Dem
51
GOP
49
In Washington, these days, the circus is always in town. The Freedom Caucus, which is about 50% Keystone Kops and about 50%, well, a different organization with multiple K's in its name, is always good for a show. And like a daring high wire act, or a lion tamer, or the bearded lady, it's hard to watch, yet you dare not look away.
To start, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) knows her political future is in danger, what with her having won the narrowest victory in the House in 2022, and set to face the same opponent again, this time with him well-funded and possibly benefiting from presidential coattails. The Representative has decided that the solution to her problems is to become the Grand Wizard of Krazy, and in particular to be "the one" who instigates the impeachment of Joe Biden. To that end, she brought articles of impeachment against the President on Friday, and did so with a privileged resolution, which theoretically would have compelled the House to bring the resolution to a vote within a matter of days.
This maneuver was very upsetting to most of the House Republican Conference. There's no compelling theory, at the moment, for why Biden should be impeached, especially since there would be a trial in the Senate where, you know, evidence would be needed. On top of that, House Republicans have given off a general impression of grandstanding and of being "show" horses rather than "work" horses, from the mess that was the speakership election to the showdown over the debt ceiling. To impeach Biden now, and possibly to impeach him at all, would just be giving ammunition to the Democrats.
Consequently, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) managed to find a "solution," at least for now. The Biden impeachment resolution was redirected to the Rules Committee, which will decide whether or not to bring it to the floor. (Hint: They won't bring it to the floor.) Boebert is not especially happy with this, and is threatening to bring a new resolution if she's not happy with the Committee's deliberations. In hopes of mollifying the Representative and her like-minded colleagues, McCarthy is bandying about the idea of impeaching... AG Merrick Garland. The general idea is that Garland has been mean to Donald Trump and not mean enough to Hunter Biden, and so clearly he's corrupt. We will soon see if the Speaker is serious about this, or if he's just trying to create a distraction.
This is not the only looniness, either. As we noted last week, Boebert is at odds with her one-time ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). Greene thinks that Boebert stole her "impeach Biden" idea, and on top of that, Greene is now something of a House insider, while Boebert is still an outsider. As a consequence of all of this, Boebert and her Freedom Caucus colleagues are considering whether to kick Greene out of the group. They say that the Georgian is a FCINO—that's right, a Freedom Caucuser in name only. You can't make this stuff up (though we have no idea how to pronounce FCINO). As we noted in the previous piece, extremists invariably turn on each other for not being extreme enough, or for being extreme in the wrong way. Anyhow, we'll find out later this week if Greene is officially out of the club. (Z)