We’ll know on Wednesday whether serial liar and the Brazilian version of Trump the Grifter will be allowed to serve out the rest of his only term in congress before retiring off to model an orange jumpsuit. But in one way it’s already anticlimactic.
The latest iteration of the kindergarten teacher in juvie hall, House Speaker Mike Johnson, has already spilled the beans as to what’s at stake here. Absolutely nothing. Sit back, take a sip, and I’ll explain.
Sweet Jesus, it isn’t like this was unexpected. Santos was already a problem child, looking at not only a House Ethics Committee investigation, but multiple criminal investigations before he was even sworn into the House. Which was a week late because of the Roman circus surrounding Squeaker Cave0In McCarthy’s election.
But the simple fact of the matter is that McCarthy needed every single vote to become Speaker, and Machine Gun Marjie got to Santos early and turned him to the side of the McCarthy angels, so McCarthy protected Santos every step of the way.
And as a result, McCarthy covered Santos’s 3rd rate ass even when it wasn’t in his best interest. McCarthy went all0in on Santos even when it meant bucking his own moderate conservative base, the New York district members who were getting their asses kicked at home over his New York stench.
McCarthy even whipped votes against expelling Santos when the issue was rammed down his throat, and went McCarthy’s reasoning was that he needed every one of the five votes he had to pass the MAGA agenda. o the floor. The reasoning of the GOP members who voted against expelling Santos was that they wanted due process, they wanted to see the Ethics Committee report before deciding to expel a sitting member.
OK, they got their wish. Just before Thanksgiving the Ethics Committee finally released its final report, and Mother of God! The Ethics Committee report is even more damning than the criminal indictments already filed by authorities. In fact, you can bet your ass that state and federal authorities are going to be combing over the committee’s report, looking for additional criminal charges to pile on. And the GOP Chair of the Ethics Committee filed an expedited request for an expulsion vote, which should take place no later than next Wednesday.
But clearly something has changed. McCarthy vigorously whipped votes to prevent the expulsion of Santos, so that he could retain every possible GOP vote to move the MAGA agenda through the House. But yet, on the heels of the Ethics Committee report, new Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson is telling his members to vote their consciences when it comes to the expulsion vote on Santos. Which will likely lead to George Santos being the first GOP House member to be expelled from congress.
OK Riddlers, riddle me this. exactly what has changed since the day Cave-In McCarthy was sworn is as Speaker? From where I can see, absolutely nothing! The GOP’s seat advantage is exactly the same as it was when McCarthy took the gavel. And whether the expulsion took place a month ago, or takes place on next Wednesday, there will still be time enough for a special election to be held in February or March. So why is Johnson letting GOP House members to vote their consciences and expel Santos. So what’s different now all of a sudden?
This is the only thing, but it’s important. McCarthy got sh*t canned for conspiring with Biden to take the debt ceiling off the table, and passing a clean continuing resolution to continue funding the government. That gave bratty Matty Gaetz the excuse he needed to get rid of McCarthy. And considering the scathing report the Ethics Committee released on Santos, Gaetz had better be damned worried about his own ass.
But here’s what has changed. As Johnson has already noted, there is no MAGA agenda, and nothing legislatively for the MAGA majority to pass. If they could pass sh*t, they would have passed it by now. And since they couldn’t pass anything, then it really doesn’t matter if the GOP majority is 3-4 or 5. There’s nothing this bench of misfit toys can do politically.
Here’s why this is so critical, and why it puts the Democrats in such a position of strength and power. When the House returns after New Year’s, they have about 12 days to pass a new continuing resolution for the first half of the departments they split out, and about 34 days to continue funding for the rest of the government.
Johnson already waving the white flag of surrender on Santos tells me that he already knows that when the House comes back in session, there will be no new budgets passed with glorious deep cuts to discretionary social safety net spending. They can’t pass it, and even if they did, the Senate would kill it with bipartisan support. Like McCarthy, Johnson is a man alone on an island.
Which means that, once again like McCarthy, Johnson is going to turn to the Democrats to pass a clean CR that goes beyond the November election, with no spending cuts below the current 2022 levels. This will be a total victory for the Democrats going into election season. And if it costs Johnson his job, hell, as Annie Potts said in Ghostbusters, I’ve quit better jobs than this. The Freedom caucus can go looking for a new chump, but a toothless one, since all of the necessary legislation for the session will already have passed.
Which is important simple because that with the totally ineffective, clownish, feckless attempts of the Freedom caucus to govern, and their total failure to do so, it will make moderate GOP members more confident about surviving a primary challenge from the right, and may even embolden some far right members to be challenged from the GOP center.
This has been a cluster f*ck from the start. But I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that the baseless stupidity of the Freedom caucus attempts to blow up the House are going to make the Democrats the hands down victors, the adults in the room. The only question is how badly it weakens the GOP House in 2024. Karma is a bitch.
I thank you for the privilege of your time.
Johnson calling the freedumb caucus “losers” is more than a little bit the pot calling the kettle black. If there is any difference between his asinine behavior and theirs, it is precious little.
Not seeing where Johnson CALLED the caucus “losers” anywhere in the article. Murf’s title simply suggests that Johnson is admitting they’re losers through his actions, not his words. Kind of like in a game of poker–if a player just tosses his cards on the table, he’s admitting he’s lost the hand but he hasn’t actually said the words “I fold.”
You know, it’s funny but, you’d think the people who went into politics with the sole intent of tearing down the government would know enough how to accomplish that. But these morons aren’t even that serious–it’s almost like tearing down the government is just an afterthought. All the theatrics and grandstanding they do won’t accomplish what they say they want to do. Saboteurs work secretly, without calling attention to themselves and, by extension, their actions. The ones that get caught are the sloppy ones–or, maybe just distractions but that typically involves real planning by the “cell,” the proverbial case of “taking one for the team” but that person needs to be incredibly dedicated to the cause to keep from spilling the beans (when all the “leaders” of “the cause” act like the MAGA/Freedom Caucus knuckleheads, there’s not one of them who wouldn’t turn in the rest under questioning).
I mean, they lie well enough to convince their constituents into voting for them but most of those voters don’t actually understand how government works or NEEDS to work. They don’t want to compromise; they tell their voters the government’s bad and corrupt and they’ll “clean it up” and they can’t do that through “compromise.” But you have to wonder how many of these people are in good marriages? Or how they’ve managed to have relationships? People who go into any relationship expecting the other person to just “fall in line” and do as they’re told don’t usually have a successful relationship unless the other person has really bad self-esteem or is just really desperate for *any* relationship that they take whatever crap they’re dealt. A good relationship/marriage requires compromise. It doesn’t always have to be an exact 50/50 but as long as both sides feel they gained something (or both sides are absolutely unhappy with the final result), then the compromise has worked. And that applies to politics as well.
We can but hope. The problem is that Republicans soul their souls to MAGA aka Satan, and no longer have consciences. They don’t care about Santos’ criminality, because expelling g him.sets a precedent that could easily be used against *them*.