Politics is a dark art, no question. Friday night near the witching hour a magical 13 Republicans departed their own coven and joined with that of the Democratic witch, which finally resulted in the passing of the $1.2 Trillion infrastructure bill. And naturally, as insanely tribal as politics has become, rather than applauding a bipartisan effort on the behalf of the American people and moving on to the next thing, the GOP is looking for blood. The next entrails you are likely to see won’t be chickens’, they will likely belong to Kevin McCarthy. Washington Post:

“That 13 House Republicans provided the votes needed to pass this is absurd,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tex.) said.

Others threatened before the vote to target or launch primaries against the defectors in their midst.

Vote for this infrastructure bill and I will primary the hell out of you,” Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) said shortly before the vote.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), in her typically understated fashion, warned last week that any Republican who voted for the bill would be “a traitor to our party, a traitor to their voters and a traitor to our donors.” After the vote, she accused the 13 of having voted to “pass Joe Biden’s Communist takeover of America” and tweeted the phone numbers to their congressional offices (while for some reason only listing 12 of the 13).

Marjorie probably can’t count to 13, she should have asked Lauren Boebert to help her. In this political climate, somebody has to take the fall and bear the brunt of the blame and it looks like it’s McCarthy, who kept going on record that the bill would fail.

Friday’s GOP defections were even more significant than during the last Trump impeachment, when 10 Republicans voted to impeach the president — a historically high number. And the fact that on Friday they provided the votes necessary for passage makes this even more fraught.

They were also more significant than many, including McCarthy, suggested they might be. While McCarthy previously kept his powder dry on whipping against the bill, he ultimately pushed for his members to vote against it. As recently as last week, McCarthy said, “I don’t expect few, if any, to vote for it, if it comes to the floor today.” In another interview, he was asked about the infrastructure bill and said, “It will fail.” […]

The National Review summed it up accordingly: “Disgraceful House Republicans Rescue Biden’s Flailing Agenda”:

… [Thirteen] Republicans swooped in to rescue Pelosi, provide Biden with the biggest victory of his presidency, and put the rest of his reckless agenda on a glide path to passage in the House.
This is a substantively bad decision that is political malpractice. It represents a betrayal.
Politically, it’s unclear what Republicans are thinking. Biden entered this week reeling from a devastating rebuke of his presidency by voters in areas of the country thought to be reliably Democratic. He headed into the 2022 election year a wounded animal, and Republicans stood to make major gains. Now, they tossed him a life raft and allowed him to put bipartisan gloss on his radical agenda.
Every Republican who voted for this monstrosity who is not already retiring should be primaried and defeated by candidates who will actually resist the Left-wing agenda. Those who are retiring should be shamed for the rest of their lives. It also is not too soon to be asking whether Representative Kevin McCarthy should be ousted from leadership for his inability to keep his caucus together on such a crucial vote.
McCarthy’s head is already going to the same chopping block as the holiday turkey and this is even before the January 6 Select Committee has had a chance to depose him.
His political prospects look as bleak as a Bakersfield horizon. Maybe it’s poetic justice.
But what is noteworthy here is that the Republicans who voted for the bill were actually doing their jobs. They were getting something for their constituents. They were even following the lead of Mitch McConnell, the de facto head of the party. But still they’re vilified. Talk about a rock and a hard place.

 

 

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7 COMMENTS

  1. Yes, God forbid that any repuQ think about something besides their vile, venal self and actually do something for the citizenry. All these clowns have done is sit on their thumb and rotate, take up space, collect their checks, foul the air with their obscene rants, not one single thing of a positive nature. They have blocked vaccinations and masking that would keep people alive, they have blocked Biden’s legislations that helped citizens and got money in their pockets, all the while carrying on with the most ridiculous conspiracy theories, rumors, LIES! This recent pilgrimage to Dallas to see a resurrected JFK, Jr. was over the top. This is the 21st Century, for God’s sake. Why have these nut jobs regressed to a dark ages mentality of superstition and magical thinking? It’s just too hard to watch this country slide into the abyss because a sizable minority of people want to destroy us from within, aiding and abetting those from the outside.

    • The imbalance of, “MAGICAL”, thinking, instigated by the, “Q”- weirdest make-believe stagnant pond of scum to crawl out of the weeds, just what the loser Republicans need, nut jobs galore, that shout out the most vile and stupid rhetoric ever …

      Now, with the blatant BS from the NRA and others, being connected directly through huge sums of money to the bile pile Trump organization/election campaign lizards, stealing, then publishing the diary of Biden’s daughter by the right wing nuts … So, we now have Trump moping around, crying about how the 01-06 Committee is SO unfair to have access to his books and other documents, that, actually show the truth of Trump’s failing, flailing fact of being the BIGGEST loser EVER …

  2. If both bills pass and people feel the effects, those who voted for them should have something positive to run on.
    Republicans never rail against socialist programs like Social Security and Medicare which is why they’re so desperate to kill this legislation. They know that once in place, they’ll never be able to claw them back.

    • Well, GOPers DO rail against (and have railed mightily against) Social Security and Medicare all the time. The thing is, though, they know their constituents like those programs. It also helps that they (and their deluded constituents who keep electing them to office) don’t consider those to be “socialist programs” or “entitlements” but rather “money the government gives back to you after you retire since you paid into the programs for your working life.”

    • They have railed against both programs but not against the 3.4 trillion total tax cuts Bush & Trump pushed through that only benefitted the rich. Oh, & they’ve railed against paying for those bills they ran up. Evidently socialism for the rich is ok…to hell with the poor, working class, or the low end of the so called middle class. Luckily for them people are stupid, blind, & racist, so they have a lot to work with.

  3. ““Vote for this infrastructure bill and I will primary the hell out of you,” Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) said shortly before the vote.”

    I wonder to whom this “threat” was directed? Is Cawthorn planning to run in some other district beyond his own? I mean, he can’t DIRECTLY “primary the hell out” of anyone without dropping out of his own district’s race. If he meant something like “I’ll help raise funds for someone to run against you,” then that’s different but it hardly qualifies as a threat to “primary the hell out” of anyone.

    • He’s a brain dead fake Christian who follows none of Jesus’ teachings but follows a narcissistic pathological liar. Must be reading the satanic Bible written by Mr levy. Another home schooled, ignorant rube from my home state.

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