Say what you want about the intelligence of Larry Householder, one thing is certain: He has brass balls the size of grapefruits — nay, make them basketballs instead. Look in any dictionary for the word “chutzpah” and you’ll find his smiling, toothy and beefy corn-fed visage.
How did this Bible-thumping, gun-toting, gay-bashing cartoonish character — who might have served as the archetype for the corrupt politician Jefferson Davis “Boss” Hogg on the television show The Dukes of Hazzard — from backwoods Perry County (population 37,000) get his thinking so delusional? Especially given the fact he had previously left the speakership of Ohio’s House of Representatives under the cloud of a potential federal investigation back in 2004.
Even a half-witted elected official seemingly would have thought: “Man, I got over THAT greasy log more than a decade and a half ago, and I’m damn sure not about to press my luck by having to get over another one — not in this lifetime.” Didn’t any of his coconspirators — supposedly bright and seasoned political operatives all — know enough about the feds to warn him prosecutors have a long memory, especially in cases where someone has already dodged a bullet once?
What made Householder so brazen — indeed, if “brazen” is indeed a strong enough word — as to think that since the feds gave him a pass back in 2004 (they usually decline to prosecute when there is the slightest chance that they can’t make a case stick) that he could go back to the well once again?
Personally, I have to believe that he was infected with a political disease which I’ll name “Trumpititis” a megalomania-inspired illness which manifests itself by creating a false sense of invincibility in those afflicted with this dementia-type malaise. In other words, he thought that in the “Age of Trump” he was as bulletproof as the man he blindly followed down this anfractuous path.
Indeed, the case of Larry Householder is emblematic of the type of greed, misappropriation and malfeasance that has so worried long-time officials at the Department of Justice for the last three years. The fear that tRump’s eagerness to turn our form of government into a Washington-based kleptocracy was one that would filter down to his followers in various red states has now been made manifest, corporeal.
While questions such as “Why did tRump apologist and A.G. Bill Barr sign off on this indictment so close to the presidential election” abound, answers will not be forthcoming. But know this: You’re not going to hear a peep out of anyone in Trumpworld on this stinking pile of fecal matter. The reason being, while there is no evil “Deep State” conspiracy in control of our government at the national level as some kooks would have you believe, there is an “administrative state” of apolitical, career, civil/public servants who are not going to willingly stand by and allow dangerous ideologues to push our Republic off of a cliff.
The Householder case is a textbook example of how seasoned Washington/Justice Department pros play the game. These Columbus-based clowns willingly placed their nuts in a vice of wrongdoing and now the feds are going to turn the handle, albeit so very slowly, akin to boiling a frog.
Since the 2000 census, when it was predicted that by 2040 or so the country would be comprised of a majority of former minorities, there has been a dread on the left that a cabal of dangerous right-wingers are of the frame of mind that if they can’t continue to run the country they stole they’d just as soon burn this motherfucker down. And they’ve hired Donald J. Trump to light the match.
The next six months could prove to be the most critical period in the history of our nation … and if you can’t understand the situation we’re currently then you can continue to whistle past the graveyard.
