You have to give House Speaker Kevin McCarthy credit for one thing at least: He’s handling interviewers’ questions about Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene with marginally more aplomb than Jerry Seinfeld being asked about the puffy shirt. And she’s way, way more embarrassing than any single item of clothing, no matter how evocative of stale sweat and barnacles it might be.
For one thing, Seinfeld’s puffy shirt merely said, “Hey, I’m a pirate!” Whereas, for McCarthy, Greene’s presence on House committees clearly states, “No going back for seconds on my soul ‘til Satan gets a piece!”
Because McCarthy’s Republican House majority is so razor thin, he’s forced to bow to the nation's foremost anti-gazpacho warrior, prompting his face to seize up like a first-gen Furby being asked to explain string theory to Louie Gohmert. So you get mortifying exchanges—like the following between McCarthy and journalist Margaret Brennan.
From Sunday’s edition of Face the Nation:
Transcript!
MCCARTHY: “These are members who just got elected by their constituents, and we put them into committees, and I’m proud to do it.”
BRENNAN: “Let me ask you about some specifics then. Marjorie Taylor Greene, you put her on a new subcommittee to investigate the origins of COVID.”
MCCARTHY: “Yes.”
BRENNAN: “She compared mask requirements to the type of abuse Jews were subjected to during the Holocaust, she called for Fauci to be arrested and imprisoned, and she spread conspiracy theories. How’s anyone supposed to take that work seriously and find that work credible?”
MCCARTHY: “Very well. You look at all of it, so you have all the questions out there … ”
BRENNAN: “You think these are legitimate questions?”
MCCARTHY: “I think what the American public wants to see is an open dialogue in the process. This is a select committee where people could have all the questions they want and you’ll see the outcome.”
Oh, God, that was embarrassing. Tell me his face wasn’t about to turn redder than Trump’s after yet another lost weekend spent bobbing for fondue. And do we really want someone who asks “all the questions”? Some of those questions are really goofy, Kev. Or maybe you hadn’t noticed.
Unfortunately, McCarthy’s alliance of convenience with Greene has also landed her on the House Oversight and Homeland Security committees. Fortunately, Biden insiders see that largely as a good thing—at least with respect to Oversight.
Politico:
The panel tasked with probing Biden policies and actions, as well as the president’s own family, will be stocked with some of the chamber’s biggest firebrands and die-hard Trumpists — including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) and Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) — ideal figureheads for a White House eager to deride the opposition party as unhinged.
No administration wants to feel the heat of congressional investigations, and Biden’s team is no different. But privately, the president’s aides sent texts to one another with digital high fives and likened their apparent luck to drawing an inside straight. One White House ally called it a “political gift.”
...
“[W]ith these members joining the Oversight Committee,” White House oversight spokesperson Ian Sams said in a statement, “it appears that House Republicans may be setting the stage for divorced-from-reality political stunts, instead of engaging in bipartisan work on behalf of the American people.”
Bottom line: I doubt very much the U.S. will ever arrest Dr. Anthony Fauci for dispensing sound, scientifically grounded public health advice. Nor will we hold a series of Nuremberg trials for people who asked you to wear a face mask inside Hobby Lobby.
What’s almost certain, though, is that Greene et al. are not done embarrassing their leader.
And now … this:
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