Sunday, March 31, 2024

Republicans In Disarray -- This Can Come To "No" Good

 



More dumbass cock fighting has erupted in the House MAGA cult, and we're there for it:

Rep. Derrick Van Orden is done with Rep. Bob ["No"] Good.

Good, the leader of the House Freedom Caucus and one of eight Republicans who voted to oust Kevin McCarthy from the speakership, has been at the center of internal GOP infighting that has left their party’s agenda in tatters and their conference embroiled in a bitter civil war.

Now Van Orden has joined hands with a band of House Republicans angling to knock Good off in his June primary by propping up his primary opponent, John McGuire – a tactic long viewed as a serious breach of protocol but one that underscores the bad blood within the House GOP.

“Bob Good didn’t come here to govern. He came here to be famous,” Van Orden, a Wisconsin Republican, told CNN. “Bob Good’s wearing our jersey, and he’s not on the team.”

Van Orden added: “If you look at what we have not been able to accomplish in this Congress, it’s predominantly because of Bob Good and his ilk.”

But Good is undeterred.

As he barnstormed through his district last week with fellow House GOP hardliners, such as Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Chip Roy of Texas, Good said voters in his district don’t care what his colleague from Wisconsin thinks. And he pointedly accused many of his Republican colleagues in Washington of casting votes that hurt the country and undermine the conservative cause. 

“They’ve never heard of Derrick Van Orden. They could care less what Derrick Van Orden thinks,” he said of his constituents, later telling CNN that questions about his Republican colleagues turning against him are “stupid.”

“You come to these things, and you ask questions that nobody here cares about. You bring up Derrick Van Orden, which is a joke,” he said.

“RINOs, establishment moderates do nothing to influence Republican primary elections,” Good added. “Conservative, courageous warriors like those endorsing me today and being here with me today are the ones who my constituents care about.”

The toxic infighting that has dominated the House GOP majority – and has now landed squarely in Good’s conservative district in rural Virginia – is part of a larger battle over the direction of the GOP. As many Republicans in Washington say that compromise and consensus with Democrats is the way to govern in divided government, Good and his bloc of members excoriate such deal-cutting as they push their no-compromise approach...

There's the usual involvement, at least in the background, of the Malignant Loser ("No" Good backed DeSantis once) and, likely, former Squeaker Kevin McCarthy, who's interested in paying back the extreme MAGAts who ended his Squakership after less than 10 months when "No" Good and seven other MAGAt Republicans (and all Democrats) voted to oust him.

These MAGAts have been so busy fighting amongst themselves that they've managed to become the worst, most unproductive Congress in history, following the Nancy Pelosi led Congress, which passed the Infrastructure Investmen and Jobs Act, the CHIPS And Science Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, the PACT act, and appropriations acts that kept the government from facing the threat of shutdowns.  Let them continue until we have the chance to elect legislators rather than the crop of clowns that are in the House majority now.

(Photo:  "No" Good, center, is subject matter expert on insurrection / via CSPAN)