Tag: House of Representatives

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Congress GOP

Marjorie Taylor Greene Confronts Lauren Boebert In House Restroom: ‘Don’t Be Ugly!’

The growing divide between Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) began on January 3, 2023, the first day of the new Congress.

Greene had already aligned herself with then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), making it clear she planned to support him in his bid to be the next Speaker of the House.

Boebert, on the other hand, was in the Anyone But McCarthy camp, and a confrontation between her and Greene seemed inevitable.

As debate began on who would be Speaker, Boebert and Greene had a nasty tête-à-tête in a House restroom, according to The Daily Beast.

According to multiple sources, the two women were nearly in a screaming match in the Speaker’s lobby ladies room just off the House floor.

“Greene questioned Boebert’s loyalty to McCarthy, and after a few words were exchanged, Boebert stormed out,” a source familiar with the fight told The Daily Beast.

According to another source familiar, while in the bathroom, Greene asked Boebert, “You were OK taking millions of dollars from McCarthy but you refuse to vote for him for Speaker, Lauren?”

That wasn’t all that took place, the source noted. As Greene continued to press Boebert, the Colorado congresswoman ran away like a child.

The first source said Greene was in a stall and, upon coming out, confronted Boebert about taking money from McCarthy for her re-election and then turning against McCarthy when it came time to vote. The Colorado Republican was allegedly unaware that Greene was also in the bathroom at the time.

“That’s when Lauren said, ‘Don’t be ugly,’” the first source said, before she—in the words of this source—“ran out like a little schoolgirl.”

When confronted with details of the dustup between the two women, Boebert again ran away, telling a reporter, “See you later. Bye.”

The two women are also going in opposite directions when it comes to supporting Donald Trump in his 2024 bid for the White House.

On one hand, Greene issued an early endorsement of the ex-president. Boebert, on the other hand, has left the door open to backing a Republican 2024 presidential contender that isn’t Trump.

“I certainly would not turn my back on President Trump. I am a huge supporter of his,” Boebert told a local Colorado CBS affiliate back in November, while not pledging her alliance to Trump’s 2024 presidential endeavor. The lawmaker went on to add that she also does “love” Trump foe Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor.

What remains unclear is whether it will be Boebert or Greene who winds up surviving in the new cutthroat world now that Republicans control the House. McCarthy is hanging on as Speaker by the skin of his teeth, and some in the GOP are already hinting they want to see him deposed and replaced by a more right-wing Republican.

Boebert and Greene, meanwhile, may need to try and coordinate their bathroom breaks to avoid future confrontations.

 

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Congress GOP

Adam Kinzinger Says What We’re All Thinking: Kevin McCarthy Is ‘A Piece Of Sh*t’

If perhaps you were wondering exactly what sort of person Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is, there’s no one better to ask than someone who has worked around him and with him for years.

That’s where former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) comes into the picture, making it clear that McCarthy is a pathetic excuse of a human being, afraid, unprincipled, and utterly incapable of doing anything good for anyone but himself.

Speaking with Charlie Sykes on The Bulwark podcast, Kinzinger noted:

“Kevin’s a piece of shit. And let’s just be honest about this, because he will say whatever he needs to say to stay in power. I’m not even saying that gratuitously to be mean to him. It’s just a fact.”

If you doubt that, consider news that broke yesterday regarding McCarthy’s willingness to try and expunge failed, one-term, twice-impeached former president Donald Trump’s two impeachments, with The Washington Post reporting:

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Thursday that he’s willing to take a look at expunging an impeachment of former president Donald Trump by the Democratic-led House. … Asked at a news conference about the prospect of an expungement now that Republicans control the House, McCarthy said, “I would understand why members would want to bring that forward.”

Asked about the matter of Rep. George Santos (R-NY), Kinzinger said McCarthy won’t make a move to expel him from Congress for his endless lies about his past and personal history, explaining, “Kevin needs his vote. If this was a 20 vote majority, he’d throw Santos under the bus, but it’s a five-vote so he needs him.”

Of course, it’s not just McCarthy who’s a massive piece of excrement. 99% of the GOP House caucus is just as gutless and soulless as the Speaker. They all need to be replaced, but so many of them are from heavily gerrymandered districts that they’re virtually unbeatable.

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Congress GOP

House Democrats Have A Brilliant Plan To ‘Wreak Havoc’ On Kevin McCarthy

When he finally managed to become Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy may have thought the biggest challenge was behind him. But he’s about to find out that his problems have just begun.

Thanks to the concessions he made in order to get the 218 votes he needed in order to be elected as Speaker, McCarthy is on the verge of being challenged by a group of progressive Democrats who are eager to make his job a living hell, according to Politico.

Republicans’ new rules allow just one member, regardless of party, to force a floor vote on deposing the speaker. And liberal Democrats, some of whom are part of the progressive “Squad,” are warning they have no problem with using the move against McCarthy, even if they don’t expect it to succeed.

“Why not? You know, that sounds like a good idea. I mean, you’re still going to need what, 218 for passage, right? But listen, man, he has a very slim majority,” mused Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.). “Whenever we want to cause complete chaos, we’ll do that.”

It’s called a motion to vacate, and while it would probably fail to gain enough votes from Republicans to boot McCarthy from his lofty perch, it could prove to be a major source of irritation for House Republicans and their leader.

The use of the motion to vacate could end up being a test of progressive power in this Congress, as some enter their first term in the House minority. Some liberal Democrats said they viewed it as one of their many options to resist the Republican majority.

“All of these procedural mechanisms here are merely tools, and so it’s about when it’s appropriate to reach for a certain tool,” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). “It’s really a matter of when it may be appropriate.”

Ironically, the very threat of a motion to vacate is reminiscent of tactics used by Republicans in the House “Freedom Caucus,” which was constantly looking for ways to throw a hand grenade into House operations.

For the moment, Democrats are more than willing to let McCarthy try and navigate the fragile coalition he’s created, but they always have the option of demanding his ouster, calling for debate, and demanding a vote, all of which could slow things down as Republicans attempt to pass their extremist agenda.

Stay tuned. This could get interesting.

 

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Congress GOP Justice Department

Here’s How Democrats Can Use Jim Jordan’s ‘Investigations’ Of The DOJ Against Him

Despite the fact that he’s personally compromised on any number of fronts (not the least of which is his role in the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol), Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) is about to crank up all sorts of hearings in the House of Representatives targeting the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Attorney General Merrick Garland.

As recently as last August, Jordan even suggested he might want to impeach Garland, telling Newsmax host Rob Schmitt:

“I think everything is on the table, we have got to take our message to the American people and not get overconfident but campaign in a confident way, win back the majority.”

And now Jordan wants to open hearings regarding the “weaponization” of the DOJ in the Biden administration, even though the main reason he’s doing so is to satisfy right-wingers and former president Donald Trump, who still has his panties in a wad as a result of the FBI serving a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago for classified documents he was told by a court to turn over.

But as Jennifer Rubin of The Washington Post notes, Democrats on the committees can turn the tables on Jordan and his GOP allies.

How? Consider Rubin’s excellent op-ed in which she lays out these points:

Put Republicans under the Microscope

Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), for example, had his phone seized by the FBI last year as part of its investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Perry says he was told he’s not a target of the investigation, but it’s clear he played a key role in the ploy to install then-Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark as acting attorney general. The warrant for his phone also indicates that there was probable cause that a crime had been committed and that there was evidence on his phone.

Perry now wants to serve on the very committee that will investigate the DOJ even though he is personally under investigation by that same agency.

Use the panel to continue the Jan. 6 committee’s work

As I’ve argued, the Jan. 6 committee never got to the bottom of the FBI’s failure to operationalize intelligence about violence at the U.S. Capitol. Nor did the committee uncover why the Pentagon failed to promptly authorize mobilization of the National Guard or why messages from the U.S. Secret Service from that day were apparently erased. Democrats should press for answers on those questions. They should also seek testimony under oath from key officials, such as former acting defense secretary Christopher C. Miller.

Exploit the GOP’s argument against congressional oversight

This would turn Jordan and the GOP’s bizarro logic on its head, and it would also serve to point out the blatant hypocrisy of Republicans.

Now, Democrats can use Republicans’ argument against them. MAGA inquisitors have left little doubt that the sole purpose of the committee is to skewer prosecutors, meddle in ongoing criminal matters and protect Trump. This blatantly violates separation of powers, constituting its own politicization. Therefore, any subpoena of information from the Justice Department’s investigations can and should be challenged not only for violating separation of powers but also for absence of a legitimate legislative purpose.

It’ll be fun to watch Jordan if and when any of these tactics are used by Democrats. And if they really want to push Jimbo’s buttons, they should also ask him what he knew and when it knew it about the rape of wrestlers on the team he served as an assistant coach for at Ohio State University and his possible involvement in the Capitol insurrection.

If Jim Jordan wants “transparency,” let’s see just how transparent he’s willing to be.

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Congress GOP Viral Video

‘Bad Lip Reading’ Reveals Matt Gaetz’s Secret Code Name

If we’re honest, most of us would admit that we’d love to know what’s said between members of Congress when they’re speaking with each other on the floor of the House or Senate. Can you imagine how much more we’d dislike most of them if we could hear what they say when we’re not looking or listening?

For example, that face-to-face conversation between Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy as the final vote was about to be taken that would elevate McCarthy to the Speaker’s chair.

Unfortunately, there’s no sound on the video that photo is taken from, but that doesn’t mean we have to remain in the dark when it comes to the words exchanged between the two.

According to Bad Lip Reading, we have new insight as to what was being said as the votes were being tallied in the House.

For those of you not familiar with their work, The Mary Sue explains the purpose of Bad Lip Reading:

 Bad Lip Reading is an anonymous YouTube channel that dubs over news footage and scenes from film and TV shows with nonsensical dialogue. The dialogue always more or less matches the movements of people’s mouths, and some surprising storylines end up emerging from the chaos.

The first video from Bad Lip Reading shows what was said between Gaetz and McCarthy. Take a look:

And now we have Gaetz’s other name, also courtesy of the folks at Bad Lip Reading.

Vain Guy is appropriate. Then again, so is Superperv.