Kentucky, you have to stop sending the nation your worst. Between Mitch McConnell breaking the entire Senate and Rand Paul happy to infect any of his colleagues with coronavirus, it was bad enough. Now we have to have Rep. Thomas f'ing Massie? He's saying maybe he feels like forcing a floor vote on the coronavirus stimulus bill, sending his irate colleagues scrambling to come back to D.C. in the event they have to vote.
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has asked them to be back by 10 AM, ET "if they are able and willing to be in D.C." All of this is making Massie as unpopular with House colleagues as Rand Paul is with senators. Even Rep. Jim Jordan—yes the Ohio grandstander—isn't happy. "If [voice vote is] the method used to get this to the American people, to get this passed, then I think lots of members are probably okay with that," he said, while driving back to Washington. "I know the plan is for it to be a voice vote, and that's what the leadership has said they're for, and I think that's fine."
House leaders—Democratic and Republican—had hoped to pass the bill by voice vote with a minimum of members present in order to keep them, and all of the people they will come across in their travels from all over the country, safe. Had those leaders figured out a plan for remote work weeks ago, when it was pretty clear from what was happening with the virus around the world, maybe they wouldn't be in this position now. Hopefully, while they're all around, they'll enact a rule change to allow them to do the nation's business while working from home.