Dem
47
GOP
53
State Sen. Colton Moore (R-GA) is an obnoxious gasbag. We don't write about state legislature-level politicians all that often, but he's such an obnoxious gasbag that we've made him the subject of "This Week in Schadenfreude" before, thanks to his one-man crusade against Fulton County DA Fani Willis (a crusade tinged with no small amount of dog-whistle racism). And we are not the only ones who think he's an obnoxious gasbag. His fellow Republicans in the Georgia state Senate have thrown him out of their party caucus, while his fellow Republicans in the Georgia state House have banned him from entering that chamber.
Yesterday, Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) delivered his state of the state speech. And, as with the state of the union address, the speech is delivered from the floor of the lower chamber of the legislature. That would be the same floor from which Moore is banned. The Senator took the position that he was entitled to be there, and that he was obligated to be there, to represent the interests of his constituents. He also saw an opportunity to get enough material for a week's worth of social media postings. So, he crashed the party. And, for his trouble, he got himself arrested.
Needless to say, Moore is going to get plenty of mileage out of this, particularly since he ended up in the same jail where Donald Trump was booked. And he actually has a decent argument that he should have been allowed to be in the audience in the speech. Still, it is now national news that Moore's fellow Republicans despise him so much that they have tried to forbid his presence, and that they are willing to back that prohibition by having him arrested. There is certainly some schadenfreude in that. (Z)