Avert your eyes from the hot mess that is today’s U.S. House of Representatives. The political party erroneously continuing to be called “Republican” behaves as if its role in the slower, lower chamber should be to shame itself as much, and as publicly, as possible. Every successive utterance by its leaders is a competition to see who can make more of an ass of him/herself than the next guy/gal.
Speaker/Squeaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (a.k.a., Trump’s “My Kevin”) abases himself by announcing an impeachment inquiry of President Biden notwithstanding that a host of investigations by House committees have uncovered zero evidence of wrongdoing. Pressured to launch a revenge impeachment by none other than the twice-and-very-legitimately-impeached, disgraced former president, My Kevin could not find the spine necessary to resist Trump’s demand for retribution. Spines, as we have discovered when considering Republican House members, are in short supply.
James Comer and Jim (Gym) Jordan, the two hapless buffoons leading the House investigating committees, have turned up nothing despite their earnest efforts to smear Biden and link him to his drug-addled son’s misadventures. Nevertheless, they keep on keeping on in a desperate hope that someone somewhere will emerge out of the dismal swamp in which they wallow and provide them with a smoking squirt gun. To quote a relatively sane former GOP president: “Not gonna happen.”
As if this adventure in frivolous political Kabuki theater were not enough, the mis-labeled “Freedom Caucus” rabble rousers continue to attempt to shred American Democracy in pursuit of their fever-dream of an autocracy led by their certifiable and preternaturally evil cult hero who will lead them to the promised land, one where the color of their skin will enable them to percolate to the apex of power rather than the totally lacking content of their character. Matt (“she was just seventeen, you know what I mean”) Gaetz, Marjorie (“beware the Gazpacho”) Taylor Greene, Loren (“hey, sailor, wanna vape?”) Boebert and their ill-starred ilk threaten to blow up the system if their extreme demands are not met. From My Kevin’s feeble vantage point, the Freedumb Caucus has the meat.
Meanwhile, the nervous nellies who comprise the so-called “moderate Republicans,” the very definition of an anachronism, tremble in terror and remain mute in the face of potential political extinction if they permit this circular firing squad to lock and load. Unquestionably, they will sit on their hands and mute themselves before showing any backbone and protest this lunacy.
In past crises, e.g., the Civil War, the Great Depression, civil rights and Watergate, there have always been at least a handful of brave congresspeople who put the good of the country above their personal interests and careers. They stood up, often alone, to assert: “This cannot stand.” Alas, not in today’s Republican Party. Once again, I return to my, by now trite, hackneyed, commonplace, cliché-ish and mightily overused historical analogy: Diogenes would have run out of lamp oil before his search unearthed a principled Republican.
Dick Hermann
September 17, 2023
Speaker/Squeaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (a.k.a., Trump’s “My Kevin”) abases himself by announcing an impeachment inquiry of President Biden notwithstanding that a host of investigations by House committees have uncovered zero evidence of wrongdoing. Pressured to launch a revenge impeachment by none other than the twice-and-very-legitimately-impeached, disgraced former president, My Kevin could not find the spine necessary to resist Trump’s demand for retribution. Spines, as we have discovered when considering Republican House members, are in short supply.
James Comer and Jim (Gym) Jordan, the two hapless buffoons leading the House investigating committees, have turned up nothing despite their earnest efforts to smear Biden and link him to his drug-addled son’s misadventures. Nevertheless, they keep on keeping on in a desperate hope that someone somewhere will emerge out of the dismal swamp in which they wallow and provide them with a smoking squirt gun. To quote a relatively sane former GOP president: “Not gonna happen.”
As if this adventure in frivolous political Kabuki theater were not enough, the mis-labeled “Freedom Caucus” rabble rousers continue to attempt to shred American Democracy in pursuit of their fever-dream of an autocracy led by their certifiable and preternaturally evil cult hero who will lead them to the promised land, one where the color of their skin will enable them to percolate to the apex of power rather than the totally lacking content of their character. Matt (“she was just seventeen, you know what I mean”) Gaetz, Marjorie (“beware the Gazpacho”) Taylor Greene, Loren (“hey, sailor, wanna vape?”) Boebert and their ill-starred ilk threaten to blow up the system if their extreme demands are not met. From My Kevin’s feeble vantage point, the Freedumb Caucus has the meat.
Meanwhile, the nervous nellies who comprise the so-called “moderate Republicans,” the very definition of an anachronism, tremble in terror and remain mute in the face of potential political extinction if they permit this circular firing squad to lock and load. Unquestionably, they will sit on their hands and mute themselves before showing any backbone and protest this lunacy.
In past crises, e.g., the Civil War, the Great Depression, civil rights and Watergate, there have always been at least a handful of brave congresspeople who put the good of the country above their personal interests and careers. They stood up, often alone, to assert: “This cannot stand.” Alas, not in today’s Republican Party. Once again, I return to my, by now trite, hackneyed, commonplace, cliché-ish and mightily overused historical analogy: Diogenes would have run out of lamp oil before his search unearthed a principled Republican.
Dick Hermann
September 17, 2023
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