Cherry Tree Therapy for the House GOP?
Washington's pink cherry blossoms, a spring sight for sore eyes, are about to be whacked. The Park Service says 150 trees must be cut down to build a new seawall round the Tidal Basin, where the marble Jefferson Monument perches perfectly on the water.
That calls up the legend of young George Washington and his famous line: "Father, I cannot tell a lie. I cut down the cherry tree."
The legend is almost too apt for the House Republican rabble. They correspond to the cherry trees soon to be chopped down, in a murder of truth and beauty. Nearly 150 challenged the 2020 presidential election results on the House floor even after the mob attacked the Capitol.
But unlike Washington, they never owned up to the big lie.
Walking under the cherry blossoms may be the last free ritual that holds the town together in a hug, never mind race, gender, religion or political party. You see couples courting and families with their little ones; you hear all kind of languages under the sun.
Dreamy trees cast a spell that thousands inhaled one last time before the ax. Tranquility descends upon us.
A mile away, House Republicans seem to be falling, falling, too. They just lost their best, freshest mind and face, Mike Gallagher of Green Bay, Wisconsin. Only in this Congress would a rising star like Gallagher, 40, quit in disgust.
Princeton graduate and former Marine intelligence officer, Gallagher earned respect on both sides. He chaired the House Select committee on China. In any other era, his colleagues would defend him from slings and arrows when he voted his conscience.
They'd tell Mike to stick around, he'll be Speaker someday.
But no. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., the nonstop scold, dressed down Gallagher to his face when he voted against her pet project, impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
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