Melting under the glare
It wasn’t that long ago that Kevin McCarthy promised the American people that House Republicans would open the new session by reading the Constitution aloud on the House floor. Instead they had to vote for Speaker fifteen times, nearly had a brawl, and swore in George “Anthony Devolder” Santos.
It’s a shame that we even have to put up with any of this. Someone did the math and determined that if a combined total of just 3,340 votes had gone the other way in the five narrowest midterm races that House Republicans won, the House Democrats would still have the majority. It’s why Palmer Report spent every day of 2022 all but begging everyone to get involved in the most tightly competitive House races.
Those of you who heeded our call in the midterms are why House Republicans are limping along with a five seat majority instead of a more dominant fifteen seat majority. You should be proud of that. And those of you who didn’t get involved in 2022, should keep this in mind for 2024. But for now the cold hard reality is that we’re stuck with these Republican loons nominally in charge of the House, to the extent they can hold it together.
To that end, the George Santos scandal is probably worth treating as the mere tip of the iceberg. He’s the only House Republican making scandalous headlines right now because he’s the only one who’s been caught in an ugly scandal recently. As far as anyone knows Matt Gaetz is still under active federal criminal investigation on serious charges. We’re still waiting to find out whether Special Counsel Jack Smith is targeting any insurrectionist House Republicans alongside his primary criminal target Donald Trump. And how much longer before someone like Marjorie Taylor Greene gets tired of being in charge and resumes talking about Jewish space lasers instead?
In other words, the “unified” front we’re seeing right now from House Republicans – if you can even call it that after fifteen rounds of voting for Speaker – isn’t likely to last for long. These types selfishly turn on each other the minute they have to. We’ll see how much pressure, scandal, and turmoil it’ll take to push House Republicans to the point where they start feeling like they have to try to take each other down in order to survive individually.
In the meantime it’s important that we all keep the spotlight on the corrupt, inept, extremist Republican House, even as the mainstream media becomes tempted to drift in other directions. The sheer odiousness of the House Republican creep show is the story, and it’ll continue to be the story for the next two years – unless Republicans somehow lose the House majority sooner than that. Given that Santos is probably headed for prison and he may not be the only one, it’s not that unrealistic of a thought. In the meantime let’s keep the spotlight pointed firmly on these corrupt extremist idiots, so they’ll keep melting under the glare.
