Dem
51
GOP
49
Whatever game the House MAGA militia is playing at, they're clearly serious about it. To start with, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who is a serious contender for the title of "Biggest Jerk in Congress" found a website (The Daily Caller) willing to publish a blistering anti-Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) op-ed. In it, Gaetz writes:
The McCarthy camp is spinning that Kevin must be accepted because "we have to avoid chaos." Chaos for who exactly? The special interests that are counting on McCarthy as their lapdog? I'm worried about chaos in the lives of my constituents. They live under the chaos of vaccine mandates pushed by Kevin's donors.
How well did Speaker Paul Ryan serve conservatives during then-President Donald Trump's first term? Are we glad that his tenure got off to a smooth start? It would have been better to have debated and chosen the right leader. Ryan, of course, supports McCarthy.
Every single Republican in Congress knows that Kevin does not actually believe anything. He has no ideology.
That last part, about no ideology, is undoubtedly true, but it's not very common for a sitting member of the House to say such things about the leader of their own conference.
And Gaetz wasn't the only one to fire up his word processor and write an angry message directed at his colleagues. Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), who is also a serious contender for the title of "Biggest Jerk in Congress," wrote an "open letter" to the Republican senators who voted for the omnibus budget bill (see above). It concludes:
On Monday, the Senate Republican leader inexplicably called this bill "a strong outcome for Republicans." We wholly disagree—this bill completely contradicts everything the Republican party claims it stands for. We have a duty to stand up for Americans and put an end to the border crisis. We have a duty to use the power of the purse to stop the Biden administration's radical agenda. And we have a duty to stand athwart the rampant government spending that has caused crushing inflation. Voting in favor of this bill is a dereliction of our duty on all counts.
The released legislative text confirmed this omnibus is an assault on the American people. As such, we reiterate that if any omnibus passes in the remaining days of this Congress, we will oppose and whip opposition to any legislative priority of those senators who vote for its passage—including the Republican leader. We will oppose any rule, any consent request, suspension voice vote, or roll call vote of any such Senate bill, and will otherwise do everything in our power to thwart even the smallest legislative and policy efforts of those senators.
Again, we must stop the assault on Texans and the American people. Kill this terrible bill or there is no point in pretending we are a united party, and we must prepare for a new political reality.
Who knew that Mitch McConnell is a RINO? In any event, 31 Republican members signed onto the letter, including most of the nutters you would expect. The only notable omission we noticed was Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ). Maybe he was out of town. Or maybe he doesn't know how to write his name. Who knows?
Clearly, the MAGA members' threat did not work, so now we'll see if they follow through on their threat. Also, do they really not understand how the government works? Specifically, do they really think that a Democratic-controlled Senate, along with Joe Biden, are going to partner with them to "stop the Biden administration's radical agenda"? Are they really that deluded? Or do they just think their supporters aren't clever enough to know how the government works? With these MAGA folks, it's just never clear exactly what's going through their heads. (Z)