Sen. Josh Hawley refuses to pass up any opportunity to remind Americans of his role in encouraging the insurrectionists who invaded the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Instead of just keeping his mouth shut, doing his job and allowing the commotion to die down over his role in the insurrection, he insists on genuflecting to lawless racists on the extreme right of his Republican Party. He's now taking on a Black retired Army lieutenant general selected by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to lead a security review of the Capitol.

Pelosi chose Lt. Gen. Russel Honore only nine days after the insurrection. But Hawley waited more than a month — until Wednesday's eve of the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida — to launch his attack on Honore, labeling the general "a mouthpiece for the radical left who blames police first." Hawley is scheduled to speak at the event, which promises to be an unbridled love fest for Donald Trump despite Senate Republican leaders' denunciation of the former president as the instigator of the Capitol insurrection. Hawley remains Trump's chief apologist on Capitol Hill, apparently seeing that as his quickest route to redemption after his Jan. 6 antics cost him a book deal, major campaign-donor support and any viability as a 2024 presidential candidate.

From Hawley's perspective, of course, anyone not aligned with his extreme-right philosophy ranks as a hammer-and-sickle socialist. So it's hardly surprising he would attack a distinguished Black Army leader like Honore.

"This is outrageous ... " Hawley told Fox News' Tucker Carlson, referring to Honore. "He blamed the police first. He has no facts, he has no idea what actually went on. He's out there blaming the police and saying that they're complicit, that they helped the rioters."

Right-wing news outlets have drawn attention to comments Honore made immediately after the insurrection when video footage showed some Capitol police officers assisting the rioters. Last week, the U.S. Capitol Police announced that six officers had been suspended and another 29 were under investigation. If remarks by Honore were so outrageous, why are those officers now under suspension?

Of course, subsequent investigations have documented remarkable acts of bravery by other officers, some of whom helped save the lives of Hawley and other lawmakers — and died or suffered severe injuries for their heroism.

Hawley is doing his best to link those acts of bravery with Honore's justified criticism over police complicity with rioters and the obvious lack of preparation before the onslaught.

Meanwhile, Hawley continues to sidestep his own blatant cowardice. He evaded any responsibility for having egged on the insurrection by championing bogus claims of election fraud and by fist-pumping protesters as they swarmed toward the Capitol. He's correct about one thing: This is outrageous.

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