When the Republican National Committee’s vote Friday to censure Representatives Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois for their participation in the House Select Committee’s probe into the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection, they inexplicably described the riotous attack on the U.S. Capitol as “legitimate political discourse.”

Other Republican leaders are stepping up to show that they know an insurrection when they see one. On Friday, former Vice President Mike Pence, the target of Donald Trump’s assertions that Pence could have overturned the election results, said plainly, “President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election.”

On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, in effect censured the RNC for its censure. It’s not the committee’s job, said McConnell, to police the views of lawmakers.

McConnell and Pence have not exactly been speaking out about Jan. 6 — McConnell prefers to focus on the 2022 mid-term elections and taking back control of Congress — but he knows an insurrection when he sees one, and is not afraid to call it what it is.

“It was a violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election from one administration to the next,” McConnell said Tuesday.

Thank goodness there are some in the Republican Party who haven’t totally abandoned truth and common sense.