So says former Republican Rich Galen, anyway:
Last week, U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy – who is struggling for his political life like a swimmer caught in an Atlantic Ocean rip tide – threatened Republican members of the Senate who voted in favor of the omnibus spending bill. He said, in effect, when Republicans take control of the House in January, they will make certain those Senators’ legislative priorities are pushed to the bottom of the stack.
Senate Republicans were not intimidated, and the procedural vote to proceed passed easily.
Some years ago, I was having lunch with a former member of the U.S. House, and the discussion drifted toward this business of bi-cameral equity. He started recounting a time when he needed to discuss an issue with one of his state’s U.S. Senators, so “I went over to the Senate side to meet with his chief of staff.”
I stopped him and said, “You know, that has never happened in reverse. A Senator has never, ever walked to the House side to meet with a Representative’s chief of staff.”
We had a good laugh about it, but it was true.Another example:
When Newt Gingrich was Speaker, I worked out of the Republican National Committee building just off the Capitol compound. One day I was walking across the plaza and a Capitol Police officer stopped me and said I had to walk in the approved crosswalks.
When I got to the Speaker’s suite, I asked Newt when (and why) this new “walk to the rule” business had been implemented. He asked me what I was talking about, and I told him about the cop and the crosswalk.
He called out to his assistant to get the Sergeant-at-Arms on the phone and was told that a pedestrian had been clipped, but not injured, by a car walking across the Senate side of the Capitol plaza and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott had ordered the crosswalk rules be enforced. Even on the House side.
Newt would have none of it and ordered the Capitol Police on the House half of the Plaza to revert to the status quo ante and allow people to cut across the plaza at will. Not only that, but he suggested that I reverse my trek, walk back across the plaza, and report whether his order had been implemented.
It had been.
The point is that Senators believe the only reason the House exists is for joint sessions when the Senate chamber isn’t large enough to handle the crowd. The notion of a member of the House – even the chair of a powerful committee – threatening even a junior Senator with retaliation is laughable.
The crosswalk story, which is true, indicates how jealously each side protects its prerogatives – even when they are controlled by the same party, which, in 2023, will not be the case.
Kevin McCarthy might be elected Speaker on January 3, but his majority will be slim. And, if he thinks his being Speaker will make Republican Senators come to heel, he will be disappointed. Again.
Let’s hear from the real speaker,shall we?
Mitch McConnell helps pass a nearly $2 TRILLION Onnimonster so that he can hand a $47 BILLION dollar check to Zelenskyy when he shows up in DC today.
But in my district, many families & seniors can’t afford food & many businesses are struggling bc of Biden policies.For, Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate to override the upcoming Republican majority and literally steal our responsibility in the House to appropriate spending for nearly half of our upcoming majority, just to help Biden & his retiring Senator friends,
this is a betrayal that can NOT be ignored and there must be action taken.
We, Republicans, as a national party need to have a serious talk about supporting any member of our party that betrays us in this manner.
Our southern border is being invaded so badly and
the American taxpayer’s dollars Mitch McConnell appropriated in this onnimonster only allows our money to help migrants into our country NOT keep them out.
El Paso just declared a state of emergency & has been over run by nearly 140,000 (that we know of) migrants since October!
But Mitch McConnell could not even negotiate with his dear friends Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden???
Especially since they have all served together for almost as long as I’ve been alive?
And Mitch had all the control bc they couldn’t get to 60 votes without him & Republicans.
The American taxpayers are literally paying to prop up many countries all over the world in foreign aid, but America is virtually crumbling before our eyes.
It’s like the American people are raped everyday at the hands of their own elected leaders.
Here is foreign aid in 2022👇
The disconnected & totally oblivious government leaders & sheltered media all live in a bubble & only talk to each other.
They’re so naive & ignorant they think my views are extreme but are totally blind and stupid to the fact that what I am saying is exactly how Americans feel.
Invading our land, destroying our economy, devaluing our dollar, killing our energy, destroying our own critical supplies, enslaving us in debt, harming our children, & castrating our independence while making us pay for it all, eventually won’t be tolerated.
Originally tweeted by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) on December 21, 2022.
Marge is an expert on all this, you see. Sure she’s just in her first term and only became interested in politics when Trump came into office and she got into QAnon online. But she’s a powerhouse in the GOP now. Kevin will no doubt be relying on her to guide him on budgets and world affairs and everything else. She’s a very stable genius and she’s got this.
I don’t know how McConnell will respond to what is sure to be repeated insults but I don’t get the sense he’s too disturbed by it. His legacy as the gravedigger of democracy is already set. He got his court. He could not care less about Kevin McCarthy or Marge Green.
But get your popcorn ready. This is going to be quite the spectacle. Too bad about the country,
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