Is anyone really surprised that House Intelligence Committee ranking member Rep. Devin Nunes is all tangled up in President Donald Trump’s Ukrainian extortion scheme?  Remember Nunes’ last scandal where he lied about fake White House surveillance?  Layers of absolutely silly lies that didn’t hold up for a day before his lies tumbled down.  He was a shameless brown-noser then, and he hasn’t changed.  I’ve written about Nunes once or twice already. And now Nunes is involved in the scandal he’s supposedly investigating.

So far, the Nunes connection to Trump’s Ukraine scheme has been reported and confirmed several times.  CNN reported it first in Exclusive: Giuliani associate willing to tell Congress Nunes met with ex-Ukrainian official to get dirt on Biden, and there’s confirmation in the Washington Post and the New York Times.

This allegation comes from Lev Parnas, Rudi Giuliani’s recently indicted co-conspirator.  He says that Nunes snuck off to Vienna last year to meet with Ukrainian officials.  Like every Trump worker-bee, he was breaking the law, his oath of office, and all common decency to manufacture fake dirt on Trump’s enemies.  There were also supposed to be Skype calls and other contacts.

Now, Nunes denounced all these reports that he’s involved with Ukrainian dirt.  At the same time, he hasn’t suggested he’s innocent, and he hasn’t given us anything more than ad hominem attacks.  Here’s the Washington Post description:

Speaking to host Maria Bartiromo on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” Nunes said: “I really want to answer all of these questions, and I promise you I absolutely will come back on the show . . . but I think you can understand that I can’t compete by trying to debate this out with the public media when 90 percent of the media are totally corrupt.”

Nunes has also threatened to sue two of the news outlets that reported Parnas’s accusation. On Fox News, Nunes claimed that CNN and the Daily Beast were “likely conspiring to obstruct justice” by basing their reporting on interviews with a lawyer for Parnas.

“It’s so slanderous,” Nunes said. “We’ve got all the facts on our side, and we’re going to file in federal court. . . . I will win in court and they [CNN and the Daily Beast] will have a chance to cooperate, and they’ll have to show how they worked with somebody who has been indicted, which is likely conspiring to obstruct justice here.”

— Washington Post, Nov. 24, 2019, Nunes denies allegation he met with top Ukrainian prosecutor about Bidens

So, yeah, he’s not denied the accusation, there is no counter-narrative of what he was really doing, and Nunes hasn’t given us any evidence of anything.  I don’t mean that the lack of any counter-evidence means he’s guilty.  But simply shouting insults and threats doesn’t make Nunes any more innocent, either.

Here’s the problem.  Shouting and attacking the messenger is typical of someone who has no defense.  It’s like Nunes and his nonsensical rantings about the impeachment.  Sure, the Republican party’s fondness for baseless accusations and open lies can be entertaining, but it eventually begs the question: why won’t Nunes just say it’s not true?  “No, I didn’t travel to Vienna.”  Easy enough, right?  Nunes keeps a public schedule, so there should be records. Where was he during that time?

Until I hear otherwise, I’m assuming that Nunes is involved in the Ukraine scandal.  It’s not certain, but I’m not discounting it until we get something like… well, you know….

Evidence would be nice. Devin Nunes is a known liar. Almost every Republican lies just as easily, if with more skill. So, yeah, solid evidence is pretty much a requirement at this point.