forget Hunter Biden’s paintings: Are they really abstract or more modernist? Maybe President Biden’s dog Commander has also committed wrongdoing: Check the rug.

We. Just. Don’t. Know.

Meanwhile, we’re still waiting on Kiley’s big plan to address inflation. And we’re still waiting for him to call out his patron for chowing down with the obviously troubled and virulently anti-Semitic rapper Kanye West and his neo-Nazi pal Nick Fuentes. Congressman? Bueller? Himmler?

Kiley also appeared on the Foxier-than-Fox outlet Newsmax, where he rolled out more of the usual right-wing tropes: “We got hundreds of school board members elected in school boards across California — folks who are parent leaders, folks who are fed up with the … radical curriculum around sex ed and CRT (critical race theory).”

It’s a scary concept, telling kids about slavery. We can’t have that. Instead, let’s tell them Jan. 6 was a Black Lives Matter operation.

Kiley’s main hobby while representing California in Congress, as it was in the Assembly, is denigrating California. On Fox, he said, “California is not a model for the nation: it is a warning to the nation.”

Somehow I can’t imagine former California Gov. Ronald Reagan saying that. Could Kiley maybe give a little lip service to the beauty of the state, its technological prowess or its leadership in agriculture? Or mention that his hometown, Rocklin, has some nice folks? Or that the Golden Gate Bridge is actually pretty cool?

Kiley also darkly noted in his Newsmax interview that “the very slow vote-counters” in California unacceptably delayed his coronation for a few days. Cue ominous music and grainy, slow-motion video.

Sadly, we’re stuck with this guy for at least two years and perhaps the rest of his entire adult life.

But we’ll probably hear from Kiley only through his media handlers on Foxmax. Maybe they’ll let us know if he joins Trump and some of his other dinner guests at Mar-a-Loco. He’ll fit in just fine.