Maybe based Mitch McConnell is back? We can only hope.

Republicans successfully blocked the creation of a so-called “January 6th commission” today with Democrats unable to garner the ten crossover votes they needed to pass the bill. The six Republicans who voted with the Democrats include Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski, Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, Rob Portman, and Ben Sasse. None of those names are surprising.

Here’s Liz Cheney virtue signaling over it.

Thank you to Senators Cassidy, Collins, Murkowski, Portman, Sasse, and Romney for voting for truth and defense of our constitution. History will remember those who put country ahead of politics.

— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) May 28, 2021

Spoiler: no one is going to remember this.

As I’ve written before, the purpose of a January 6th commission is flatly obvious. The way the bill forming the commission was written, Democrats would have full control over who the “investigators” are. They would also have control over the timeline, no doubt dragging it out until the 2022 election. It would be a repeat of the Mueller investigation, which was stocked with left-wing ideologues and conveniently continued right through the 2018 mid-terms, likely affecting the election.

Most Republicans, including Mitch McConnell, seemed to have learned their lesson. The short term political pain caused by blocking this commission is worth stopping the far greater political pain Democrats would inflict with the commission itself.

Besides, Democrats are going to investigate anyway via a committee investigation. Why should Republicans put their stamp of approval on a supposed bi-partisan, independent commission that was going to be anything but that? Let the Democrats call their witnesses and have their dog and pony show, but don’t legitimize it without Republican support.

Of course, the teeth-gnashing surrounding this vote has already begun in earnest. It should be ignored. The GOP does not owe the left anything here. There is already a DOJ investigation and hundreds of arrests have been made. There will be a committee-level investigation as well. There is no shortage of recriminations when it comes to January 6th. Anyone suggesting otherwise is simply speaking from their own partisanship. If people get angry because the GOP won’t hand the left a rusty knife with which to saw off their heads, let them be angry. There’s nothing to be gained by humoring these people.

Good for Mitch McConnell for recognizing what this is and rallying the vast majority of his members to his side. Given McConnell’s initial response to January 6th, that wasn’t a given so it’s encouraging to see. The right move is to move forward with a focus on the issues people will care about in 2022. No one cares about yet another recrimination-fest involving January 6th. People do care about inflation, jobs, foreign policy, and a myriad of other issues that actually affect their lives.