Dem
50
GOP
50
As long as we are on Capitol Hill, let's also note the other big news story yesterday, namely the racist tweet sent (and later deleted) by Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA), whose past social media dalliances with bigotries of various sorts are well-known. The latest was this parroting of Donald Trump, after Higgins was triggered by news of the charges filed against the former president and his running mate by the Haitian Bridge Alliance:
Lol. These Haitians are wild. Eating pets, vudu, nastiest country in the western hemisphere, cults, slapstick gangsters... but damned if they don't feel all sophisticated now, filing charges against our President and VP. All these thugs better get their mind right and their ass out of our country before January 20th.
It's interesting; "vudu" is technically a correct spelling, but an archaic one, not unlike spelling "Mohammed" as "Mahomet." Did Higgins actually know the old spelling? Did he get it from a website? Did he just guess based on sound, and get (semi-) lucky? Or was he aware of the streaming service Vudu (now Fandango at Home), and he just went with that, assuming it was correct? (For reference, if the Congressman reads this, the usual American spelling is "voodoo," the usual Haitian spelling is "vodou" or "voudoun" and the usual French creole spelling is "vaudoux." You don't want your Neanderthal postings to be grammatically incorrect, do you?)
Higgins' posting was only up for a few hours before colleagues persuaded him to get rid of it. Taking the lead here was Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), whose tolerance for racism is generally very high. Higgins really had to dig down deep to clear that particular bar. That said, just because Higgins removed the tweet does not mean he thinks he was in error. He sent a statement to CNN in which he declared that "It's all true. I can put up another controversial post tomorrow if you want me to. I mean, we do have freedom of speech. I'll say what I want."
As we note in the item above, the House has relatively few working hours left before the election. However, Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV), chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, has already filed a motion of censure. That's a privileged matter, so the House will have to vote on it shortly after they return from their November recess.
The reason we write this story up, beyond the fact that it was EVERYWHERE yesterday, is that despite Higgins' (ironic) disdain for Haitian cults, the only real cult in this story is the one that the Representative himself is a member of. Based on what happened with the budget (see above), Donald Trump is losing influence over the Republicans that never really liked him and never really respected him. However, Cult 45 is still alive and well, and that group, though a minority of officeholders, is still in a position to do plenty of damage. That's a theme that runs through the next item, as well. (Z)