"Lock 'Em Up!": Small Rodent Edition

From the soon-to-be-former chairman of the House Witch Hunt Committee:

This Week host George Stephanopoulos noted during an interview with Chaffetz that a senior official in the White House was reportedly a person of interest in the investigation into Russia interference in the U.S. election.

Chaffetz, who has announced he is leaving Congress on June 30 for a rumored position at Fox News, said that he was more interested in the person who leaked the news.

"I want to see that this person is prosecuted," the outgoing Utah Republican insisted. "I think the president makes a very good point. No matter who's in the White House, you cannot have the type of leaking of information, sources, methods, classified information. I don't care who it is, Democrat or Republican, you cannot have that happen."

"Not only do you need to wall them off, you probably need to put some handcuffs on them and put them in jail," he added.

I guess this is what Republicans mean by "law and order": forget due process, fair trials and all that other junk, just lock 'em up.* Especially if they're telling the press things that the powers that be would rather keep secret.

And of course, aside from being very revealing of the authoritarian tendencies of the right, this is just a way of deflecting attention from the real issue: who controls the White House? Or for that matter, Congress? Because it sure doesn't seem to be the American people.8

* This is what happens when you substitute belief for evidence, which may explain why so many right-wingers are fundamentalist "Christians".