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:
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.”
Observations
First observation: no senators. Even though Johnson’s email states: “… Trump called me this morning to express his great appreciation for our effort to file an amicus brief in the Texas case on behalf of concerned Members of Congress. He specifically asked me to contact all Republican Members of the House and Senate today and suggest all join onto our brief.” (bold mine)
So yes, this email did go out to all 52 of the current republican senators yet none signed up. Ted Cruz was eager to be the lawyer pleading the Texas lawsuit before SCOTUS and, along with a now manic Lindsay Graham, monopolized any microphone-camera combination within a 20 yard radius to broadcast his opinion. Loeffler and Perdue also verbally supported the lawsuit in hopes that their dwindling republican following would approve of this stance. But no senator actually signed their name to Rep Johnson’s amicus brief.
That leads on to the next observation: no Kentucky republican rep signed the brief. That begs the question: did Mitch McConnell caution them against it and also direct his senators to abstain from formally adding their own names to the list? If so, was he advised that anyone signing could find themselves in legal jeopardy? Mitch McConnell does at least have the sense to take such a warning seriously. As for the instigators, Mike Johnson, Steve Scalise, Jim Johnson and Gary Palmer are all so far under Trump’s influence that they’d dismiss any warnings cursorily.
Since Texas is the state that originated the lawsuit, one might have expected all their republican reps to sign in order to show solidarity with their state but this was not the case. Fourteen did sign on but eight others didn't. Does that signal a split in the Texas republican party?
There’s a very obvious split in Georgia’s GOP. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger have been shoved into the outer circle marked RINO by Trump himself while the rest of the local, state and federal representatives are aligning themselves with Team Lin Wood (boycott the runoffs), Team Sidney (write in Trump’s name on both ballots) or Trump directly. Only one of Georgia’s reps declined to sign up to the amicus brief and that was Rob Woodhall. His resignation takes effect on the last day of this month so maybe he just doesn’t much care about signing onto anything anymore.
In fact there are 28 republican reps who were not re-elected — either because they’re resigning, retiring or lost their primary race — and will therefore be finishing up on December 31. Of these 28, 10 signed up to the brief (maybe a last-ditch activist gesture before leaving?) and 18 kept company with Rob Woodhall.
The Pascrell Letter
Even before 20 more republican reps signed up on Friday, copies of the 14th Amendment, Section 3, were circulating on social media.
This led to some mild speculation which increased in tone dramatically when Rep Bill Pascrell from New Jersey posted this tweet:
His next tweet began:
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment was written after the Civil War to bar from government any traitors who would seek to destroy the Union.
My letter to House leadership today demands that 126 Republicans (and counting) are violating the Constitution.
followed by a copy of the letter:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi
United States House of Representatives
H-232, The Capitol
Washington, D.C. 20510
Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren
Committee on House Administration
United States House of Representatives
1309 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Speaker Pelosi and Chairwoman Lofgren:
On November 3, 2020, former Vice President Joe Biden was elected to be the 46th President of the United States by overwhelming margins in the popular vote and the Electoral College. Despite his decisive victory, Donald Trump and other prominent Republicans have commenced a daily assault on the legitimacy of the election that includes filing dozens of frivolous lawsuits seeking to have the results invalidated. Tragically, Members of our House of Representatives are supporting and amplifying these attacks on democracy, now culminating in 126 House Republicans joining1a malignant lawsuit filed by the state of Texas against the states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. This suit demands the will of the voters of these states be overturned and the Electoral College votes be stolen and awarded to Donald Trump.
As you know, Article I, Section 5 of the United States Constitution gives each chamber of Congress ultimate authority to decide its membership, positing that “[e]ach House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members.” This is a responsibility the Congress has always exercised with the utmost care and probity. The parameters for membership are broad, requiring only that “[n]o Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.”
The courageous Reconstruction Congress implanted into our governing document safeguards to cleanse from our government ranks any traitors and others who would seek to destroy the Union. To that end, Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment stipulates that:
“No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof…”
Stated simply, men and women who would act to tear the United States government apart cannot serve as Members of the Congress. These lawsuits seeking to obliterate public confidence in our democratic system by invalidating the clear results of the 2020 presidential election attack the text and spirit of the Constitution, which each Member swears to support and defend, as well as violate the Rules of our House of Representatives, which explicitly forbid Members from committing unbecoming acts that reflect poorly on our chamber.
Consequently, I call on you to exercise the power of your offices to evaluate steps you can take to address these constitutional violations this Congress and, if possible, refuse to seat in the 117th Congress any Members-elect seeking to make Donald Trump an unelected dictator.
Just as the American people’s clear vote in support of President-elect Biden must be respected, so too must votes cast in favor of our Members-elect. But the actions of any of our colleagues to demolish democracy, regardless of party affiliation, must be repudiated in the strongest possible terms. Rising from the embers of the Civil War, the Fourteenth Amendment was written to prevent the destruction of the United States from without and within. The moment we face now may be without parallel since 1860. The fate of our democracy depends on us meeting that moment.
Sincerely,
Bill Pascrell, Jr.
Member of Congress
Since Rep Pascrell addressed his letter not only to the Speaker but also the Chair of the House Administration Committee, I looked up the committee and found this on its wiki page:
The Committee on House Administration, which consists of 9 members, has jurisdiction over all legislation and other matters relating to the House of Representatives, such as:
- Election of the President, Vice President, Members, Senators, Delegates, or the Resident Commissioner; corrupt practices; contested elections; credentials and qualifications; and Federal elections generally.
(Bold mine)
Of the long list of matters over which it has jurisdiction, this one jumped out as the most likely one to be relevant in this instance.
That brought me back to a look at the 9 members: 6 are Democrats and 3 are republicans. Of the latter 3, 2 of them signed onto the amicus brief. Only the Ranking Member, Rodney Davis (IL-13) did not. He happens to also be the only republican member on the Elections subcommittee. Maybe it was those two positions which suggested to him that it might not be a good idea to sign Johnson’s brief.
Speaker Pelosi followed up with a letter to Democratic colleagues in which she wrote that Republicans are “engaged in election subversion that imperils our democracy” and called the GOP-backed lawsuit “an act of flailing GOP desperation.”
The Washington Post noted that the letter is a rhetorical escalation for Pelosi.
“As members of Congress, we take a solemn oath to support and defend the Constitution,” Pelosi wrote. “Republicans are subverting the Constitution by their reckless and fruitless assault on our democracy which threatens to seriously erode public trust in our most sacred democratic institutions, and to set back our progress on the urgent challenges ahead.”
Further down in their report, The Washington Post again quotes the Speaker.
Pelosi, in a statement after the court ruling, said, “The 126 Republican Members that signed onto this lawsuit brought dishonor to the House. ...The pandemic is raging, with nearly 300,000 having died and tens of millions having lost jobs. Strong, unified action is needed to crush the virus, and Republicans must once and for all end their election subversion – immediately.”
But this will not deter them. I have no doubt the Sunday round-up and weekday shows will feature as many of them as the media can cram into their schedules. I trust they will be voluble and give Speaker Pelosi more than enough evidence of their continued seditious abuse, a term penned by Pennsylvania AG Josh Shapiro which strikes me as a very accurate and fitting description of House GOP behaviour.
How much further can the crazy go? Well, Congress does have license to entertain challenges to the legitimacy of the electoral votes. At a January 6 joint session presided over by Mike Pence, electoral votes will be presented to Congress for formal acceptance. But it may be anything but formal as the Washington Post reports:
GOP lawmakers’ broad buy-in to Trump’s effort to overturn the election all but guarantees an effort to once again cast doubt on Biden’s victory despite the gaping lack of evidence and the string of court rebukes that has greeted every effort to question the result.
McCarthy on Thursday laughed when he was asked if he planned to challenge the electoral college tally in January but did not give a firm answer to the question. Others, including members of a fervently pro-Trump House Freedom Caucus, have made clear they will seek to lodge such a challenge.
Of course they will. In order to sustain a challenge, House republicans will need at least one Senator to join them and they’ll likely get it — the wheeling and dealing behind the scenes has probably already begun — even though this, like every other one of their seditious tactics will be another failed gambit. And there should be accountability for the dishonour they’ve brought on Congress.
Between now and then, I’m urging Americans here and on Twitter to contact House Democrats and the 71 republican reps who didn’t sign the Johnson brief and urge them all to sign onto Rep Pascrell’s letter. When someone gets up a petition for the people, I’ll be urging every American I know to sign that as well.
The Speaker, the Ranking Member and every Democratic member of the House Committee on Administration are being asked to take an extraordinary and history-making decision to refuse to seat these insurgent republicans. They’ll be understandably concerned that it may backfire on them all at the next midterms so a ton of reassurance from Democrats that they have their back and will fight for them, will go a long way in supporting their momentous decision.