These House Republicans are even further gone than we thought

| 6:00 pm EDT October 6, 2023
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Following the simultaneously unsurprising and ludicrous collapse of Kevin McCarthy’s House Speakership, GOP House members have been thrashing about for someone to replace him. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a woman for whom the word “stupid” apparently is a virtue, and Matt Gaetz, a man with the IQ of a lobster fork, have come up with a solution. Donald Trump. No, I’m not making this up.

This latest surreal absurdity ought to communicate to even the most hardcore, goose-stepping MAGA cretin just how unserious some members of the Republican Congress are. But it won’t. That some congressional members are actually considering nominating Trump for Speaker defies belief.

Trump as Speaker betrays just how far they’ve sunk and how indifferent they are to their sworn duty of serving the American people. I suppose they hope that someone will then assassinate President Biden and Vice President Harris and thereby make Speaker Trump president again? But that might be giving them credit for more evil imagination than they deserve.

While it’s true that many Republicans understand that electing Donald Trump Speaker of the House will be the dumbest elevation since Caligula named his horse Incitatus to the Roman Senate (yes, I know that story isn’t really true), most of them will keep their hypocritical mouths shut about it. It reminds us once again of who and what we are dealing with. Republicans are a cult answerable not to the American people or even to a powerful lobby. They are answerable to one man.

Troy Nehls of Texas has promised to officially nominate Trump as Speaker when Congress next sits. Donald Trump said he’d be open to the idea, which means that a Trump speakership is a real, if remote, possibility. But it’s yet more evidence, as if we need any more evidence, that the GOP is devolving from a democratic party into an authoritarian cult with Trump at its head.

Forgetting the lunacy of the idea for a moment, the logistical impossibility of Trump as Speaker renders the idea impossible. Trump is under four indictments in four jurisdictions. He will soon be required in court, full time. He will almost certainly be in jail soon for violating the terms of his bail and/or contempt of court. And, of course, he’s putatively running for president. Let’s not forget that. What does he propose to do, appear as Speaker on Zoom during court recesses or during trips to the prison exercise yard?

This thought just occurred to me: Trump claims he never lost the election and is still technically president. If he were to be elected Speaker would that mean he’d be second in line to himself?

Anyway, all this proves yet again that there is no bottom to GOP idiocy. I can’t imagine what new low they’re preparing to stoop to, I only know that they’re practicing to stoop to that new low even now, as I write this, and in the name of Donald J. Trump. It really does stagger the imagination. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.