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Today's GOP joke: OG Republican thug Newt Gingrich demands Gaetz's expulsion from Congress [1]

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Date: 2023-10-03  

“When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber” ― Winston Churchill

Since the dawn of the Republic, conservative white men have fought to preserve their iron grip on the nation’s wealth and power. They once called themselves Democrats. Today, they find their home in the GOP. They have paid lip service to the women and minorities who give them a superficially broader appeal. But they remain dedicated to the principle that America is a white man’s country — as the Bible demanded.

Until the 1990s, they maintained the illusion that they were civilized, moral patriots — who supported law and order and honored family values — while they defended freedom and promoted the belief that government should stay out of the citizen’s business.

Then Newt Gingrich took a wrecking ball to that carefully constructed fantasy and laid bare the festering evil at the core of their dyspeptic and rapacious souls.

Now, this exemplar of brutish incivility burnishes his hypocrisy by demanding that Republicans expel their leading agitator because — as Newt tells the Washington Post ,

“Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) is an anti-Republican who has become actively destructive to the conservative movement.”

I have no idea what the conservative movement is unless Gingrich means the current murder/suicide pact the GOP is offering America.

Gingrich fleshes out his argument:

“Gaetz obviously hates House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) — and that’s fine. If Gaetz were simply a loudmouthed junior member who attacked McCarthy every day, that would be fine, too. He would just be isolated with a small group of lawmakers who can’t figure out how to get things done. They’d huddle together seeking warmth and reassurance from their fellow incompetents.”

Whatever Gingrich thinks — and whatever he thinks is invariably wrong — he can not accuse Gaetz of being unable to get things done. Florida’s forehead set out to ax McCarthy as Speaker, and now McCarthy is no longer Speaker. Who is the incompetent?

It is instructive to remember that Gingrich once set out to oust Bill Clinton as President — but by 1999, he was gone as Speaker — while Clinton went on to finish his second term. I suspect that McCarthy’s defenestration has dredged up bitter memories of Newt’s own political assassination at the hands of his teammates.

Gingrich continues his fantasy of Republican achievement:

“But Gaetz has gone beyond regular drama. He is destroying the House GOP’s ability to govern and draw a sharp contrast with the policy disasters of the Biden administration.”

What ability to govern? The GOP has controlled the House for eight months — what have they accomplished? Their only effort has been to find the facts that would mandate President Joe Biden’s impeachment. A hunt that has proved a spectacularly shoddy effort by — as Gingrich would put it — a group of lawmakers who cannot figure out how to get things done while they huddle together seeking warmth and reassurance from their fellow incompetents.

McCarthy's weakness did draw a sharp contrast between the feeble ineptitude of the Republican caucus and the Biden administration’s record of success. But like every inconvenient fact, Gingrich ignores that while promoting his alternative reality — that Republicans have the ability to govern.

Gingrich then enumerates what the GOP should be doing:

“This week, McCarthy and House Republicans should be focused on cutting spending in appropriations bills. Republicans should be focused on advancing their impeachment inquiry into President Biden. They should be pursuing and amplifying immigration policy changes to address the wildly out-of-control southern border.”

Whatever. Newt can complain about what the House Republicans should be doing. But if he were honest (work with me, I’m speaking theoretically), he would admit that McCarthy’s ouster came months after the GOP had established they would not get anything done.

Gingrich further spanked Gaetz by saying,

“Instead of taking these positive steps — which would help move the conservative agenda forward — Gaetz has been egocentrically going from TV show to TV show and attacking his own party by repeatedly threatening to bring a motion to oust McCarthy as speaker, which he did late Monday.”

Please! Gaetz is hardly the only egocentric conservative who goes from TV show to TV show to promote their personal version of crazy.

Gingrich then plumbs the depths of hypocrisy:

“I served 20 years in the House, including four as speaker. On occasion, I fought against the GOP establishment. I led the fight against President George H.W. Bush’s 1990 tax increase after he had broken his word about “no new taxes.” I felt bound to stay with my commitment to the American voters. Unlike Gaetz, though, when I rebelled, I represented the majority view of the caucus at the time.”

In essence, Gingrich is whining that Gaetz did not listen to what he was saying, but instead Matt did as Newt did. He attempts to differentiate his rebellion from Gaetz’s by appealing to numbers. However, a wrong thing is not made right because a majority of people want it. And where does the Constitution say that a Representative better keep their damn mouth shut unless the majority of their party agrees with them? (Note: The Constitution never mentions political parties.)

Gingrich is like every expedient politician. They will create fantasy rules, imaginary traditions, or unspoken laws that permit them to do what they want while prohibiting others from doing what the politician does not want.

Gingrich is an 80-year-old man who, had he chosen a different road, could have embraced venerable statesmanship while looking back on a career of accomplishment. Instead, he elected to pursue the nihilistic path of dead-end conservatism — and now yells at the 41-year-old kid walking on his grass.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/3/2197165/-Today-s-GOP-joke-OG-Republican-thug-Newt-Gingrich-demands-Gaetz-s-expulsion-from-Congress?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web

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