The low expectations of soft majorities
The GOP’s psych profile fits a certain… “moral flexibility,” as Martin Q. Blank once put it.
Republicans once had rules they enforced about behaviors by their members that brought disrepute to the caucus. Actually, they were more like guidelines, as Dr. Peter Venkman once put it.
Steve Benen highlights the history of Republicans’ flexibility in light of the cascade of lies told by freshman Rep. George Santos (if that is his name) of New York.
Seriously, the man allegedly scammed $3,000 he’d raised on Go Fund Me page for cancer treatment for the service dog of a disabled, homeless veteran. (The dog died.) He lied about his mother working in the World Trade Towers on 9/11. (She was in Brazil.) The rest of his resume is fabricated. Is he even a U.S. citizen? If so, under what name?
Kevin the Spineless just awarded George Santos/Devolder/Zabrovsky committee assignments, arguing that 1) Santos (if that is his name) was duly elected, 2) he may be under investigation but hasn’t been formally charged, and 3) disciplining Santos (if that is his name) is up to the Ethics Committee.
How low can the GOP go? As people observed during Trump’s administration, there is no bottom.
Benen remembers when Republicans still had some standards:
When House Republicans surrendered their majority in 2006, it marked the end of a difficult period in which an astonishing number of GOP members were caught up in ugly scandals. Names like Tom DeLay, Duke Cunningham, Bob Ney, and Mark Foley became nationally notorious for a reason.
And so, four years later, when Republicans retook the House majority, GOP leaders went out of their way to make clear that they wouldn’t allow a replay. The new Republican majority, House GOP leaders said, would constitute a “zero-tolerance policy” for members caught up in embarrassing controversies that reflected poorly on the party.
For a while, they even seemed to mean it. In 2010, then-Republican Rep. Mark Souder acknowledged that he’d had an affair with a congressional staffer. GOP leaders urged him to resign, and he did. Less than a year later — at which point McCarthy was a member of his party’s leadership team — then Republican Rep. Chris Lee was caught trying to meet women through the personals section of Craigslist. GOP leaders urged him to resign, and he did.
In 2014, then-Republican Rep. Vance McAllister was filmed kissing a staffer who was not his wife. GOP leaders urged him to resign, and though he refused, at least they made the effort. (McAllister lost his re-election bid soon after.)
In each of these instances, House Republican leaders didn’t simply leave matters to voters. They didn’t care that the members hadn’t been formally charged with any crimes. They didn’t punt concerns to the Ethics Committee. For all of their faults — and there were many — GOP leaders in the chambers set standards for their members and enforced them when members were caught up in humiliating scandals.
That was then. Before The Man of 30,000 Lies took control of the Republican Party and proved beyond any doubt that its standards were as flexible as they are situational. But you knew that.
Benen: “McCarthy is ignoring principles because the House Republican majority is tiny, and the new speaker can’t afford to see it shrink.”
McCarthy’s already suffered significant shrinkage.
(Graphic h/t BS)