Congratulations Stephanie Bice

One year later, in a race to ignore the Jan. 6 attack on our democracy, every other member of Oklahoma's congressional delegation finished in front of her, while she merely tried to have it both ways

Stephanie Bice wins. 

She wins because she said … anything.

Even playing it both ways, she’s the only member of Oklahoma’s congressional delegation who, one year after the U.S. Capitol was attacked, ransacked and violence overtook the place in the name of ending American democracy, thought, “Yeah, maybe I should say something.”

A first-term Republican, Bice represents Oklahoma’s 5th District, and the first thing on her official government website Thursday was a link to a press release offering her thoughts, a little disingenuous, one hopes, about the insurrection, one year later.

A little disingenuous, one hopes, because one hopes she knows the difference between playing to the crowd and actual facts.

“The events of January 6, 2021 are not a reflection of who we are as a country,” Bice said. “The breach of the U.S. Capitol building and subsequent violence that occurred undermine the very foundation of our democracy.”

If only she had stopped there.

“A peaceful transfer of power is imperative, but I empathize with those whose frustrations with the electoral process remain unresolved,” she continued. “Executive and judicial branches in certain states acted in an unconstitutional manner by implementing changes to state election laws, which is …”

See? 

Both ways.

Funny that no court in the land could find a single constitutional breach that led to our being delivered Joe Biden over Donald Trump, but why bicker over facts with a House member just trying to pull the same trick so many of her cohorts attempt every day, trying to maintain a modicum of integrity even as they forfeit credibility.

So she wins.

By default.

Senators Jim Inhofe and James Lankford had nothing to say a year later.

The first thing Lankford’s website wanted you to know on Thursday was how hard he’s working to oppose Biden’s vaccine mandate, because, one presumes, public health is just so last century.

Inhofe hasn’t issued a press release since Dec. 23, when he trumpeted the certification of something called an “Advanced Weapons Elevator” on the USS Gerald R. Ford, an aircraft carrier, a note he sent out six days after penning an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal titled “Reflections on a 62-Year Marriage,” one of those reflections being, “[Jesus] calls wives to submit joyfully to their husbands as to the Lord,” albeit with the qualifier, “It may not work for you, but it works for us,” which, if you think about it, is kind of like saying, “Jesus isn’t for everybody.”

But we digress.

Tom Cole, from the 4th District? 

Nada, but if you’d like to know what book he’s reading, his website’s got you covered.

Kevin Hern, from the 1st District? 

Zilch about Jan. 6, though there’s lots of clips of him on Newsmax, playing the hits.

Markwayne Mullin, from the 2nd District? 

Nothing on Jan. 6, though, get this, he actually co-sponsored a bill with two Democrats, Lucille Royal-Allard (Calif.) and Kathy Castor (Fla.) aimed at preventing stillbirths that passed the House on Dec. 8. Thus, on that distant day we again demand our leaders work with the other side, Mullin will have that.

Since, he’s been quiet

If only he could come out for democracy as strongly as he’s come out against lifeless babies.

Oh, to dream.

Finally, there’s Frank Lucas, representing western Oklahoma, the massive 3rd District, about whom, it must be said, does not vilify his political foes and the president as hotly or as often as his in-state colleagues, but who also came up empty on Thursday with nary a thought about his nation’s democracy, one year after it was placed in purgatorial peril, a place it remains thanks to so many Republican legislatures that have since made voting more difficult over the past year.

Are we surprised?

We are not.

Indeed, all five of the reps — Hern, Mullin, Lucas, Cole, Bice — voted against accepting certified election results in both Arizona and Pennsylvania on that very day, Jan. 6, 2021, inside that very building, the U.S. Capitol, the violence occurred.

That was Lankford’s plan, too, but the violence changed his mind. Inhofe, to his credit, was always voting to certify and did and, just maybe, the fact he’d run his last race had nothing to do with it; a thought bolstered by the fact that one year later, still having run his last race, he felt no need to commemorate a violent attack on his country with any word or thought. Just like Langford, Hern, Mullin, Lucas and Cole.

You know what this means?

It means Bice wins.

In a race to the bottom, to forget an attack on our country and democracy, to refuse to address the concerns of all whom they represent, not just the radicalized flame-throwers they fear, in a race to excuse the moral indecency of those who spurred that attack, who spurred even the use American flags as weapons, and then watched it all happen on television like cowards (or never believed the lies they spewed anyway; probably that one), among her state’s contingent, Bice wins by finishing last, while the rest tied for first.

Congratulations.