In a pistol-packin’ Congress, Greene and Boebert reign supreme.
With a nod to Irving Berlin’s lyrics from "Annie Get Your Gun," both obtuse lawmakers prove to be "dumber, dumber, than you."
Last week I watched gun enthusiasts Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert in the House of Representatives rattle off untruths and uninformed ideas with AR-15 rapidity.
While watching, I tried to assess whose Congressional statements were most dangerous in their ignorance. Hard to choose.
Then I considered which were the most embarrassing—to themselves and, by extension, to the majority of the American people who must endure a collective humiliation each day these Congresswomen wield power in the new GOP-led House.
Although the competition is close, once again, I give the edge to Greene for the breadth and depth of her chutzpah-laced cluelessness. But I’ll include examples of Boebert’s offenses following the Greene account, and suggest that you ultimately decide for yourself.
GOP: No facts, no problem
In loud tones with no outward signs of trying to think things through or self-protect by holding back on her most outlandish statements, Greene instead made claims that revealed a mind impervious to facts coupled with a sense of entitlement that tells her it’s OK to be that way. It seems as if Greene is so caught up in her own GOP star power she doesn’t believe she needs to know things, accurately, while conducting Congressional work.
Because information she should know—but doesn't—is readily available online even to lay persons, let alone members of Congress, Greene’s statements also suggest a person who neither brings a healthy curiosity to her job, nor even a strong work ethic that could compensate for any lack of personal stamina or general knowledge about how the world operates. (Greene will admit to an unwillingness to put in the hard work required by her position, as quoted later in this posting under the She Doesn’t Get Enough Money sub head.)
Polly want a talking point?
What she does do well is parrot GOP talking points on a wide range of topics of little interest to the majority of Americans based on the results of the 2022 midterms: a perceived governmental over response to Covid 19; how Jan. 6 insurrectionist Ashley Bobbitt was “murdered,” not stopped by force for her attempted break-in of the Speaker’s Lobby; and how insurrectionists are suffering unfairly from harsh conditions in prison.
Never mind they were tried and convicted for attempting to overthrow the 2020 election, and by extension, the government of the United States. Never mind that Babbitt posed a clear and present danger to Greene herself and her colleagues; Greene had a sound bite to tee up.
(Of note, newly elected House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, when asked last week whether the Capitol police officer who shot Babbitt had “murdered” the insurrectionist or was “doing his job,” McCarthy chose “doing his job” as his answer (yahoonews 2 feb 2023).
But then again, Greene comes by her insurrectionist sympathies honestly, having been among a number of GOP congressional members to urge then President Donald Trump to declare martial law on Jan. 6 (www.nbcnews.com 23 april 2022).
An eventful, not in a good way, week
Following are two of this week’s highlights involving Greene. One occurred at the Feb. 3 hearing by the House Committee on Oversight, which has advertised its intention to root out what it calls “waste, fraud, and abuse” of “billions of dollars in Covid relief funds,” having apparently already concluded that such abuses have occurred. Another came about during an interview with a conservative commentator when Greene deviated from a script of talking points and apparently, and perhaps indiscreetly, told the truth.
Egg, meet face
In the Oversight hearing, Greene engaged in what would become an unfortunate exchange with Gene Dodaro, the Comptroller of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), Greene asked (coarsely and unclearly), “How much Covid cash was spent on CRT?”--an academic line of study in law schools that looks at systemic racism in laws and institutions that is not taught below the college level in U.S. education. But the GOP has used the term more broadly to describe the teaching of black history in schools.
Dodaro: “CRT?”
Greene: “Critical race theory in education, It’s a racist curriculum used to teach children that somehow their white skin is not equal to black skin and other things in education.”
Dodaro: “No, I do not know that. But I do know there are provisions that federal funds generally are not used for curriculum.”
Greene: “Oh, Mr. Dodaro, I have to tell you that in Illinois they received $5.1 billion at an elementary school there that they use it (sic) for ‘equity and diversity’”--two words that equate to CRT in GOP Speak.
The dog ate it
But Greene more generally did not do her homework sufficiently to know that, first of all, no one K-12 school would ever be slated for a $5 billion dollar windfall. Nor does Greene seemingly have a working knowledge of the terms of the pandemic-induced federal emergency spending money--and, in this case, how it pertained to Illinois, something you would think a rookie House Oversight Committee member would have explored even before the investigation got under way, and especially if you’re going to bring up the subject yourself.
Although the state of Illinois did receive about $5.1B for schools in 2021 in the third round of emergency federal funding as part of its reopening plan, the money was largely split among all its 850 school districts including elementary and high schools, according to Politifact.com. No one school received the $5 billion, the Greene claim that was ridiculous on its face.
CRT, again
And no money was directed to support any particular curriculum, such as “CRT,” as federal government spending requirements place responsibility for curriculum decisions on local decision-making. However, a portion of the money was stipulated to help students disproportionately affected by the pandemic, such as those in low-income districts. But all Illinois districts were to generally set aside money for tutoring, after-school programs, and special education.
The Congresswoman’s spokesperson later tried to walk back Greene’s goof, claiming she was referring to all Illinois schools. But the damage was done, giving critics still more reason to conclude the Georgia congresswoman doesn’t know what she’s talking about.
She doesn’t get enough money
As if Greene’s mistakes before Congress weren’t enough, the Georgia Congresswoman complained last week that being a member of Congress didn’t pay well enough to account for all the work that went with the job. During an appearance on Glenn Greenwald’s interview show that airs
on Rumble, Greene said:
“Becoming a member of Congress has made my life miserable. I made a lot
more money before I got here. I’ve lost money since I’ve got here.“
Complaining about the time spent away from family and friends in doing the people’s work, Greene added:
“It’s turned into practically year-round. And those of us in the House of
Representatives, we have to run for Congress every two years, so you’re
practically campaigning nearly the entire time…”
Greene’s remarks resulted in backlash on social media, even from supporters, who wondered whether Greene did any homework (there’s that word again) about the job before she decided to run for it in 2020. And her comments are especially odd given that, in her two plus years in Congress, Greene has not introduced or gotten passed any serious legislation that had a chance of getting out of committee, though many Republican colleagues did so even when Democrats were in charge.
And a bi-partisan House majority kicked Greene off her two committee assignments for supporting violence against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, giving Greene virtually nothing to do except fund-raise throughout her first two years in Congress. So what was she doing that’s been so exhausting? If anything, it seems Greene has been enjoying a comfortable $174,000 per year salary during most of her tenure without producing much in the way of actual work.
Double-edged sword
Greene’s gaffes probably won’t help the Georgia House member in national polls, which already place her at the bottom of the list for trustworthiness and effectiveness. A Washington Post Jan. 26 report, “The GOP’s big risk in legitimizing Marjorie Taylor Greene,” said that Greene’s favorability ratings at only 26 percent rank second from the bottom of a list of 12 GOP lawmakers, outpacing only George Santos. And other polls list her as one of the most divisive members of Congress, outranking even Senators Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and fellow House member Lauren Boebert.
That leaves Boebert
Greene’s brand is brandishing malapropisms, such as mixing up “gazpacho” for “gestapo,” which she did last year, and spouting factual errors, as she did about federal school funding for Illinois. But Boebert’s image revolves irrevocably around guns, and that's more than preposterous, it’s dangerous on a number of levels.
Befouling Christmas
Witness Boebert’s 2021 Christmas card. Instead of the usual family photo taken at a special event, standing out in front of the house, or having fun during a family vacation, Boebert’s featured herself, husband, and four sons brandishing what appear to be AR-15s while standing in front of a Christmas tree in their home.
The boys, who now range in age from about 16, 14, 12, and 9 appear smiling, except for the youngest who did not look directly into the camera and had a faraway look on his face as he held his automatic weapon. According to various online reports, the boys attend private schools and are reported to have been involved in a dispute with a neighbor who called the police when the boys were speeding their ATVs on a country road, resulting in the destruction of the neighbor’s mailbox.
With their current attachment to guns, the boys take after their mother who at one point famously owned a gun-themed restaurant, ran on a “pro militia” platform, and had the support of the Proud Boys in her 2020 congressional bid. One can only hope Boebert’s boys don’t grow up modeling themselves after their mother’s militia heroes and seeing guns as a means to an end.
Cheap shot
Given her history, it’s no surprise that Boebert has been an outspoken proponent of having guns in Congress. Not just in her or any member’s private office, as Capitol Hill policy allows for. In the previous 117th Congress, Boebert objected to the Congress’ installing magnetometers after the Jan. 6th insurrection, and gave House authorities a hard time in enforcing the policy.
Now that the GOP had gained a slim majority in the 2022 election, Boebert and other House Republicans have eliminated the magnetometers, leaving House members to walk the halls wondering who among them are “packing.” But Boebert et al. have not stopped there, as evidenced by the House Natural Resources Committee vote last week that opted for the first time to authorize members; bringing firearms to committee meetings, adding concern and fear to committee deliberations.
Against the idea were Democratic committee members who voted as a group against the policy. But Boebert argued that she was concerned for her safety and believed the guns would provide security to herself and other fearful committee members, not acknowledging there had never before been a situation, since the Civil War, where members had been violent or physically aggressive toward others. Neither did she acknowledge there existed a Capitol security force –and, previously–magnetometers to protect against violence breaking out or offer assistance if it did.
No class
Before the vote, in true Stalin show trial fashion, Boebert brought in a poster with the image of the senior Democrat on the Committee, Rep. Jared Huffman of California, photo-shopped to show Huffman wearing a tin foil hat. Boebert then declared that Huffman’s objection, not her poster, amounted to a “political stunt.”
The People vs. the GOP
Both Greene and Boebert, of course, are only the most visible members of an off-the-rails Republican Caucus that’s focusing on policies supported neither by their House colleagues nor the American people, as evidenced by the messages from the midterm elections of 2022.
Whereas the American people voted against the Big Lie and for democracy, Big Lie proponents like Greene, Boebert, and 146 other House Republicans who voted not to certify the electoral count are ascendant–being named to powerful committees that could take the country down the opposite path.
Whereas the American people voted for women’s reproductive rights via a string of ballot initiatives both in red and blue states, Republicans now ignore that message and focus on two-year-old Covid emergency implementation complaints that seem like silly and outmoded issues now.
Whereas the American economy is the envy of the world thanks to Democratic policies, Republicans denigrate them, hauling up administration officials in show trial fashion for endless investigations.
Whereas popular support is growing for greater gun restrictions in light of an ongoing string of mass shootings that leave Americans terrorized to go to school, the grocery store, movies, or even Fourth of July celebrations, Republican House lawmakers ignore the issue. And at the Capitol lawmakers themselves can no longer feel safe to legislate and debate.
Muddle-minded
Republicans can’t even give credit where credit is due and celebrate the U.S. military’s precision takedown and recovery of a Chinese spy balloon, nit-picking every aspect of the successful solution to a delicate international incident. For example, new Ohio Republican Senator J.D. Vance mocked the president and called for the balloon to be shot down while drifting above American soil, risking lives and property. Rightly, the U.S. military under the president’s orders shot it down over water, where no one or thing was hurt.
And Florida Senator Marco Rubio, joined by Texas Senator Ted Cruz, claimed Sunday in Tweets and interviews the balloon incident shows that China is sending a message to the world that “America is in decline.” Rubio continued that if America can’t shoot down a balloon over Montana, America “cannot be a force to protect Taiwan” and stand up for democracy around the world.
John Heilemann on MSNBC this morning responded, “You’d think that if Rubio and these other Republicans were to call up President Zelensky in Ukraine and ask if he thinks how the U.S. has kept the NATO alliance together to aid Ukraine over the last year and put them in the position they’re in now…there’s no force that’s had more effect. And every country within NATO would say that. But that escapes Little Marco (Trump nickname for the Florida senator and 2016 presidential opponent). It makes no sense, the things they (Republicans) say.”
Irrelevant and dangerous
For these reasons and more, the GOP as represented by its two best headline-grabbers, Greene and Boebert, has become both an increasingly irrelevant yet annoying stone in the shoe of America’s democracy. And any voter who fell for the Republican line of BS last year has only themselves to blame.
–trg