SIDESHOW.

The simple version is, a consultant to the Democrats on Obamacare made some impolitic remarks about voters, and the conservative response has been to elevate the consultant, Jonathan Gruber, to the imaginary office of Architect of Obamacare so they can impeach him from it -- Washington Post:

Hearings floated as Hill Republicans seize on Gruber Obamacare comments... 

Jordan said House Republicans have been sending each other a blizzard of e-mails and text messages this week, and he expects the interest in "bringing [Gruber] up here to talk" will gain traction as members return to Washington. House Republicans will gather Thursday evening for their first series of votes since the election. 

"I just had a colleague text me saying, 'We've got to look into this!" Jordan said as he glanced at his phone outside the House floor Wednesday morning.

It's not like they have anything important to do.

This miasma has led some of the brethren unto weird, elaborate fantasies. Bryan Preston at PJ Media:

Allah makes another good point, which is that Republicans probably shouldn’t lead with Gruber’s capitol dressdown. Gear up for it, make sure it’s not another missed opportunity, wasted on grandstanding instead of asking the witness questions and letting him squirm on national TV.

Wouldn't want any grandstanding!

But not first thing. First thing, they should take Mary Landrieu up on a Keystone vote first, see how the Democrats behave and what Obama does after it passes. Increase dissension in the opposition’s ranks before launching the assault on their castle.

Preston's D&D cards and Risk gameboard are getting a workout today.

Just make sure to get him [Gruber? I guess] in Congress under oath ahead of the Supreme Court’s look at the exchange issue. He’ll surely provide more useful soundbites about how he and the Democrats lied to everyone, gamed the CBO, and knew all along that the subsidies/exchange

Maybe Gruber will insult Chief Justice John Roberts specifically while he’s under oath, too. 

Then he'll yell I'M A BIG STUPID JERK AN I KISSED OBAMA AND HE LIKED IT and dissolve into smoking dust as an outraged public rises up and makes Bryan Preston (who, after all, told them how to assault the castle) Lord Protector.

As usual with rightbloggers, delusions of grandeur must alternate with persecution mania, and there are actually people who will tell you that this fulsomely-covered story is being hushed up by the liberal media:

It's always piquant when they take a break from hollering that the hated MSM is dead to complaining the hated MSM is not only alive but so powerful it can hide all the videos of Jonathan Gruber from the public, except on YouTube. 

Their aim, inchoate as it is, seems to be to convince enough reporters that they must be even-handed about this (that is, take their bullshit seriously) to generate sufficient airtime to make them feel all zeitgeisty. They've already been pretty successful  (from the Washington Post story: "The controversy has lit a fire under conservatives eager to dismantle the law and has raised eyebrows among the law’s defenders, who are concerned that such comments will further damage" blah blah), but they won't be satisfied until some big-time brow-furrower like Jake Tapper has done a hard-hitting special series, maybe even bringing on Ron Fournier to do his Mickey Kaus act and talk about innocence betrayed. For extra laffs they could get Romney, for whom Gruber labored to develop Romneycare, to weep that he had ever nourished such a snake at his bosom.

The signal irony of the whole grift is that the grifters are pretending to be outraged that someone said voters are stupid, which is the First Principle of their livelihoods.