Why would the GOP strip her of assignments when she's one of the intellectual thought leaders of the party https://t.co/GVhlSeCquA
— AdotSad (@AdotSad) February 1, 2021
… House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer delivered an ultimatum to McCarthy on Monday: Either Republicans move on their own to strip Greene (R-Ga.) of her committee assignments within 72 hours, or Democrats will bring the issue to the House floor.
The Democrats’ move, while highly unusual, comes amid intense fury within the Democratic Caucus over Greene’s long record of incendiary rhetoric, including peddling conspiracy theories that the nation’s deadliest mass shootings were staged. Greene also endorsed violence against Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats before she was elected to Congress.
Last week, Greene was officially awarded seats on the House Education and Labor Committee and the House Budget Committee.
Republicans, meanwhile, have been slow to act, with McCarthy saying only he’s planning to have a “conversation” with Greene about the mounting controversies sometime this week. The meeting between McCarthy and Greene has still not been scheduled, but could take place as early as Tuesday evening.
And Greene has shown zero contrition for her past actions, tweeting over the weekend that she will “never apologize.” She also took a jab at Hoyer on Twitter Monday and revealed plans to travel to Florida “soon” to meet with former President Donald Trump, who she said supports her “100 percent.”
Democrats are already teeing up potential floor action if McCarthy doesn’t act, scheduling a Rules Committee hearing for Wednesday afternoon on a resolution to strip Greene of her committee posts…
MTG is a human megaphone for the guy who still, apparently, holds dominance over the entire Republican party. They can’t touch her without impuning him, and they don’t have the courage to do that — yet.
But if there’s going to be a Republican party that can present itself as one of the only two groups in charge of national politics, it has to be a party that aligns behind Liz Cheney, not MTG. Cheney is very much the daughter of her monstrous father, but she’s a professional politician, not a millionaire nutbag spewing conspiracy theories for attention. So #MoscowMitch, Minority Leader, felt impelled to creep out and mumble some stern-ish words:
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday delivered a scathing rebuke of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s actions and defended Rep. Liz Cheney’s decision to vote to impeach former president Donald Trump, weighing in for the first time on the criticism facing both lawmakers.
The statements together are both an unusual venture from a Senate leader onto the other chamber’s turf and an unmistakable signal to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) that, for the party’s sake, he must sideline extremists such as Greene (R-Ga.) and maintain a place for traditional Republicans such as Cheney (R-Wyo.).
On Wednesday morning, House Republicans will hold a conference-wide meeting during which the actions of both lawmakers are expected to be discussed.
In the statement on Greene, first reported by the Hill, McConnell did not mention the freshman lawmaker by name but listed a series of actions that describe her pattern of inflammatory behavior…
In a separate statement, McConnell did name Cheney, describing the No. 3 House Republican as “a leader with deep convictions and the courage to act on them.”
“She is an important leader in our party and in our nation,” McConnell said in the statement, first reported by CNN. “I am grateful for her service and look forward to continuing to work with her on the crucial issues facing our nation.”
At Wednesday’s meeting, House Republicans are expected to debate whether to oust Cheney from her spot as the No. 3 member of their party’s leadership in the chamber….
mitch has the power to stomp her out like a cigarette butt, you’ll know he’s serious if he actually does it. this is a start but not much else. https://t.co/BNBADQVTBX
— kilgore trout, back in some form (@KT_So_It_Goes) February 2, 2021
Or maybe the dangerous precedent is failing to punish a House member who embraces anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, has called for the death of other House members, and oh by the way encouraged and may have coordinated with a violent insurrection intended to nullify an election. pic.twitter.com/ZMudjKJbvX
— Tom Hilton (@TVHilton) February 1, 2021
When some people say you should condemn the crazy conspiracy theorist in your ranks but it's tough because condemning her would upset the largest group in your party, you have a problem beyond one crazy conspiracy theorist in your ranks. https://t.co/DEj3VjnWpx pic.twitter.com/mWUbuVcyO5
— Orin Kerr (@OrinKerr) February 1, 2021
I am old enough to remember when House GOP swiftly removed Rep. Steve King (R-KKK) from all committee assignments for saying a fraction of the crazy shit Rep. Greene (R-QAnon) has said.
But they are in no hurry to give the the same heave-ho. Because they are a party of Trump now.— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) February 2, 2021
In Case Anyone Was Wondering Why The Republicans Are Still Controlling the Senate
Adam L Silverman
The House Republican caucus took a decade to do anything consequential regarding Steve King. And they only did once it became impossible to ignore because of social media amplification. I like Slava Malamud, but he’s wrong here. Whomever is blogging as Kilgore Trout is also wrong about McConnell. She’s a representative, not a senator. That limits his ability to do anything to her. And McCarthy is both dumb and craven, so he won’t even though he actually has the ability to do so.
NotMax
Grrrr.
Tip of the widest sombrero to the kids with the acute presence of mind to record Zooms.
Starboard Tack
What I can’t reconcile is the Republican infatuation for Israel and the blood libel at the bottom of QAnon. Yeah, I’ve had it explained to me, but I still can’t get my head around it.
NotMax
@Starboard Tack
It’s like squeezing Jell-O in your hand. There’s no defined shape to hold on to, it ends in making a mess and you need to wash afterwards.
Adam L Silverman
@Starboard Tack: Give this a read. Though it just scratches the surface:
https://www.972mag.com/israeli-flag-white-nationalism-symbol/
Mary G
RIP:
Redshift
For a couple of decades, they’ve been a party that doesn’t want to do anything, they just want to stop Democrats from having government do anything. So people who admit they don’t want to do anything except have a platform to spout nonsense doesn’t seem like a big shift from the Tea Party and the Freedumb Caucus, in terms of presenting themselves as an acceptable governing party.
Chetan Murthy
@Starboard Tack: They love Israel, but not Jewish people. B/c the Bible says that before the Last Days, Israel will do whatever-it-is-red-heifer-re-erect-whatever-temple etc. And then there’ll be that last battle, etc. Then Jesus comes down, and Jews gotta either accept him, or (I guess?) burn in Hell.
So hey, supporting Israel, supporting getting that temple built, is 100% in line with all this crazy millenialist thinking.
Supporting actual living Jews, who don’t think that shit’s happenin’? Naw brah, they’re gonna have to convert, yo’.
Starboard Tack
@Adam L Silverman:
Well, that is a better explanation than I’ve seen before. Seems to boil down to only some Jews eat babies. /s
NotMax
@NotMax
Put another way, it’s insidious because it’s so nebulous a cloud of charged buzz words. It’s the salad bar from Hell, allowing it’s customers to pick and choose their poisonous portions while at the same time making note (and by their continued patronage tacitly approving) of what else is available when they come back for seconds.
Danielx
The pace has slowed from the days of three dozen tweets from It, but it’s still just one damn thing after another. Yes it does feel like competence is re-emerging, praise be. But heinous fuckery emerges at every hand on a daily basis, and I truly hope Democratic spines continue to emerge as well.
Which reminds me, has Biden considered the Repub senators’ Covid package and after due consideration told them to go pound sand?
Grover Norquist spoke more truly than he knew when he equated bipartisanship with date rape. There is no compromise possible without good faith, and that particular well has had dead mules thrown into it long since.
Danielx
@Adam L Silverman:
You may be right. But I would be willing to wager that a senator of McConnell’s position and seniority can probably make a freshman House representative’s life pretty miserable, one way or another. Without expending too much effort.
NotMax
@Mary G
In memoriam.
Aside from Lincoln and Twain, he was also outstanding playing the commander of the USS Pueblo.
ian
@NotMax:
On my first day student teaching in a history class, I had to sit and watch with horror as the children who did not know any better were told that Sadaam Hussein was a bad man, who did terrible things to his own people, and we had to stop him before he could do that here in the United States.
Teachers are not any more intelligent than any other profession, regardless of what they may tell you.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mary G:
RIP indeed. I was fortunate enough to see him do “Mark Twain Tonight!” live, in three different decades (late 1950s, mid-Seventies, and sometime in the Nineties), and in three different cities (Oak Park, IL; Boston; and [I think but couldn’t swear to it] Washington, DC). Although there was a basic core to the show, Holbrook had a knack of making his performances somewhat different depending on what was going on in the country and the world, so they were uniquely suited to the times.
ETA: Wonder why they waited over a week to announce his death. I suppose to let the family and close friends grieve without having to cope with intrusive TV crews and such.
mrmoshpotato
@ian:
Bold mine, and wow. Just wow.
HumboldtBlue
Bridgerton is like cake, it has layers,
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Mary G:
Now that Holbrooke is dead I wonder if Woodward and Bernstein will reveal who was Deep Throat.
mrmoshpotato
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Haha
Aussie sheila
Just saw AOC Instagram account of her experience on Jan 6. Truly heart wrenching and infuriating. What I don’t get is how is it possible for people like the egregious mtg to call for the assassination of anyone let alone a senior elected official, and not be arrested? I get freedom of speech, but where I live incitement of violence/murder is a criminal offence. How does this fly with the US media? In any other democratic polity it would be a rolling 24/7 scandal.
I truly hope the Dems bring witnesses next week, and that the whole thing gets a proper airing. It really looks like the gop has devolved into right wing authoritarianism of the fashy kind. It is truly scary that they are only a few tens of thousands of votes away from another chance at the presidency.
As goes the US, so goes a lot of other polities in the anglosphere, which is why so many people across the world are so gobsmacked at the last five years and why I am so admiring of the courage and determination of the voters last November.
Brachiator
In the past, the GOP had sense enough to try to distance itself from people like David Duke. Sometimes. But it seems that the GOP version of the big tent embraces all many of malignant creatures, bigots and the emotionally disturbed.
But once they let Trump in and anointed him their leader, how could they exclude any right wing lunatic?
There might not be as huge a difference between the two as some might think.
Geoduck
@Mary G: In a study in contrasts, Dustin Diamond, the guy who played Screech on Saved By the Bell, also died this week, cancer got him at 44. In a bit of brutal irony, one of his last roles was playing himself after being cast into Hell.
mrmoshpotato
And yet the GOP nominated a racist fascist – twice.
Brachiator
@Mary G:
I greatly respected Holbrook’s work as an actor. He was consistently good in all the stuff that I have seen.
I loved, loved, loved his “Mark Twain Tonight.” I checked out an album of the performance and recorded it onto a cassette recorder I had, and played the shit out of it. An incredible performance. I am sorry that I never got to see him on stage.
JoyceH
Hal Holbrook, in That Certain Summer about a teen learning his dad (Holbrook) was gay. WAY ahead of its time in 1972. Anyone else remember that? Dad’s boyfriend was Martin Sheen.
Betty Cracker
It sucks that a lunatic like MTG is allowed to create a hostile, dangerous work environment for colleagues and escape consequences because of McCarthy’s cowardice. But from a purely political angle, maybe it’s not such a bad thing, MTG becoming a poster girl for her party.
She claims to have spoken to and set up a meeting with Trump, who she says supports her 100%. If we’re rooting for the party to implode so something better can arise from the rubble, this would seem to hasten that outcome.
NotMax
@JoyceH
Anyone else remember that?
Indubitably. With Hope Lange. ABC made-for-TV movie.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Hasn’t Japan suffered enough?
Anne Laurie
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Commonest response I’ve seen to that speculation is that NBC is getting these ‘reports’ from… Rahm Emmanuel.
Remember how he was ‘in contention’ for at least a half-dozen Biden cabinet positions, all of which went to other people?
Emmanuel is his own best press agent, which is great for ‘access journalism’, but it doesn’t seem to be doing much good for his political career these days.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Betty Cracker:
The problem, as I’m guessing we here all know, is that it’s likely to be less of an implosion than an explosion, with all the attendant collateral damage maiming and destroying innocents along the way.
Barbara
McConnell finally has a tiger that is too big and too wild to ride. Where did he think things would end up?
brantl
@Brachiator: The only significant difference between LC and MTG is that Cheney is about 3 times smarter. Which isn’t hard, with MTG having all the intellectual luminescence of a red brick. Cheney is just as venal, and every bit that unredeemable sack of shit that her dad is, just ask her sister.
cmorenc
@ian:
What’s especially insidious is that the first 2/3 of what the teacher told the students is inarguably true, which is what makes it much easier for him to sell the fraudulent last 1/3 about the US needing to militarily intervene in Iraq before Saddam could somehow intervene in the US to do bad things here as well.
Barry
@Starboard Tack: “What I can’t reconcile is the Republican infatuation for Israel and the blood libel at the bottom of QAnon. Yeah, I’ve had it explained to me, but I still can’t get my head around it.”
You’ve been captured by the Aztecs. They bathe you, garland you with flowers and feed you delicacies.
In fact, they are taking you to ‘church’, where you seemed to be a guest of honor.
They must like you, right?
Barry
@Danielx: “You may be right. But I would be willing to wager that a senator of McConnell’s position and seniority can probably make a freshman House representative’s life pretty miserable, one way or another. Without expending too much effort.”
Ordinarily, I’d agree with you. But she’s likely got a secure base in her district, and appeals to the stronger and growing wing of her party.
In theory (i.e., the Long Long Ago), McCarthy presumably could have crushed her as a warm-up, but he’s treating her with care.
Ohio Mom
Mark Felt was Deep Throat, or am I responding to snark?
evodevo
@mrmoshpotato:
Yep…Condi’s “mushroom cloud” thing…the number of brazen lies, half-truths, exaggerations, etc. that were thrown around in the lead up to the war was just astonishing, as was the MSM’s total capitulation…I didn’t know ANYTHING about politics or foreign affairs in those days, and even I knew most of that stuff wasn’t true…
evodevo
@Barry:
Good one!!
WaterGirl
@Mary G: This is sad. I have always loved Hal Holbrook.
karen marie
“Traditional Republicans” – you know, con artists who prefer a soft coup through gerrymandering and whisper campaigns, rather than physical violence.
It will be interesting to see whether Senate Republicans figure out that convicting Trump is in their best interest.
VOR
Is this snark? Because they did, several years ago. It was Mark Felt, a senior person at the FBI during Watergate.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@VOR:
WOW! It was an inside job! See, I always thought it was Linda Lovelace.