There she was, proudly flipping the posterboards one after the other, displaying purported images of a naked Hunter Biden and his alleged prostitute lover, stills of a sex tape that’s been circulating in the right-wing fever swamp for more than two years.  Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican Georgia Congresswoman, was clearly pleased with herself.  She had given a warning about adult content before she began her questioning, so showing near-naked, black-barred, near-pornographic copies of admittedly stolen images of a private citizen was perfectly apt for a Congressional hearing.

But it really wasn’t.  It was gratuitous.  It was grotesque.  It was cheap and tawdry and below the dignity of the House of Representatives and it should have been called out.  But it wasn’t.  This political stunt stands on the record, and the perpetrator will go unpunished.

Democrats lost the moment to have the nation’s long-needed reboot of the McCarthy era “Have you no sense of decency?” moment.  Here was Marjorie Taylor Greene, the camera-seeking conspiracy-laden muckraker of the House GOP caucus, slyly smiling as she wrapped up her show of Hunter’s junk, shown, she said, to demonstrate how Hunter was cheating the US taxpayer.

At worst, she is broadcasting a stolen image that was admittedly taken without authority by a legally-blind computer repair shop owner in Delaware and admittedly spread publicly by former New York mayor, former presidential candidate, Trump’s chosen cybersecurity czar, and former lawyer Rudy Giuliani.  Not only are those actions crimes covered by various state and federal cybercrime laws, but they’re also not being prosecuted–demonstrating the two-tier justice system Republicans say they are searching for.  So there’s Marge holding up a stolen image from an unverified stolen sex tape, boasting about how this was important for the committee to consider because something something Hunter Biden.

Democrats should have pounced on Taylor:  “I am disgusted that my colleague would exploit what is either a stolen image or a faked image–we don’t know because we haven’t verified what she’s claiming–of a private citizen of the United States for the single and cynical reason of humiliating him for her personal political gain.  That is disgusting.  That is vile.  How low will our Republican colleagues sink–and you are all sinking because Representative Taylor Greene is your anchor; her behavior is lowering each and every one of you; she is speaking for you–how low will you sink to get upvotes?  You’re not doing this for votes; voters find your behavior disgusting.  She’s doing this for upvotes and impressions on social media.  And she’s exploiting a recovering addict who was a victim of a hack or a fake to raise her brand.  To echo a call to one of your fellow Republicans from decades ago:  ‘Let us not assassinate this lad further, Congresswoman. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?'”

There’s still an opportunity to capitalize on this to show the American public not all of Congress is addled like Marge, but the moment was given to House committee Democrats on a silver platter on a national broadcast.