US House Of Representatives 3: The Dems Govern While The GQPers Genuflect To The Former Guy

[GreyhoundFan]

A good read from Dana Milbank:  "Paul Gosar killed his colleague in a cartoon. Kevin McCarthy is killing democracy in real life."

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Rep. Paul Gosar, the Arizona Republican who used congressional resources to produce and release a cartoon video of him murdering Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), deservedly became the 24th person in history to be censured by his House peers.

But Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) is the one who truly has earned the censure of posterity. In his craven attempt to maintain himself as the House Republican leader, McCarthy showed once again that there is no level of violent, hateful or authoritarian speech that goes too far. By condoning threats and intimidation in the people’s House, he is inviting actual violence — and signing democracy’s death warrant.

Ten days ago, as the world now knows, Gosar, a dentist/insurrectionist, tweeted from his official congressional Twitter account a manipulated anime in which the Gosar figure flies through the air and slashes the Ocasio-Cortez figure across the back of the neck. Blood sprays profusely from the neck wound. Ocasio-Cortez’s lifeless head snaps back. Gosar moves on in the video, swords drawn, to confront President Biden.

Gosar didn’t apologize for the video. He mocked the “faux outrage” and labeled as “laughable” the “shrill accusations that this cartoon is dangerous.”

On the House floor Wednesday afternoon, a defiant Gosar, noting that he took down the video (after about two days and 3 million views), portrayed himself as the victim. “No matter how much the left tries to quiet me, I will continue to speak out,” he vowed.

Only two of 213 House Republicans voted with Democrats to censure Gosar.

McCarthy was outraged — not by the unrepentant Gosar’s homicidal cinematography but by Democrats’ move to reprimand him. Instead of condemning the video, McCarthy said Democrats would “break another precedent” of the House.

So Gosar depicts himself murdering a Democratic colleague, but Democrats are the ones breaking precedent for reprimanding him?

McCarthy, on the House floor, mentioned the matter only in passing (“I do not condone violence, and Rep. Gosar had echoed that sentiment”), instead reciting a meandering list of grievances: Proxy voting! The Steele dossier! Afghanistan! He threatened that when speaker he would retaliate by stripping committee assignments from five Democrats over various perceived offenses.

The victim of Gosar’s anime sword, speaking immediately after McCarthy, noted McCarthy’s strained search for equivalent wrongs. “When the Republican leader rose to talk about how there are all of these double standards … not once did he list an example of a member of Congress threatening the life of another,” Ocasio-Cortez pointed out.

“It is a sad day,” she said, “in which a member who leads a political party in the United States of America cannot bring themselves to say that issuing a depiction of murdering a member of Congress is wrong.”

Sad, but to be expected from McCarthy.

Gosar claimed that Ashli Babbitt, the insurrectionist shot dead by Capitol Police on Jan. 6 as she breached the final barrier protecting lawmakers, was “executed in cold blood” by a police officer “lying in wait” for her. Gosar attended a conference run by a White nationalist banned from YouTube because of hate speech and was listed as the beneficiary of a fundraiser by the same White nationalist. Gosar alleged that the FBI planned and carried out the Jan. 6 insurrection, and he was named by an organizer of Jan. 6 as one of the lawmakers who “schemed up” the atrocity. Gosar joined 20 Republican colleagues in voting against awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to the officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6.

And McCarthy pretty much let it all slide.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) earlier this year posted an image of herself with an AR-15 next to photos of Democratic Reps. Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (Minn.) with the caption “Squad’s Worst Nightmare.”

Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) warned that “if our election systems continue to be rigged and continued to be stolen then it’s going to lead to one place and that’s bloodshed.”

Former president Donald Trump said Babbitt “was murdered at the hands of someone who should never have pulled the trigger …. The Radical Left haters cannot be allowed to get away with this.”

Several House Republican lawmakers have been tied (or tied themselves to) violent or anti-government groups such as the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters.

And McCarthy pretty much let it all slide.

Instead, he threatened to strip Republican lawmakers of their committee assignments — if they joined the committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection. McCarthy also had a laugh when noting that, if he wins the speakership, “it will be hard not to hit” Pelosi with an oversized gavel.

There was once a case to be made that McCarthy was simply a weak leader. But now it’s clear he is blessing the provocations to violence.

Gosar killed his colleague in a cartoon. McCarthy is killing democracy in real life.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

The fact that Cawthorn is a mainstream repug in today's world makes me sad. It also shows me that the US probably can't go on the way it is, with two completely opposed realities. I think the only way to move on is to break up the US. I hate writing that, but I can't see things improving.

[formergothardite]

4 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

think the only way to move on is to break up the US.

I think splitting the GOP would also work.
 

I’m resigned to the democrats losing the house, then the senate and then the presidency. They have no spine, no real fight in them. Radical things need to be done right now to save our country, but they move at the pace of sleepy snails. 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

[GreyhoundFan]

Qevin is such an idiot. "McCarthy’s overnight speech — longest in modern history — underscores rancor in the House"

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By the time House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) yielded the floor at 5:11 a.m. Friday, completing a speech that began some 8 ½ hours earlier, he had repeatedly taken aim at House Democrats and their $2.1 trillion social spending and climate change agenda.

But he also had veered into somewhat unrelated topics — from his friendship with Tesla owner Elon Musk to how President Jimmy Carter’s penchant for wearing sweaters influenced him to become a Republican to the coronavirus booster shot he received earlier in the day and the deli he opened in his youth.

But the speech — the longest in the House in modern history — only delayed the inevitable. At 9:46 a.m., the Democratic-led House passed President Biden’s signature initiative on a 220-213 vote in a major win for the administration, a moment marked by cheers and chants of “Build Back Better.” The legislation now heads to the Senate where the odds are tougher, but not impossible, in the 50-50 chamber.

During his speech, even McCarthy acknowledged the outcome.

“I don’t know that this speech is going to make a difference,” McCarthy said just after 3 a.m.

McCarthy’s House-style filibuster, which broke a record previously held by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), punctuated another brutal week of partisan insults and nearly all-party-line votes in a legislative chamber that has never recovered from the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by a mob of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters.

On Wednesday, the Democratic-led House censured Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.) for posting a violent video depicting the murder of one lawmaker and an attack on Biden, a short, heated debate that brought back many recollections of that fateful attack on the Capitol.

On Thursday, a long policy debate on legislation aimed at reshaping programs ranging from child care to vision benefits for the elderly devolved into a mutual show of utter disdain.

Just a few years ago, when he was a lieutenant in GOP leadership circles, McCarthy was the jovial one who built friendships with many Democrats in the House gym and on bike rides across the capital region.

After 10 months of watching McCarthy contort himself to remain in good standing with Trump — bragging at his Thursday morning news conference that the former president had just called him from the golf course — Democrats simply no longer wanted anything to do with their onetime friend.

That was evident on Twitter and elsewhere.

“It is a feat of epic proportions to speak for four hours straight and not produce a single memorable phrase, original insight or even a joke,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) tweeted. “McCarthy thinks he is a wit but so far he has proved he is only half right.”

Pelosi’s office blasted an email to reporters with the subject header “Is Kevin McCarthy OK?” that compiled other biting tweets about the Republican leader’s “meandering rant.”

Speaking Friday morning, Pelosi touted the bill, but her most appreciated words seemed to be, “As a courtesy to my colleagues, I will be brief.”

Shortly after 8:30 p.m., as McCarthy began a speech that had been signaled as a filibuster, roughly a dozen Democrats stood up from their seats on the House floor and began heading toward the exits. Some snickered as they looked toward the Republican side of the aisle with disdain.

An hour later, Democrats kept walking out.

“We’re leaving you, Kevin,” one Democrat yelled as a handful, from a boisterous Democratic corner of the chamber, departed, having grown tired of his speechifying.

“I’m okay. I’ll be here,” McCarthy shot back at Democrats for the dozenth time that evening.

“For how long?” one Democrat shouted across the aisle, exasperated.

McCarthy is one of three House leaders — Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) are the others — who are granted the power of a “magic minute,” allowing them to speak during debate for as long as they want and the time is only counted for one minute of the allotted debate time.

It usually allows for a big speech to last about 15 minutes or so, without cutting into other lawmakers’ time, but every few years the minority leader tries to make a marathon speech as a rallying cry to his or her caucus. In 2009, Rep. John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) spoke for about 90 minutes to delay Pelosi’s bid to pass an energy tax bill. In 2018, in the minority, Pelosi went for just over eight hours — assumed to be the longest House speech ever until McCarthy broke the record — in support of legislation to give citizenship to undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as young children.

McCarthy, never known for seasoned oratory, used the marathon speech to air countless grievances against Pelosi, Democrats, Biden and many others. Topics ranged from inflation to the administration’s handling of China policy, to the 13 U.S. troops lost in the terrorist attack at the Kabul airport in August during a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Some of his claims wildly defied the facts, but they all dripped with disdain for Democrats and their agenda.

Republicans sitting behind McCarthy broke into applause as he railed against “one-party rule for one year” and claimed that Thanksgiving next week would cost “more than it ever has.”

Often folding his hands into his khaki pants, pacing about at his lectern, he frequently demanded silence as he spoke, irking Democrats who at times were outraged by his speech and at other junctures just ignored it. They murmured and, whenever he complained, they yelled at him to finish up.

“That’s all right. I got all night,” McCarthy said before announcing he was planning to dissect the 2,000-page bill section by section.

Several Democrats shouted back, “So do we!” One Democratic woman said, “We’ve been waiting for this a long time.”

The sneers continued. When the snickering and whispers grew too loud, McCarthy would often look at the presiding speaker, Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), and inform him that “the House is not in order.”

The more McCarthy requested he slam down the gavel to corral Democrats’ attention, the less quickly Aguilar would indulge him.

McCarthy then brought up how Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) noted in a recent interview that voters did not elect Biden to be as aspiring a president as Franklin D. Roosevelt, who oversaw job growth spearheaded by his New Deal agenda. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) yelled, “I did.” Her exclamation was backed up by another Democrat who yelled, “Me too!”

As Democrats began to laugh and chat among themselves, an irritated McCarthy, having talked already for roughly 45 minutes, taunted Democrats by reminding them that Pelosi may soon kick them off their committees, given that she values decorum.

Exasperated, Ocasio-Cortez yelled, “It’s because they incited violence,” before hastily storming off the floor. McCarthy has spent the week defending Gosar after he posted a violent anime video depicting himself killing Ocasio-Cortez and fighting Biden. His delay in removing the video and unwillingness to apologize led Democrats to strip him of his committee assignments and earned him a censure by the full House.

At one point, Rep. Betty Watson Coleman (D-N.J.) muttered something under her breath while she looked at her phone. It was loud enough to prompt laughs by Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) and Val Demings (D-Fla.), who nudged her shoulder playfully. But the Black women immediately grew serious as McCarthy carefully set the stage to attack Vice President Harris. One of them warned, “Careful, careful.”

McCarthy also used his time to speculate when Pelosi would step down as the top Democrat, musing that she probably would not stick around too much longer.

“Yeah she will,” Beatty shot back.

“I want her to hand that gavel to me,” said McCarthy, who hopes to be speaker if Republicans take back control of the House in the next Congress.

Just past midnight, as McCarthy’s speech approached the 3 ½-hour mark, Pelosi returned to the floor and began whispering to the dozen or so Democrats who were still in the chamber hoping to vote. Tapping them on the shoulder, Pelosi sent them out the doors.

No vote, she told them, would be held at that late — or early — an hour.

“He wants to do it in the dead of night,” Hoyer told reporters a few minutes later regarding the timing of the vote. “We are going to do it in the day.”

Hoyer slated the House to return to session Friday at 8 a.m., at which point Democrats hope to finish the final minutes of debate and hold a vote to pass the ambitious legislation.

But nothing could be done to stop McCarthy, who looked at the near-empty Democratic side of the aisle, and a quickly thinning crowd of Republicans behind him.

“I don’t know if they think because they left I’m going to stop,” McCarthy said. “I’m not.”

McCarthy continued to speak for roughly five more hours as dozens of his Republican colleagues sat behind him to offer support. At 4:01 a.m., McCarthy stopped himself from reading the final pages of his speech he dubbed “the closer” to instead open a new three-inch binder that listed all the amendments offered by the GOP while Democrats put together their social spending plan.

He ticked through several amendments, breezing past Pelosi’s 8 hour, 7 minute record for the longest speech, before finally looking around to ask if he had secured his spot in House history.

“You broke the record,” Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) exclaimed as the Republican side of the chamber erupted in cheers.

In reflection, McCarthy noted how his 8 hour, 32 minute-speech garnered good reactions and bad, but said he never expected a Democrat telling him how to act on the House floor.

“They booed. They yelled. They heckled. Quite honestly it was shameful behavior. I’m not sure, but if it was on the other side, they probably would’ve lost their committees,” McCarthy said. “With that Madame Speaker, I yield back.”

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Rest of the thread under the spoiler:

Spoiler

 

This was actually my first thought when I heard about the stunt:

[Cartmann99]

Madison Cawthorn Dipped and Showed Off His Spit Cup on the House Floor

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 As the hours dragged on Cawthorn needed a pick-me-up, so he took out a tin of chewing tobacco and put in a dip. Cawthorn was likely using pouches because it would be gauche to spill chew all over the House floor.

Later in the 3 a.m. hour, McCarthy mentioned spittoons, which made Cawthorn hold up a coffee cup he was using to spit in.

 

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

[Cartmann99]

 

[church_of_dog]

A few smile-worthy tweets during McCarthy's rant last night:

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 19, 2021 by church_of_dog

[Ozlsn]

On 11/19/2021 at 12:58 AM, formergothardite said:

I think splitting the GOP would also work.

The problem is that whoever keeps the name is likely to do better, and at this stage the people who aren't QAnon are the ones being forced out. So from a purely personal re-election perspective they are better off staying and trying to fight, although that may change. Splitting the GOP wouldn't split the vote as much as expected I think - there seem to be an awful lot of people who vote R because it's part of their identity, and who don't really tgink about politics past that.

[fraurosena]

2 hours ago, Ozlsn said:

- there seem to be an awful lot of people who vote R because it's part of their identity, and who don't really tgink about politics past that.

Yes! This is putting the finger exactly where the sore spot is. It’s not the party appealing to certain beliefs with their voters, it’s R-voters identifying with the party— and following whatever the party says they should do and think and believe in. 

[Cartmann99]

The name of the article is going to make Trump angry.

 

[Cartmann99]

 

[Cartmann99]

Electing a teenage mean girl to Congress is a bad idea:

 

[Audrey2]

On 11/25/2021 at 1:03 PM, Cartmann99 said:

 

This is absolutely disgusting!

Are you really sure you want to go there, Lauren? Because I would be terrified to get on an elevator or anything else with you the way you fetishize guns that you just pull out a gun and have a Dick Cheney style "accident" or if rioters enter the Capitol building you would tell them exactly where I am.

 

[47of74]

Lauren got some blowback after asking Twitter for recipe suggestions;

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Critics served up some shade after conspiracy theory-loving Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) asked Twitter users to name their favorite Christmas dessert recipes on Friday.

Boebert’s request, below, went down as badly as her Thanksgiving boasts on Thursday and her Islamophobic comment about Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) during a campaign event in her home state over the holiday weekend.

 

And since he's not running again Kinzinger is saying how he really feels now...

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Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) slammed Representative Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Friday, tweeting that "Boebert is TRASH" for her anti-Muslim rhetoric against Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and that McCarthy had tried to "hug a skunk" in reference to his alliance with Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).

On an article about Greene saying McCarthy "doesn't have the votes" to retain leadership if the GOP takes control of the House after next year's midterm elections, Kinzinger tweeted, "I hate to LOL this but I must, @GOPLeader is a living example of what happens when you try to hug a skunk."

 

[Cartmann99]

More from Boebert:

Spoiler

 

 

[AlmostSavedAtTacoBell]

“At least my family tree forks”- bold statement from someone whose family tree includes marrying the guy who exposed himself to her and her underaged friends. 

[Cartmann99]

Jackson has a challenger for his seat:

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WICHITA FALLS, Texas (KAUZ) - Wichita Falls resident and Democrat Kathleen Brown announced Monday that she will be running for Texas’s 13th Congressional District in the upcoming election.

Brown said that she would travel to Austin later in the week to submit her application for a place on the general election ballot. She is challenging Republican Incumbent Ronny Jackson (TX-13), who has held the seat since 2020.

Brown believes her skillset as an attorney at law will help her as a congresswoman. She says she hopes to make her voice heard in D.C. to make sure the cities in district 13 are taken care of.

“My job is to work with the people all across the district from Dalhart to Denton and find out what their community needs and how I can do my job to the best of my ability to get it for them,” Brown says. “With a face, a real face in D.C. saying listen, we need infrastructure money, we need government contracts, we need to invest in Sheppard Air Force Base because we have excellent people here.”

Brown said Republican representatives have lost their way in providing and protecting their communities by putting themselves first ahead of the people. She says with the struggles she has gone through in her life, she understands how to help those in need.

“I have had experience with bouts of homelessness,” Brown said. “I have had to make a choice, I was pregnant and had a baby when I was 17. I had to work three jobs when I was in school. I think I am the better candidate because I understand how all walks of life have to live. For someone to help you with a problem they have to first understand the problem.”

Brown said to forget about the labels of different parties and focus on who the person is when you choose to vote.

“At the end of the day, it is really not about the party, it is about people,” Brown said. “I represent and am a Wichitan. I am excited that Wichita Falls will have the opportunity to have a seat at the table after nearly 49 years of not having a representative in congress.”

If Brown is able to win, she will be the first representative from Wichita Falls to hold a seat in D.C. since Graham Purcell Jr. in 1972.

She won't win because it's TX-13, but it's still good to see sane people running against Trump-addicted conspiracy theorists.

[Cartmann99]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

A good one from Dana Milbank: "Lauren Boebert is what George W. Bush called the ‘worst of humankind’"

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I’m old enough to remember when Republican leaders still had souls.

Twenty years ago, I was on the White House beat for The Post when President George W. Bush, six days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, set aside his war planning efforts long enough to visit the mosque at the Islamic Center of Washington to admonish Americans not to take out their anger on innocent Muslims. I went to the mosque, on Massachusetts Avenue overlooking Rock Creek Park, and reported on the presidential visit:

“The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam,” said the president, escorted by Islamic clerics into the ornate mosque full of Turkish tile, Persian rugs and Egyptian paintings. “Islam is peace.”

Quoting from the Koran’s prohibitions against evil, Bush said women who cover their heads should not fear leaving their homes. “That’s not the America I know,” he said. “That should not and that will not stand in America.”

Some conservatives objected at the time to Bush’s pro-Islam appeals, and pointed out, correctly, that he gained nothing politically from this message. But he gained much morally.

Contrast that with Republican officials’ latest actions over the holiday weekend, while the rest of the country paused to express gratitude for our many blessings. Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, a QAnon-admiring Republican, referred to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who is Muslim, as part of a “Jihad Squad” and told an audience a false story of a worried Capitol Police officer chasing down Omar. Boebert claimed she said: “Well, she doesn’t have a backpack. We should be fine.”

Boebert at first apologized “to anyone in the Muslim community I offended” with her Muslims-are-terrorists message. Nominal House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) issued a statement that avoided criticism of Boebert’s words. And Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), whose support McCarthy needs to remain GOP leader, criticized Boebert — for apologizing. “Never apologize to Islamic terrorist sympathizers,” she wrote, repeating the “Jihad Squad” phrase.

After rejecting Omar’s request for a public apology on Monday, Boebert released a video expanding the original slander. “I will continue to fearlessly put America first, never sympathizing with terrorists,” Boebert said. “Unfortunately, Ilhan can’t say the same thing.”

House Democrats are going through the now-routine deliberations about whether to censure Boebert, or remove her from committees. Why bother? It would give Boebert the martyrdom she desires, just as previous punishments did for Greene (who posted a threatening image of her holding an assault rifle next to Omar and other Democrats) and Rep. Paul Gosar (the Arizona Republican who posted an anime video of him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York).

Rather, Democrats ought to call the bluff of those Republicans who insist they be given the chance to police their own ranks. That’s the excuse Tom Cole (Okla.), ranking Republican on the Rules Committee, used when he opposed punishing Gosar. “The majority can and should leave the matter up to Leader McCarthy and the Republican Conference,” he said when letting Gosar off the hook. He similarly excused Greene, who before entering Congress also embraced antisemitic comments and a remark about assassinating House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Will Cole speak out against the latest bigoted, violent fantasy from a colleague? Or wait a few days for it to be eclipsed by the next outrage?

There have always been clowns like Greene, Gosar and Boebert. Over the past two decades, the Rev. Jerry Falwell referred to the prophet Mohammed as a “terrorist,” the Rev. Franklin Graham called Islam “evil,” Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson likened Muslims to Hitler, and conservative activist Paul Weyrich condemned Bush’s “constant promotion of Islam as a religion of peace and tolerance” because “it is neither.”

But Bush overruled the haters. Repeatedly during the months after the 9/11 attacks, he appealed to Americans:

“Muslim members of our armed forces and of my administration are serving their fellow Americans with distinction.”

“Millions of our fellow citizens are Muslim. We respect the faith. We honor its traditions. Our enemy does not.”

“This great nation of many religions understands our war is not against Islam. … Our war is a war against evil.”

“The terrorists are traitors to their own faith, trying, in effect, to hijack Islam itself.”

There’s plenty to fault in the Bush presidency and its wars, but his defense of Muslim Americans was the essence of moral leadership. “Those who feel like they can intimidate our fellow citizens to take out their anger,” he said at the Washington mosque that day in 2001, “represent the worst of humankind, and they should be ashamed of that kind of behavior.” America “is a great country,” he said, “because we share the same values of respect and dignity and human worth.”

Twenty years later, Boebert, Gosar, Greene and too many of their colleagues have abandoned those shared values. And Republican leaders, divesting themselves of shame, now tolerate the worst of humankind.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Claire is so right about Ronny:

 

[Cartmann99]

Thread continues under the spoiler:

Spoiler

 

 

[AlmostSavedAtTacoBell]

6 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

Thread continues under the spoiler:

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Maybe it’s my JRod fascination (she’s so horrible I cannot look away!) but JRod and LBo (give it a minute, let it sink in) are sisters separated from birth! Loser husbands; frighteningly inadequate education; willingness to display not only bad education but also abject stupidity across any platform available; raging racism proudly displayed; woefully underprepared and under skilled for chosen job/career path; hilariously but also cringeworthy attention seeking; claiming superiority while displaying idiocracy; and in general braying through donkey teeth while conveying nothing worth the exhaled breath. 
 

Sadly, LBo made it to Congress. Jill, please do not try to run.