There have always been eccentric, senile and downright simple-minded members of congress. That’s democracy in action. But there is an unusually high number of them these days and they are all right wing Republicans.
We’re accustomed to the House MAGA chaos agents’ preposterous escapades. Like this, for instance:
It’s hard to know if Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene still doesn’t understand how the government works or how the world works but she does have a way of getting attention. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy couldn’t be more happy with her. He told Axios, “I think Marjorie Taylor Greene is one of the best members we have, I think she’s the one of the most conservative members and one of the strongest legislators. I support Marjorie Greene very strongly.” (That was in response to a question about her ouster from the Freedom Caucus which is reportedly because she can’t be trusted not to share their strategies with McCarthy.)
The House has always been the more fractious of the two houses of congress, more partisan and subject to volatility. The idea was that the Senate with its longer terms and larger constituencies would be the “saucer that cools the tea.” With its slower processes and the advantage of not having to run for re-election constantly it was assumed that the Senators could be more deliberate in their actions and temper any radical shifts in policy that would be dangerously destabilizing.
I’m not sure that’s ever been entirely true — there have always been eccentric or radical Senators but this latest crop of Republicans seems to be intent upon giving the House a run for the crazy money. This week’s MAGA Senate Star is Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, the former college football coach who replaced Democrat Doug Jones in 2020. He doesn’t seem to know a whole lot about how the congress works in any case but he certainly hasn’t signed on to any role as a “cooling” agent.
Despite his very brief time in politics he has not taken the opportunity to keep his head down and learn the ropes in the first couple of years, as most novice Senators do. He has, presumably at the prodding of a far right ideological staff, thrown a monkey wrench into the US Military. As the NY Times put it, Tuberville is single handedly obatructing the “smooth transfer of power at the highest echelons of the armed forces, including in the ranks of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.” If that isn’t “Ultra-MAGA” I don’t know what is.
Tuberville is objecting to military policy that allows time off and travel reimbursement to members of the military who must go out of state to receive abortion care now that the Supreme Court overturned Roe Vs wade and many states with military installations have pretty much banned it. The policy does not pay for abortions but Tuberville apparently insists that the military force its personnel to go AWOL if they need one. (I would imagine he is in favor of throwing anyone who does that into the brig as well.) In order to force the military to do his bidding, he is holding up the promotions of all officers and blocking the confirmations of successors to the Joint Chiefs of Staff who are scheduled to depart over the next few months. Just this week the Marine Commandant retired and no one has been confirmed to take his place.
Back in May, Tuberville told a local news reporter that he calls white nationalists “Americans” and elaborated by saying that he considers a white nationalist a Trump Republican because “that’s what we’re called all the time.” He seemed to be completely clueless about what he was admitting. His staff tried to walk all that back but they apparently forgot to tell the boss because he said it again on TV this week.
After the media went into a frenzy on Tuesday, he did finally relent and admit that that white nationalism is racist but it’s pretty clear that he doesn’t believe that.
Like his brethren in the House Freedom caucus, Tommy Tuberville is a MAGA performance artist and he put on quite a show. Whether he’s dim or whether he’s calculated it really doesn’t matter.
But he’s hardly alone. The Senate GOP caucus has quite a few showboaters playing for the right wing media. The granddaddy, of course, Is Texas Sen. Ted Cruz who paved the way a decade ago when he strategized with the Tea Party caucus in the House to help shut down the government during budget negotiations with the Obama administration. He’s still at it, joined by another old timer, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, who’s given Oscar worthy performances in the last few years defending Donald Trump.
Third term Sen. Ron Johnson has also made a name for himself pushing snake oil cures for COVID among other things and just this week said that while he feels for the families of 9/11, he loves golf even more. He is always good for a laugh:
And then we have Rand Paul, R-Ky., who may be the most obnoxious of all:
I’ll say one thing for these men. They aren’t subtle.
A couple of newbies deserve to be mentioned as well because I think they are going to be the heart and soul of the Senate MAGA caucus. The first is the newly elected J.D. Vance of Ohio who has hit the ground running by responding to Trump’s indictment on 37 federal charges by vowing to put a hold on all DOJ nominees. He also took it upon himself to pen a letter to several colleges issuing a demand that they comply with the recent Supreme Court ruling outlawing Affirmative Action or there would be hell to pay.
And then there is the freshman Sen. from Oklahoma, Markwayne Mullin, an election denier and former cage fighter who told a labor leader “shut your mouth” during a testy hearing and proclaimed “I don’t want reality” during a committee meeting about teaching children about race. He suggested that they teach “Jesus loves the little children” instead. And then this happened:
Whatever pretensions the Senate may have once had as the more staid house of congress where the business of government gets done among sober statesmen they are gone now. More and more GOP Senators are unserious people putting on a show to entertain their base and keep the Fox News hits coming. Marjorie Taylor Greene would feel right at home among them.
Salon