Politics

Today’s edition of Politico Playbook has as fine an example of Murc’s Law (only Democrats have agency or any causal impact on American politics) as you’ll ever see:

POLITICO Playbook: Dems’ dicey decision: Punish Boebert or not?

IS AN APOLOGY ENOUGH? — The drama surrounding Rep. LAUREN BOEBERT’s (R-Colo.) Islamophobic comments about Rep. ILHAN OMAR (D-Minn.) is about to heat up as lawmakers return from Thanksgiving recess this week. Sources tell us a faction of Democrats is expected to push leadership to strip Boebert of her committee assignments or censure her after she joked about Omar, who is Muslim, being safe to ride with in an elevator because she wasn’t wearing a backpack…

The situation highlights the slippery slope Democrats created when they removed MTG from her committees over comments she made before entering Congress. Where do Democrats draw the line? If Democrats don’t lower the boom on Boebert, what message would it send to the Muslim community? But if they do, what message does that send to those who apologize for saying something wrong?

Republicans have their own divide to navigate. Greene took to Twitter to tweak Boebert over her apology, writing that “the Jihad squad are undeserving” of one. The apparent split — the two were thought to be friendly before this — could complicate McCarthy’s effort to calm the waters. Watch Boebert’s rhetoric this week, too. We’ll soon find out how sincere her apology was, particularly if she maintains her current posture amid Greene’s criticism.

Emphasis theirs, dog help us.

PP doesn’t elaborate because horserace, but Greene was stripped of committee assignments for trafficking in racist and anti-Semitic tropes and advocating violence against elected Democrats — which she continues to do as an elected member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Why haven’t Democrats fixed that problem, I wonder?

Also, how fucking laughable is it to allude to “McCarthy’s effort to calm the waters”? JFC. McCarthy is a weak feather that fell off a vulture’s butt into class 6 rapids. He’s been spinning in a vortex right under that perched vulture’s asshole ever since, hoping a rip-current of insanity deposits his sorry ass in the Speaker’s office.  “Calm the waters,” my God, as if that haircut is capable of righting a listing teacup.

Weird also that there’s no examination of how Boebert’s (and Greene’s, etc.) bigoted comments might alienate the Muslim community and other Americans who disapprove of U.S. congresspeople enthusiastically smearing millions of fellow Americans. The GOP’s feral children get a pass from the likes of Politico and its imitators because that’s just the nature of the party, so it’s not even worthy of notice, but do tell us more about that “slippery slope Democrats created.”

Open thread.

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