Same Clown Car, Different Driver

 

It can't be emphasized enough (and now more and more Christofascist Republicans are emphasizing it too) -- the dysfunction of their House caucus hasn't been changed by new Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson: 

The House GOP has descended, as one member put it, into “schoolyard bully bullshit.”

Republicans cannot agree on basic policy priorities or even fund the government without a majority of Democratic votes. Individual lawmakers are going rogue on the House floor with theatrical efforts to censure colleagues and impeach members of the Biden administration. A growing number of lawmakers are choosing to retire because they feel it’s impossible to get anything done.

Amid months of intra-GOP drama, this week stands out: Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy was accused of kidney-punching one of his detractors. House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) lashed out at a Democratic colleague, calling him a “liar” and a “smurf.” Then on Wednesday, conservatives blocked another GOP spending bill, forcing Speaker Mike Johnson to send members home early on a losing note.

Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.), who compared Republicans’ infighting to grade school bullying, said Johnson was doing his best with the party’s slim margins, but the party is still a mess.

“It’s the same clown car with a different driver,” Armstrong said. And unless the GOP could figure out a way to regain control of the floor, he warned: “We essentially don’t have the majority.”

With the next government shutdown threat looming in January, it's unclear how MAGA Mike will maintain his ordained- by- God Speakership in the face of rebellious nihilist dumdums like these:

Adding to the boiling tensions, House conservatives on Wednesday tanked another appropriations bill that they described as weak — and took a victory lap just after Johnson was forced to cancel votes and send members home through Thanksgiving.

“We’ve had enough. We’re sending a shot across the bow,” House Freedom Caucus Chair Scott Perry (R-Pa.) told reporters after the vote, flanked by a half-dozen other conservatives.

Perry was one of many hardliners who took aim at fellow Republicans on Wednesday, demanding Johnson show them a wholesale plan to cut spending rather than resurrecting individual bills that keep floundering on the floor. They urged the speaker to prove that he is willing to fight for conservative priorities, many of which are DOA with the Democratic-controlled Senate and the White House.

“One thing. I want my Republican colleagues to give me one thing. One. That I can go campaign on and say we did. One,” conservative Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said in a floor speech Wednesday. (Democrats wasted no time in turning his statement into campaign fodder.)...

There'll be plenty of fodder between now and election day 2024, count on it.  Thanks to these working- hard- at- hardly- working incompetent cranks, this is on track to be the least productive Congress since 1931-32, the early days of the Great Depression. 

The Christofascist coup caucus has devolved into petty feuding, backstabbing, and deep ego butthurt that won't be healed soon, if ever.  The nihilism of their cult leader has infected a critical mass of their caucus;  their true goal is to delegitimize institutions like Congress to pave the way for unitary, fascist government under the Malignant Loser.  They're clowns, but that doesn't make them any less dangerous to our democracy.

(Cartoon:  Nick Anderson / Baltimore Sun/ Reform Austin News, TX)