Recently, the Republican National Committee took the extraordinary step of publicly censuring two House Republicans with the purpose of “No Longer Support(ing) Them As Members of the Republican Party.”

So what does it take to get kicked out of the party?

Well, Congressman Matt Gaetz is still a member in good standing despite being under investigation for alleged sex trafficking.

Congresswoman Lauren Boebert’s Republican bona fides are still in tact after she referred to a Democratic Muslim colleague as a member of the “Jihad Squad” and joked that she could be a suicide bomber.

This list could go on for awhile, but it would not be complete without former President Donald Trump, who has a sizzle reel of shame that includes: Repeatedly attacking fellow Republicans, inspired a failed insurrection (he’s also inspired many failed elections, but that’s another story) and bragged about sexual assault.

Trump continues to prove the RNC will tolerate just about anything. In fact, Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel once attacked her own uncle, Republican Senator Mitt Romney, for criticizing Trump’s lack of character – a point I thought was beyond debate.

If sex trafficking, sexual assault, inspiring an insurrection, publicly attacking other Republicans (who aren’t Trump) and making racist comments are not enough to get shown the door, what is?

It turns out that the line is trying to bring to justice the people involved with the Trump-inspired January 6 insurrection because it seems like many are other House Republicans.

Reps. Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney have participated in the investigative congressional committee, which, according to the RNC censure resolution, will “deliberately jeopardize victory in November.”

The censure panned the committee as a “Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.”

To say that the people who stormed the Capitol on January 6th – a violent mob who vandalized the building, smeared feces in the halls and beat police, all with the intention of disrupting the peace transition of power to the rightfully-elected president – is like saying the mentally ill person I caught masterbating in my carport was simply exercising his First Amendment right to free speech.

Facing tremendous criticism, McDaniel has tried doing a little cleanup by playing her greatest hit: Blame the Media.

“Violence is not legitimate political discourse… Media outlets pretending the RNC believes otherwise are acting in bad faith, & their lies should be called out as cheap political stunts,” McDaniel tweeted.

Of course, the members of the media she says are lying and “acting in bad faith” are simply quoting the RNC’s censure resolution.

The censure resolution, by the way, makes no mention of condemning violence, which could be the result of bigly incompetence, but it’s most likely because RNC committee members don’t think there’s anything wrong with the January 6 violence.

There are two camps at the RNC: One that supports what happened on January 6 and another that is scared of losing the support of the first camp.

It really is all about trying to win elections in 2022 – even if some of the people they elect might one day support or even lead an insurrection and in the meantime spend their days in Congress like the guy in my carport.

As members of the RNC were fighting against reality, former Vice President Mike Pence was reiterating in a speech that he had no right to overturn the 2020 Presidential Election results – as Trump has claimed – citing the Constitution.

“Frankly there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president,” Pence said, according to the Associated Press. “Under the Constitution, I had no right to change the outcome of our election.”

There seems nothing controversial about Pence’s comments. They’re true, so that’s the end of the story, right?

Wrong!

Trump issued a statement saying that Pence was wrong and everyone knows it and the county is “going to hell.”

And as hell’s ambassador, Trump should know.

Trump argued Pence had the power to kick the election back to the states if “there is fraud or large scale irregularities,” but left out the fact that he fought this in court 62 times and was unable to prove his claims.

That’s a losing record that would give the 2008 Detroit Lions a sigh of relief.

The efforts to prove fraud were actually so bad that an audit of Maricopa County results supported by dingbat Republicans in the Arizona Senate not only failed to prove fraud, but actually found that Trump lost the county by more votes than originally reported.

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The RNC’s censure resolution condemned Kinzinger and Cheney of the cardinal crime of not pulling in the “same direction” as the rest of the party to “stop the radical Biden agenda and retire Nancy Pelosi.”

Playing footsies with the lunatic fringe is probably more damaging to Republicans’ electoral chances than anything the January 6 investigation could do and fomenting insurrection is more radical than anything in the Biden agenda.

But that’s all beside the point. What good is winning if it means the country will get more Trump, more Gaetz, more Boebert, more January 6?

Watching some Republicans act like clowns and watching others desperately seek their approval would be much more entertaining if democracy wasn’t at stake.

Follow Matt Fleming on Twitter @FlemingWords