By now we are all familiar with the news that 126 republican US House reps signed up in support of the Texas lawsuit seeking to toss over 20 million ballots from four states. On Friday morning there was an initial number of 106 when I began the task of listing the reps and sorting them into states on a Google spreadsheet. I do this because I’m interested in patterns and what they can tell us. The alphabetical list just looked like a jumble of names. Sorting them into states began to reveal patterns. To complete those patterns, I also compiled a list of all republican reps who did not sign onto the amici curiae.
The first thing I noted was there were some unexpected names in the second list: Kevin McCarthy (he’s very close with Minority Whip Steve Scalise who was one of four instigators of the group), Doug Collins (mouthy mate of Gym Jordan, another of the four instigators), and some I associated with the Freedom Caucus like Scott DesJarlais, Morgan Griffith, Jody Hice, Steve Palazzo, Barry Loudermilk, Devin Nunes and Bill Posey, plus the Dem turncoat Jeff Van Drew and Mike Pence’s brother, Greg. Why, I wondered, were they not on the list?
Then late Friday came the news that 20 more republican names had been added to the list which now comprised 126 congressional oath-breakers, including all-but-one of those I thought should have been there. I thought Devin Nunes hadn’t signed on because he was on the sick list but turns out he tested positive for Covid-19 antibodies, not the Covid-19 virus. He apparently had it but didn’t know it which is par for the course with Nunes. I can well believe that not only was he too late to join the original 106, he was also too late to be included in the expanded 126. Someone will tell him Monday what happened last Friday.
Side Note: The instigators claimed these 20 additional names weren’t on the original list due to “a clerical error” but that wasn’t true. Those 20 just didn’t respond fast enough to the “time-sensitive” email that went out to them all from Mike Johnson’s personal email account:
Posted to Twitter by @We_R_Spartacus on December 10.
As the Washington Post reported:
In fact, some of the lawmakers simply joined after the fact. McCarthy spokeswoman Michele Exner said the GOP leader decided to join the filing after speaking to Johnson Thursday night. She also pointed to comments he made at a Thursday news conference expressing support for Trump’s court efforts.
“The president has the right for every legal challenge to be heard,” he said. “He has the right to go to the Supreme Court with it.”
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