Happy Friday! You are busy, and donât need a long-form note from Wrongo. But, here are a few items you may have missed that accurately describe the Republican Party today:
First, The GOP didnât follow its own rules during a vote on Thursday. The subject was a measure to ensure protections for the LGBT community in federal contracts, and it failed to pass after âinitially passingâ during the time allotted for members to vote. Then, the Republican leadership urged their members to change their votes. The leadership kept the vote open as they pressured members to change sides, allowing lawmakers switch their votes without following the “Regular Order” process of walking to the well at the front of the chamber.
By changing their votes, the House GOP inserted a poison pill that overrides Obama’s executive order banning LGBTQ discrimination in federal defense contracts. From The Hill:
Initially, it appeared Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney’s (D-NY) amendment had passed, as 217 “yes” votes piled up over 206 “no” votes when the clock ran out. The measure needed 213 votes to pass. But it eventually failed, 212-213, after a number of Republican lawmakers changed their votes from “yes” to “no” after the clock had expired.
More from The Hill:
According to the office of House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD.), at least seven Republicans changed their votes, including Reps. Jeff Denham (Calif.), Darrell Issa (Calif.), Bruce Poliquin (Maine), David Valadao (Calif.), Greg Walden (Ore.), Mimi Walters (Calif.) and David Young (Iowa). Denham, Valadao, Poliquin and Young are among the most vulnerable Republicans up for reelection this year. Walden, meanwhile, chairs the House GOP campaign arm.
Twenty-nine Republicans voted for Maloney’s amendment to a spending bill for the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction projects, along with all Democrats in the final roll call.
But the awesome kicker was House Speaker Paul Ryanâs âsee and hear no evilâ: When asked about the vote-switching, Ryan denied knowing whether his leadership team pressured Republicans:
I don’t know the answer. I don’t even know…
He then defended the provision in the defense bill: (brackets by the Wrongologist)
This is federalism, the states should do this. The federal government shouldnât stick its nose in [the statesâ] its business
Simpler Paul Ryan: The federal government has no business regulating federal defense contracts. That should be left to the states. You know that even Paul Ryan is smarter than that.
Second, The Donald at a Chris Christie funds-raiser in NJ:
Look, a lot of you donât know the world of economics and you shouldnât even bother. Just do me a favor, leave it to me.
If you are in the audience, you are insulted, but still cheering. Or this: (brackets by the Wrongologist)
My trade deal is very simple, I am going to make great deals for our country…It [the trade deals?] might be free, it might not be free.
Yes, he said those two things in the same speech. Do either of those statements cause you to trust that you will be better off after a Trump administration?
Finally, this perspective from Matt Taibbi in the Rolling Stone on May 18th after Cruz conceded:
If this isn’t the end for the Republican Party, it’ll be a shame. They dominated American political life for 50 years and were never anything but monsters. They bred in their voters the incredible attitude that Republicans were the only people within our borders who raised children, loved their country, died in battle or paid taxes. They even sullied the word “American” by insisting they were the only real ones…their idea of an intellectual was Newt Gingrich. Their leaders, from Ralph Reed to Bill Frist to Tom DeLay to Rick Santorum to Romney and Ryan, were an interminable assembly line of shrieking, witch-hunting celibates, all with the same haircut â the kind of people who thought Iran-Contra was nothing, but would grind the affairs of state to a halt over a blow job or Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube.
A Cruz supporter lamented: (brackets by the Wrongologist)
People don’t care about civility anymore…Why are we [Republicans] so mean?’
But the real question is, “Why vote for the GOP?â
You know, why vote for a Pant Load Republican who tells you not to worry about economics.
Or a Pant Load Republican who tells you he didnât know what happened with a House vote that passed after it didnât pass, a vote, that in effect, vitiated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for federal contracts.
That very same Pant Load who says we should leave regulating federal contractors to the states.
Though this was not the subject of your post, in fact that we separate the legislative from the executive turns out to remove from the legislators any responsibility for government.
For me, our system is absurd. Yes it prevents a certain kind of power but it also prevents effective governing.
@Terry: excellent point. But there is no system in which an individual back bencher, or a miniority faction, is held accountable, except by the voters in their election district.
Getting out the vote is the most important job in any local election.
I withheld my commenting further to think about it. I also read a bit about the German Parliament. And while “back benchers” may be able to be individualists, Parliamentary systems align the admin with legislation – hence no other nation of similar economic size and strength had to create the complexity that the ACA is… nor do other nations have such a hard time with appointments. Ours was designed for the wrong problem – it simply does not work today.
@ Terry: The sad thing is that only Congress can reform Congress. In the past, they held membership accountable. But with 3 factions in Congress, and when 218 votes are needed to pass something, accountability is as not important as when there were 2 parties, and the leader would kick you off your plum committee, or cut off funding to your pet project if you got out of line. Even if an authoritarian like The Donald is elected, Congress will remain beyond his reach. A parliamentary system might work, but Congress would have to vote for it before the Constitutional Amendment circulated to the states. The alternative is political revolution, precinct by precinct. Don’t support Bernie, but he’s got the right idea.
I agree. I am simply saying it is hopeless. I vote but not with enthusiasm.
And… maybe if the news media stop the bullshit about our democracy, perhaps (in a decade of two) we will accept the need for a revolution.