The fact that the Republican party leadership put QAnon Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene on the House education committee tells you all you need to know about how craven they have become. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy has issued a mealy-mouthed statement about their decision not to do anything. It appears that she received a standing ovation from the Republican caucus. The Republican party leadership was willing to strip former Iowa congressman Steve King from all his committee positions for his hateful statements but is not willing to do the same for Greene although she is even crazier than he is, as hard as that is to believe. It should be noted that she has not publicly recanted her statements, instead choosing to tout her support from Trump. Her and her party’s defense is that she made them before she was elected to Congress.
The Democratic-led Congress is planning to expel her from her committee appointments since the Republicans are cowering before her. I am not sure if that is a good idea. If they do so, she and they can claim to be martyrs for free speech. One argument is that it may be better to let her be because she will surely say even more outlandish things at committee hearings and will become the visible ugly face of the party, stripped of whatever veneer of decency that they had previously. This is the theory that if you give someone enough rope, they will hang themselves.
On the other hand, the theory that saying more and more extreme things will doom your political career has suffered a serious blow with Trump, who got a lot of mileage and even reached the presidency by espousing increasingly hateful ideas. Who knows, giving Greene a platform may end up with her as a future Republican presidential nominee.
Seth Meyers looks at how the people that are now the Republican Party are too extreme even for loony right wing media like Newsmax. He shows how they try and fail to shut down the MyPillow guy as he rants about how he he has 100% proof of how the election was stolen that he planned to reveal on Friday but that since Twitter kicked him off its platform he cannot do so. The people on Newsmax likely tried to shut him down because because they are afraid of the lawsuits that the Dominion company is bringing against them and other media outlets who have given a platform to all those who have alleged that they rigged their voting machines against Trump. But after the host Bob Sellers stormed off the set because Lindell would not shut up, he later apologized to Lindell and brought him back on the air, likely because MyPillow is one of the main advertisers on the network. So there you are.
She is Steve King plus more crazy.
Marjorie Taylor Greene is a white racist like Steve King.
As a
whitepinkish tan American, if I was being genocided, I would know it.That was my thought also.
Don’t retaliate against her until she actually does something as a congressperson.
In fact, give her enough rope and she will hang herself and a few other GOPers as well.
She seems like Michele Bachmann or Steve King.
Michele Bachmann is genuinely fruit bat crazy and she can’t help but say weird things on a routine basis.*
Same with Steve King.
Let her make the GOP look bad for a while.
*Bachmann’s latest gibberish is that Trump won the election and jesus is going to take care of Biden and the Democrats and put him back in power.
Of course it is wrong.
Bachmann is always wrong about everything.
It is a good thing Greene never found Omar or Tlaib.
What they were planning to do is at least harrassment and more likely assault.
Assaulting a congressperson in their own office is likely to carry a long prison sentence, no matter how blonde your hair.
There is one advantage of having the republicans vote on not removing her as that makes the whole GOP the Q party. The stupid base will be pleased but everyone else will not even if the reps will claim that they’re voting for the principle and not for her ideas.
Shows what I know and how much influence I have with congress.
Short term that is going to leave a mark on Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Long term, who knows?
Right now she is also a martyr.
OTOH, she is also free to say whatever shocking and dumb things that run around in what passes for her mind.
It could be amusing in a horror show sort of way.
I wonder how interesting it will get when the “Trumplodytes” seriously contradict the republicans still dedicated to the eradication of any gains the working class has made in the past century. Popcorn time?
raven (#5) wrote they removed her.
Oh that is going to be fun when the Republicans get the majority. With how they function at the moment to spite the Democrats they will remove 10 Democrats from all their committees in petty revenge. Then at random intervals or when a committee might go against their demands will they remove others
There is no point holding back from well justified sanctions just because the person might gain the benefit of sympathy. If that is your approach, you are as good as guaranteeing that you will never hold someone accountable. And bear in mind that this is the modern Republican party, a den of scum and villainy, and Greene is one of the worst; the entire party is already engaged in lying about having their voices suppressed every time they complain about cancel culture.
Just think how horrible the Bush 43 administration was. Barack Obama won a Nobel Peace Prize just for not being George W. Bush. And then consider:
Former Bush officials leave GOP over failure to disown Trump
“she and they can claim to be martyrs for free speech.”
They are ALREADY claiming this, pre-martyrdom. Seriously, she wears a mask that says “censored” that can be difficult to read because she’s behind a microphone being uncensored. You can’t keep them from lying just by not giving them any cause for offense. So don’t organize your actions around what won’t give them cause for offense. You EXISTING gives them cause for offense.
It doesn’t set a great precedent to remove her from committees. But I view it as the exception that proves the rule. You really don’t have to tolerate all fruit bats on principle. You know they won’t tolerate you.
I’m kinda surprised to see them openly admitting that nothing Republicans say can be trusted (though that’s always been obvious to anyone with ears and functional long-term memory). Either she believed the things she said prior to election and is lying now, or she didn’t believe any of it and is now showing her true colors. Since voters can’t tell which are the authentic beliefs, they can’t believe either version.
The best policy is to prevent them ever doing so. But in any case, it is foolish to avoid taking justified action -- Greene, among other things, made clear her approval of the murder of Democratic congresspeople -- because fascists may later take unjustified actions and claim that they are justified by precedent; they would take them anyway if they thought it advantageous. The toleration of overt racism, false claims that political opponents are child abusers and cannibals, calls for violence, etc. on similar grounds is a large part of what has got the USA into this perilous position, with one of its two dominant parties in thrall to “inchoate fascism” and nearly half those voting in last year’s election, voting for it.