Amanda Marcotte’s tweet this morning caught my attention and brought to mind a swirling toilet bowl.
From the referenced Talking Points Memo post:
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) plans to burst back onto the scene with guns blazing through a public crusade to take down “RINOs” (“Republicans In Name Only”), along with Democrats, as the feds investigate him for alleged sex trafficking.
According to Politico, Gaetz is teaming up with far-right extremist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) to launch an “America First Tour,” where they’ll rail against “the radical left” and Republicans who they believe aren’t loyal enough to ex-President Donald Trump.
Maybe I’m imagining things, but this feels like a story we have seen before. RINOs are like commies hiding in woodpiles for conservatives, I guess, and they are still on the watch for those. No matter that the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed 30 years ago in a different century.
Gaetz’s upcoming tour marks an apparent strategy to bombast his way through the ever-growing scandal around his alleged payments to women and a 17-year-old minor for sex, along with allegations that he paid to have the minor travel across state lines. The congressman has not been criminally charged in the federal probe, which also now reportedly includes an investigation into his ties to Florida’s medical marijuana industry.
Gaetz has denied all the allegations.
The Republican’s renewed push to aggressively defend Trump’s honor against “RINOs” comes even as the ex-president reportedly keeps Gaetz at arm’s length. CNN also reported earlier this month that Trump had rejected Gaetz’s request for a meeting.
The stiff-arm from Trump will only heighten Matt’s ardor.