The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies met today.

Since 1901, this committee composed of the Senate Majority and Minority Leader, the House Speaker, the House Majority and Minority Leaders, and a chairman chosen by the Senate, has been responsible for designating a theme for the inauguration and setting a schedule of events.(Did you know inaugurations have themes? I didn’t. In case you have even the tiniest bit of curiosity, this year’s theme is “Our Determined Democracy: Forging a More Perfect Union;” Good luck with that sh**.)

Not much got accomplished.

Congressional Republican leaders rejected a resolution that asserted that Joe Biden is president-elect, the latest effort by the Hill GOP to refuse to accept the election results even though it’s been clear for weeks that President Donald Trump lost.

The rejection came Tuesday in a private meeting after House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer offered a motion to affirm that it is preparing for the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Rules Committee Chairman Roy Blunt of Missouri voted with House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy in blocking the motion, effectively preventing the inaugural committee from publicly accepting that the upcoming inauguration will be for Biden. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, the ranking Democrat on the Rules Committee, voted with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Hoyer voting in favor.

“The extent to which Republicans are refusing to accept the outcome of the election and recognize Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as our next President and Vice President is astounding,” Hoyer said in a statement. “Their continued deference to President Trump’s post-election temper tantrums threatens our democracy and undermines faith in our system of elections … Republicans are refusing even to allow (Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies) to say that President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris will be inaugurated on January 20, even when there is no serious dispute over that fact.”

To date, only a relatively small number, about 27, Vichy Conservatives have lined up to welcome their new master. That any have done so just shows the absolute cravenness of a small but, I predict, a growing number of Republicans who will find life without invitations to the right parties to be just too much to bear. It would have cost them nothing to say nothing until the Electoral College votes and it would have shown solidarity with that 70+% of Republicans and 50% of all Americans who believe Joe Biden is the beneficiary of a fraudulent election. The only conceivable reason to proclaim allegiance to some guy who chases his dog around while buck naked is to just cast one final insult at a president they never truly accepted as legitimate and who, as a newcomer to politics, understood the mood of the American people and the issues of importance to them better than the professional vote-chasers.

Eventually, there will be a president-elect, but it will be one decided by the Electoral College, not one appointed by the news media and demanded by geriatric Democrats.