Not even pretending
Speaker Mike Johnson did it. He passed a stopgap spending measure through the House meant to prevent a government shutdown on Friday. With Democrats’ help. With all but two House Democrats. With more Democrats than Republicans. Now as it heads to the Senate, we await the MAGA fallout in the House.
The Washington Post and CNN will give you the bill’s details.
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow reacted to Johnson’s accomplishment and its potential blowback on “The Late Show.”
“I’m sure Mr. Johnson is very … smart,” she began ironically, because “the previous guy was driven out with torches and pitchforks.”
“We all know how this ends. This is not a party that is trying to govern.”
The two parties are doing two very different things. So now we are going to keep the government open. It is because the Democrats came to the rescue and said that we should. But this is the Republican Party still not even wanting to keep the government going because they don’t believe that governance is what we need in this country. They believe we want a strongman form of government under a guy who just says what he wants and it happens. And the stakes are really high right now.
Republicans prove her point
Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) lost the speakership over the same sort of bill. But the hard right seems willing to cut the new guy (Johnson) a little slack. For now. Maybe it’s because they were too busy busting each other’s chops, figuratively and literally.
“Are The Republican Men Okay?” asks TPM. McCarthy allegedly threw an elbow at fellow Republican Tim Burchett of Tennessee (TPM):
It seems that McCarthy shoved or threw an elbow at Burchett. Burchett initially tried to respond jokingly, but when McCarthy ignored him, he yelled: “Hey Kevin, you got any guts!?” Burchett then ran down the hallway to catch him, his tan coat flapping, to confront McCarthy again. McCarthy denied touching him and Burchett called him a “jerk.”
McCarthy respnded to questions, saying, “If I hit somebody, they would know it. If I kidney punched someone, they would be on the ground.”
MAGA Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) filed an ethics complaint:
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), as you may have heard, had to stop a fight from breaking out in a Senate committee:
Finally:
Apparently, in a moment of irritation at a House Oversight Committee hearing this afternoon, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) called Rep. Jared Moskowitz (R-FL) a “smurf.”
“You look like a Smurf, here, just going around and all this stuff,” Comer shot at Moskowitz, who was wearing a blue suit and blue tie today.
“Gargamel was very angry today,” Moskowitz shot back on Twitter.
I don’t think the encounter deserves more unpacking than that, but here’s a more thorough breakdown if you care to ingest a bit more bleach this evening.
Watch the exchange here, if you dare.
TPM’s Nicole Lafond responds, “Something’s in the water.”
It’s not anything resembling adult behavior.