As the GOP Collapses, So Too Could the Country
“I was embarrassed for our conference, for our party, because we can do better than we did last night,” Rep. Lance Gooden told CNN’s Manu Raju.
“He didn’t count votes,” said Rep. Ralph Norman of Speaker Mike Johnson. “I think he will next time.”
“When you are handed the keys to the kingdom…then when you have the majority there is an expectation that you will be able to govern. And we’ve just struggled with that over and over again,” said Rep. Steve Womack.
The stunt was such a failure of vote-counting that Rep. Matt Gaetz, who’d boastfully orchestrated the ouster of Speaker Kevin McCarthy last year with no plan for his replacement, was feeling a little wistful. “[W]ouldn’t it have been nice to still have Kevin McCarthy in the House of Representatives? Never thought you’d hear me say that.”
The debacle prompted others to question the wisdom of that hamfisted effort to defenestrate McCarthy. “Getting rid of Speaker McCarthy has officially turned into an unmitigated disaster,” Rep. Thomas Massie lamented. “Name one thing that’s improved under the new speaker.”
Over at the party’s governing body, the Republican National Committee, things are just as dysfunctional. There, chairwoman Ronna McDaniel announced she is stepping down — in the middle of an election year no less — due to pressure from Trump. (This is a woman who dropped her maiden name — Romney — because Trump didn’t like it, and yet he still sees her as insufficiently loyal to him.)
Gaetz, who, remember, ousted McCarthy over personal grievances, submitted his ringing endorsement of the former speaker for McDaniel’s replacement, tweeting, “Kevin is well organized and a very high-revenue fundraiser. He will also be well-liked by the RNC Committee.”
Then there’s the border bill disaster.
House Republicans tanked a bipartisan border bill, stuffed with provisions they’d long been asking for, because Trump — an unelected and four-time indicted private citizen — prefers to use the issue to get elected rather than solve it.
But the pyrrhic victory backfired. Reaching the pinnacle of utter uselessness, Republicans took an issue they were winning on — Biden’s broken border — and handed Democrats a very helpful talking point.
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