House Freedom Caucus In Full ‘Free Dumb’ Mode. Again

I first read about this earlier this week and figure it’s worth a closer look. It seems battle lines have been drawn and fairly evenly matched sides are fighting it out over the group’s future. Leaving aside the fact we all (more than a few House Republicans would agree with me) believe the House, Congress and the country would be better off without these asshats acting as a group, just what’s going on?  My guess is that the group will survive in some form but quite possible without the mischief making clout it’s held for too long.

Not to dive too far into the weeds but the whole thing came about back in 2015, largely driven by Jacketless Jim ‘HE GROPED ME COACH!’ Jordan. To be fair Mick the Prick Mulvaney was also a key force. The most rabid and hard core Tea Party types thought Speaker John Boehner and the GOP conference as a whole was too soft. The idea was to organize a small, solid ideologically “pure” group that would drive the GOP agenda to the extreme right. Starting with the ouster of Jordan’s fellow Ohioan Boehner as Speaker. Call me crazy but these political RWNJ “Puritans” also probably hated the Tea Party Label. Way to wimpy for these “tough guys.” Anyway they succeeded in tossing Boehner aside and have been feeling their oats ever since.

Well, they did so and had outsized influence until they got too full of themselves at the beginning of the current Congress. The spectacle of all those ballots just to elect a Speaker wounded a razor thin GOP majority and then they made it worse by tossing McCarthy aside. Unlike Boehner, McCarthy made them force a vote on his removal. Maybe his doing so was a ‘f**k all y’all back’ as it widened some cracks that had formed with the debacle that went down with his getting the gavel in the first place. For damned sure there’s an outright war going on as reported by The Hill. 

Being conservative leaning the Hill is polite in its headline, describing the Freedom Caucus as being ‘at a crossroads’ but make no mistake. There’s a behind the scenes brawl taking place and it’s looking like when the dust settles there will be quite the shakeup in membership. And we can hope loss of influence as a result. You’re probably wanting details so here goes:

Current Chair Bob Good of Virginia engineered the ouster of Warren Davidson of Ohio. The two had long been at odds because Davidson resisted Good becoming chair in the first place. Good you might recall found himself in a tough primary and Trump endorsed his opponent and the certified tally meant Good lost by 374 votes to a state Senator. Good might still (he’d have to pay the cost) try for a recount but the fact is it won’t do any good. He won’t be on the ballot in the fall or in Congress come January. The thing is, Davidson swooped in late in the game and endorsed Good’s challenger. That’s a general no-no and very much so for Free-Dumb caucus members.

Payback is one of the few things Good has left so he got some and Davidson was voted out, but the margin was close. 16 to 13 and that’s why I said this battle has two sides that are fairly evenly matched. One of Davidson’s allies has since resigned from the caucus on principle (?) and it’s said many others might follow suit.  Yet others might wind up wanting to join. With everything else going on and the obsession of journalists about President Biden I find it significant enough caucus members are speaking both publicly and privately to journalists. And that what those speaking privately carries enough weight that they’re actually reporting it.  The Hill had one tantalizing paragraph that grabbed my attention:

One GOP member told The Hill that the move to oust Davidson reflects poorly on the group: “If an organization throws someone of Warren Davidson’s character out, it is a s—ty organization.”

Another paragraph was equally tantalizing:

Norman said that he anticipated losing more members — but that the group will also pick up some more. Another source suggested that members of the group frustrated by its direction may not be so public about it, but simply part ways at the end of this Congress.

I’m sure that last part is too much to hope for. This collection of destructive asshats will survive in some form. However I think it’s likely their power will be greatly diminished. Other House Republicans will stand up to them. And, if Democrats win the House in November who knows? The next iteration of the Free-Dumb Caucus might be just a handful of misfit toys and treated even by fellow GOPers as if they were made out of nuclear waste. Again, we can hope.

One final and entertaining point. MTG has weighed in on all this. Having been kicked out herself for supporting McCarthy I guess we shouldn’t be surprised she’d pipe up. She thinks it was a mistake to toss out Davidson, and believe the caucus needs to ‘grow, grow grow’ and needs better leadership. But the part that really jumped out at me was this:

She also suggested the group should build relationships with leadership if it wanted to make substantive changes.

“That’s what I did with Kevin McCarthy, which ultimately led to them kicking me out. They didn’t like that, because that’s not what they want,” Greene said. “All they want to do is destroy, destroy, destroy.”

Has the world gone mad? MTG calling for conciliation, building relationships even when there’s some disagreement?  Did some malicious worker slip a psychedelic into the can of chili I had for lunch? Well, when it comes to that grow, grow talk she did go on to talk about growing large enough to take over the whole Republican caucus.  No doubt with herself as chair. Unlike Good she will never have to worry about getting primaried out of her seat.

Well, it’s not the top topic of discussion this week but down the road it might matter and more than a little bit. The linked article is I’ll grant you a bit dense but I encourage you to read it if you have five minutes or so.