Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has a problem: she’s too much like Trump.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) also has a problem: Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Most of us knew not to expect too much when the GOP took control of the House. We’ve been disappointed before and know better than to hope Republicans will indulge the gutter politics Democrats use to get what they want, when and how they want it.
We were not disappointed.
Johnson’s GOP just joined Democrats to approve a $95 billion spending behemoth. $60 billion is for Ukraine’s battle against Putin’s invasion, a top priority for the Biden White House.
Not a dime will go to combat the president’s invasion of America.
Jeffries recycles Trump-Putin threat
During a press conference on Friday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) played it safe. He straddled the fence, simultaneously backing our fair-weather ally Israel and humanitarian aid for Gaza.
For months, the American people have had their national security interests placed on hold recklessly because of pro-Putin MAGA extremists like Marjorie Taylor Greene. It’s long past time that we support our democratic allies in Israel, Ukraine and the Indo-Pacific and provide humanitarian assistance to civilians who are in harm’s way in theaters of conflict like Gaza, Haiti and the Sudan.1
It would be closer to the truth to say that Democrats support spending for Ukraine and will support Israel as a necessary political evil that will anger the virulently anti-Semitic elements in their base, but Jeffries is a quintessential partisan. Instead, he relied on Vladimir Putin to blast Marjorie Taylor Greene for stepping out of line with her weak-kneed Republican colleagues.
If his Putin attack sounds familiar, it should:
U.S. Representative Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, today outlined the litany of evidence surrounding potential illegal collusion between the Trump Campaign and Putin’s Russia and provided an analysis of the recently-released report on the FBI’s mishandling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.2
That litany of evidence included Democrats propagandizing the Clinton campaign’s phony Trump-Russia Steele Dossier and four years spent hypocritically placing politics before people to cripple America’s president while boasting their People Over Politics agenda.
Now Trump is back. The harder Democrats try, the bigger and better he gets. Even prominent voices on the left understand that the former president is getting a raw deal and being persecuted to deliver the next presidential election to Biden and the Democrats.
Martyrs are very sympathetic figures compared to our arrogant, autocratic, mumbling, stumbling, cognitive failure of a president who wrecked our country and thinks he can convince unhappy Americans how great our lives are while he hurts us at home and abroad.
Biden is an absolute disaster for America. Polls prove how many voters understand this, but for Democrats politics comes before people so he’s a disaster they are willing to put up with as long as they can claim a partially sentient being in the White House.
The resurrection of Donald Trump is bad news enough, but Democrats have another problem to share with their weak, indolent Republican colleagues. Like Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene is not going away.
Greene’s problem is she’s too much like Trump. She mouths off. She doesn’t seem to care about the delicate balance of collusion between our two parties that always seems to put Democrats on top.
Greene is a threat to fellow lawmakers who would rather play it safe while infuriating Democrats with no tolerance for GOP pushback. She is the conscience the party needs and like Trump, will be mercilessly attacked because of it.
Jeffries showed his backside when he slapped the pro-Putin, MAGA extremist label on the GOP firebrand. He obviously hopes some of it will stick, but this is a trite, tiresome strategy already worn out on Trump. Like accusing Republicans of racism during the George Floyd riots, we expect to hear it. After hundreds of cookie cutter repetitions we don’t pay much attention.
Jeffries isn’t the only one with a Greene problem
Republicans are notorious for breaking ranks to score big wins for Democrats, like the $1.2 trillion spending package they helped move over the finish line in March. Their supporters have every right to be furious for this new failure to spend a dime on protecting the border while taxpayers send tens of billions overseas and hand an enormous victory to Biden’s 2024 campaign.
Speaker Johnson (R-LA) waived that failure in our face with a Wall Street Journal editorial posted to his Speaker.gov website that applauds his leadership for pushing another monstrosity that ignores our country as Biden’s illegals keep flowing in:
One certainty is that you won’t hear Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene address these substantive points. The Republican malcontents are shouting about supposed betrayal and that Mr. Johnson should focus on the crisis at the southern border.3
The article argues that Johnson would “pass border measures in a heartbeat if he had the votes in the House.”4 He could have done what any Democrat would have done without hesitation: stonewall the issue until Republicans had the border security funding that should take precedence over any foreign wars.
Roy: a reversal of unequivocal opposition on the border
Chip Roy (R-TX) justified his no vote:
For months, House Republicans — specifically, Speaker Mike Johnson — have been unequivocal that we would not send billions in additional aid to Ukraine without securing our own border first. This package represents a complete reversal of a position that previously unified the Republican conference, despite the clear and present danger the southern border represents to U.S. national security.5/sup>
Greene took this to the next level by threatening Johnson’s ouster. Call it a stunt if you wish, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Republicans have a storied history of backing down and siding with their opposition as if being weak and compliant will earn them favors with their cutthroat Democrat colleagues who are more than willing to ignore morality, ethics, values, and precedent to get what they want.
Can you imagine the GOP staging the equivalent of the Democrat January 6th Committee? Neither can I.
This is why Democrats are winners and Republicans, too often, are losers. They should listen to the likes of Greene and Roy who rock the boat and introduce desperately needed discomfort into the cozy relationship between our two political parties. They are the GOP’s conscience at a time when Republicans badly need one.
Sources
1Leader Jeffries: “It’s Long Past Time That We Support Our Democratic Allies.” democraticleader.house.gov. April 19, 2024. https://democraticleader.house.gov/media/press-releases/leader-jeffries-its-long-past-time-we-support-our-democratic-allies, retrieved April 22, 2024.
2“Rep. Jeffries: Comey Executed the Hillary Clinton Campaign.” jeffries.house.gov. June 19, 2018. https://jeffries.house.gov/2018/06/19/rep-jeffries-comey-executed-the-hillary-clinton-campaign/, retrieved April 22, 2024.
3The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board. “Mike Johnson Makes His Case on Ukraine.” April 18, 2024 reprinted in “The Speaker Puts His Job on the Line, in a Welcome Show of Leadership.” April 19, 2024. https://www.speaker.gov/the-wall-street-journal-editorial-board-the-speaker-puts-his-job-on-the-line-in-a-welcome-show-of-leadership/, retrieved April 22, 2024.
4The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board. “Mike Johnson Makes His Case on Ukraine.” April 18, 2024 reprinted in “The Speaker Puts His Job on the Line, in a Welcome Show of Leadership.” April 19, 2024. https://www.speaker.gov/the-wall-street-journal-editorial-board-the-speaker-puts-his-job-on-the-line-in-a-welcome-show-of-leadership/, retrieved April 22, 2024.
5“Rep. Roy issues statement on House foreign aid package.” roy.house.gov. April 20, 2024. https://roy.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-roy-issues-statement-house-foreign-aid-package, retrieved April 22, 2024.
*Image: “Protect America First Act.” June 22, 2021. Retrieved from https://greene.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=156 on April 23, 2024.
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