To me, it isn’t all that important whether House freshman Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, is allowed to sit on any House committees. The House committees are all controlled by Democrats. She wouldn’t have any impact whether she’s at the committee meetings or not. She’d only have more opportunities to embarrass herself.
I’m not familiar with this particular sanction — no committee assignments — being imposed before. And maybe there’s something a little petty about it or that makes the Democrats seem like bullies or something. But this is all so teapot-tempest. (It should really be Republicans who want to shut her up as much as they could because she is a colossal embarrassment to her own party, which nominated and supported her.)
But I did like the hilarious, immature, hypocritical way that she decided to try to defend herself, for saying the ludicrous, deranged things she said. So mature. So strong. So self-reliant.
“I was allowed to believe things that weren’t true,” she said, in defending herself yesterday on the House floor for signing on to and repeating, and “liking” on Facebook, various deranged beliefs rooted in QAnon conspiracy theories that would be hilarious if they weren’t so danged widespread. Believing those things that she was allowed to believe “is absolutely what I regret,” she said.
The excuse of this alleged adult and leader and “representative” of her district is that she was “allowed to believe things.” She believed these “things,” she spread them, she “liked” them on Facebook.
[image_credit]House TV via REUTERS[/image_credit][image_caption]House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer mimicking holding a gun next to a Marjorie Taylor Greene tweet as he speaks during debate ahead of a House of Representatives vote on a Democratic-backed resolution that would punish the Republican congresswoman.[/image_caption]
“If it weren’t for the Facebook posts and comments I liked in 2018, I wouldn’t be standing here today, and you couldn’t point a finger and accuse me of anything wrong.” So it’s not really her fault, don’t you see?
That’s some display of personal responsibility, from an elected U.S. representative, an adult, and a member of the party that, whenever it can, purports to be the party that actually believes in taking personal responsibility for one’s own words and deeds (and, one presumes, Facebook “likes”). I didn’t think any of this tragicomedy was important enough to cry over. But it gave me a laugh.
She is literally indefensible.
Eric writes “It should really be Republicans who want to shut her up as much as they could because she is a colossal embarrassment to her own party, which nominated and supported her.”
Indeed. Yet thet do not. Why?
I suppose I’ve mis-predicted the GOP hitting rock bottom for long enough that I won’t make another guess. But I hope it comes soon.
It’s the old story about the lady who rode the tiger. “I’m making good time, but I’m afraid to get off.”
Trump threatened to split the party. Republicans know if that happens they are done as a party that can win elections. Imagine, as a Republican having to compete with Democrats and candidates from the “Patriot” party, as well as whatever rando from the Green or Libertarian parties toss their names in. McCarthy excoriated Trump right after the Capitol riots, but shredded whatever threads of respectability he had left by going to Mar-a-Lago and posing for that ridiculous photo with Dear Leader. MTG’s social media post this morning underscores the insincerity of her remarks from the House floor. Matt Gaetz tried to have Liz Cheney unseated from her leadership position. Newly elected freshman House member Madison Cawthorn lied about the Paralympics and his Naval Academy application, and is just as guilty in inciting violence on January 6th. Lauren Boebert, another freshman House member from CO, has made similar harassing remarks to mass shooting survivors as MTG.
I don’t think you have to wait for the GOP to hit rock bottom; I think it’s already happened. Thousands of voters around the country have already dropped their registration with the party; that may be small potatoes at this point, but the crazy shows no signs of slowing down.
To see if Ms. Green is, indeed, an “embarrassment” to the Republican Party, I’d be interested in knowing how Minnesota’s Republican House members voted, since none of them seem to have acquired a reputation as a GOP firebreather. Only 11 Republicans, total, voted against stripping her of her committee assignments, so my hunch is that all 4 of Minnesota’s craven Republicans in the House voted to allow her to keep her committee position(s), but it’s only a hunch – I haven’t dug into a Congressional website to find out. “Embarrassment” implies character traits – even a conscience – that I’ve seen little evidence of from Republicans over the past 5 years, whether nationally or in Minnesota.
I believe there was another Republican House member from the Midwest several years ago who the Republicans got ashamed enough of that they actually removed his committee assignments: a guy named King? As I recall, he sinned with misogyny and racism.
Nothing as violent as this woman has said and done: her campaign, last year, had an ad that posed her with an automatic long gun threatening three female House members, among them Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes. We’re not talking 2018–as if that “long ago” date was excuse.
This is a really low point for the Republican party nationally. What’s new in this is that it took the
Democrats to chastise Greene.
The Republicans gave her a standing ovation after her convenient expression of selective contrition.
Maybe they were relieved she doesn’t believe what she said. “See, she’s really not THAT crazy!” Not being totally insane in today’s GOP covers a multitude of sins, like just being partly insane or just being a crook.
Last night, Chris Cuomo interviewed Rep. Mullin (R -Okla) about Rep. Greene. He said that she apologized, and now doesn’t mean what she said, and anyway, what about bad things Democrats did? It was laughable.
I’ve not seen any writings/reporting of this woman’s actions prior to her election to the House.
After seeing and reading about what she has done recently, one wonders about her pre-election life.
I’ve got to agree with Eric. I listened to her speech and was struck by the “allowed to believe” bit too. What the heck does that even mean? Who controls what she believes? If not her, then who?
What’s really weird, when I went to see what kind of education she has, she doesn’t speak like an educated person, not to be elitist just saying, Wikipedia told me this: “Beginning in 2017, Greene authored 59 articles as a “correspondent” for the now-defunct “American Truth Seekers”, a conspiracy news website…”
So it seems that whomever allowed her to believe in conspiracies also allowed her to spread them as well. Maybe its just me, but someone who wrote 59 articles on a conspiracy website doesn’t sound like a person who accidentally stumbled across this stuff on the Internets. Its as if she is misrepresenting things, she wouldn’t do that, would she?
“Bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Georgia.”
In my experience teaching on the college level, some students major in business because they have a genuine interest in entrepreneurship or finance or some other aspect of the business world. In other cases, their parents insist that they major in business as something “useful,” even though their talents lie elsewhere. (I could tell some sad stories.)
But in too many cases, business is the default major for students who are in college only because it functions as a holding tank for middle-class youth between the ages of 18 and 22, regardless of academic ability. They resent any course requirement that they see as not leading directly to a job, and their major may require them to fulfill their general education requirements only with certain designated courses that will not challenge the prevailing orthodoxies of American business. If possible, they purposely avoid any activity, person, food, movie, book, place, or idea that is outside their comfort zone.
Somehow I suspect that Ms. Greene went through the University of Georgia in the last group.
All indicators point to you being correct in your assumption.
Its too bad a college education is seen only as a path to a job these days. I went to college late in life, graduating two months before I turned 40. I felt like I was playing catch-up and was very career oriented, fortunately for me I had some very good teachers who took every opportunity to remind me that there was more to it than getting a job.
Mr. Black, you indicate there’s something “petty” about the Democrats’ action. I disagree strongly. The point is, action is needed to plant some kind of marker, to try to resist the unending and ineluctable normalizing of ever-further Right-wing extremism that is the bread & butter of the mainstream media and the voices of responsible opinion. Removing Greene from committees is a bit off target – which is different from being “petty.” But the tools within the toolbox of the Democratic caucus are limited, and this is about all they have. Unfortunately, the responsibility to keep disturbed and hateful people out of positions of leadership falls to their party, the voters, and the media, none of whom are doing a very good job (to, shall we say, understate).
I feel a bit sheepish weighing in on someone as repugnant and ignorant as Greene. But the way that the Republican party is dealing with the issue provides yet another window into how morally bankrupt they have become. Obviously, they wish she would just go away; but they not only don’t have the guts to boot her but they give her a standing ovation for cleansing herself? Yes, indeed, patriotism, family values, sanctity of life, law and order, etc., etc. are what those folks are all about.
For some reason, I’m reminded of the late 19th and early 20th century American fascination with staged train wrecks.
You are not allowed to think that advocating murdering someone is a good idea. She didn’t mention that or admit she was wrong to suggest it. As she believes in carrying weapons into the Capitol she cannot be trusted. That Republicans refused to discipline her shows for most consider Republicans above the law.
“Allowed to believe…” When children are very young, they are “allowed” to do things that adults (with some exceptions) find shameful when they do them. Like sucking their thumbs, biting others, or relieving themselves outside of a toilet. They are “allowed” to do these things because they lack the physical, emotional, and/or mental capacity not to do them. We expect, with children of typical physical and mental function, they learn to control their physical, emotional, and mental capacity such that they stop doing things that adults are not supposed to do. Once they are legal adults, there’s very little anyone can do to continue to enforce these things, so technically, pretty much every adult, regardless of their capacity, are “allowed” to do things adults are not supposed to do, including sucking their thumbs, biting others, or relieving themselves outside of a toilet. Unless an adult has lost the physical, emotional, and/or mental capacity to control themselves, it becomes the responsibility of the adult to make decisions about whether they should say or do things that adults should not do. Like believe things. That you are allowed to believe anything is a given. That you actually believe something, despite the existence of a reality that proves otherwise, is 100% on you. Say “hi” to Santa for me!
I hate it when my pwn brain “allows” me to believe falsehoods… BAD BRAIN!!!
Well Paul, you just need the correct perspective on logic!
In T**** land (logical is illogical, and illogical is logical) there for according to MTG her logic is sound!
Minnesotans cannot be smug about the cultists, after all we have several there, including Emmer, Stauber, Fischbach and Hagedorn.
The other woman in the House news is Boebert, who got her GED just before the election and her conceal-carry permit in time to carry an offensive weapon into a hall of democracy.
We’re facing an opposition that is neither loyal, nor guided by logic, policy or principles.
If only the majority could rule.
“I was allowed to believe…”
By whom? Who caused the “belief”? Who said the things she was “allowed to believe”? Who exactly was the moving force behind “the things”? Q him/herself? And how does calling for harm to political opponents fall into the category of being “allowed to believe things”? Such a demand is another step and comes entirely from one’s own “thought” process. It marks one out as as an immature, violent, antisocial personality, which is what most of these QAnon nuts are.
Did any House Dems rise to question and deride Greene’s “apology”? Did any make remarks that this insincere tripe (which Greene most surely has not renounced) is not only a childish evasion of blame but literally makes no sense? Has anyone ever even heard this phrase (“I was allowed to believe things that weren’t true”) in their entire lives? I haven’t.
The question is why Greene’s pre-election conduct hasn’t been referred to the ethics committee and a vote held on expelling her from Congress. If the benighted voters of whatever screwed-up rightwing GA district want to keep sending her to Congress, then keep expelling her. Can a ridiculous person with such a damaged personality and thought processes really sit in Congress, let alone ask questions as a committee member? Congress supposedly has the power to police its members, so expel her and let her run crying to the courts. Let the lawyers get ALL her “thoughts” into the record….
And of course, this is just a typical response by the erstwhile Party of personal responsibility. The reflex if any decent moral imbecile is always to blame someone else, so when moral imbeciles declare themselves to be the nations moral enforcers once you get beyond the “responsibilities” of getting pregnant or being unemployed it’s a free for all of blame games.
The guys who demand death penalties far and wide suddenly can’t summon the courage to sanction a traitor in their own midst, but will damned if another $800 goes out to millions of shiftless Americans suffering in a pandemic that was promoted by Trump… yet another champion of personal responsibility.
Whatever.
Yes but Wade, wasn’t THIS scenario exceedingly difficult to comprehend? Weren’t reliable facts almost impossible to locate? The problem with being stupid is that you cannot be smart when you need to be. What a colossal demonstration of stupid eh?