Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC): "She Is Dragging Our Brand Down"
Republican Thom Tillis didn’t wind up the senior senator from North Carolina by falling off a turnip truck. He ran against a GOP incumbent to win a seat in the state House in 2006 and rose to become Speaker after leading a successful battle for the majority in 2010. As speaker, he oversaw a drastic, Uber-partisan gerrymander of the state, led the effort to block the expansion of Medicaid, made it harder for minorities to vote (later struck down by a federal court for targeting African Americans with almost surgical precision), worked his ass off to pass a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and restructured the state’s tax code to favor the wealthy. You get the picture? Garden variety southern conservative. There was no reason to think that when he ousted conservative Democrat Kay Hagen, he would be any better in the US Senate. But he has been, somewhat, at least that he isn’t some deranged MAGAt like JD Vance (R-OH) and Tommy Tuberville (R-AL).
So… it shouldn’t come as a big surprise that he laid into Moscow Marge Tuesday evening. “I think she's uninformed. She is a total waste of time. She is a horrible leader. She is dragging our brand down. She— not the Democrats— are the biggest risk to us getting back to a majority.”
A couple of days ago, GOP strategist Alice Stewart was on CNN to talk about Moscow Marge. Asked about her serious her threat is to MAGA Mike’s gavel, Stewart replied, “Look, her threat is to Congress getting things done. She is such a self-serving member of Congress. This is all about fund-raising, her getting attention. She’s causing chaos and confusion. The problem is, she doesn’t have the army to back her up. And the frustrating part of all of this she talks about putting forth this motion to vacate. She didn’t put forth a plan. She has not put forth an alternative. If she really had the balls to do this, she would have done this before this big vote yesterday and put her money where her mouth is. And she is certainly not doing that.”
Stewart accused her of “playing Real Housewives of Georgia, throwing over tables” instead of working to solve any of America’s problems. She forgot to mention that Greene’s ghostwritten memoir, MTG, which was published last November was a complete flop and that there are lots of unsold copies in the bargain bins that need to be moved.
Edward Luce, tried explaining to Financial Times internationally-based readers— typically well-educated and financially literate individuals who are looking for in-depth analysis, insight and reliable information— what this is all about. Readers in financial centers like London, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Singapore, Zurich, Tokyo and Sydney might find it hard to fathom how someone like Moscow Marge even continues to exist inside the GOP. Luce began by urging his readers to “watch carefully and you can see the Republican party forming a circular firing squad. The trigger was last weekend’s much delayed vote for $61 billion in Ukraine aid. Republicans were divided almost evenly. The difference between a yes and a no vote on Ukraine was far bigger than Ukraine; it represents irreconcilable world views. Not even Donald Trump, who is sitting distractedly, day after day, in a dingy New York courtroom, can bridge the gulf between globalist and anti-globalist Republicans. They talk about each other as the enemy. ‘It’s my absolute honour to be in Congress, but I serve with some real scumbags,’ said Tony Gonzales, a Texas Republican, before referring to his ‘neo-Nazi’ primary challenger who is being backed by some of his House colleagues. ‘These people used to walk around with white hoods at night. Now they’re walking around with white hoods in the daytime.’ Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate leader, is only slightly less blunt: ‘So much of the hesitation and short-sightedness that has delayed this moment is premised on sheer fiction,’ he said of the Ukraine funding.”
Regardless of the trial’s outcome and its effect on public opinion, Trump will return with a vengeance when it is over. But a spell was broken in the House last Saturday. For the polite fiction of classifying some of the aid as a loan, Trump gave Joe Biden and Ukraine— the two names that span his impeachments and election defeat— a timely reprieve. The House also passed a bill authorising Biden to seize $6 billion of Russia’s frozen reserves for Ukraine. Most of the rest of Russia’s $300 billion in foreign assets is in Europe. The Kremlin was not happy. “We had fully expected this,” said Vladimir Putin’s poker-faced spokesman. Putin’s predecessor as president, Dmitry Medvedev, called for a new US civil war that would “lead to the inglorious break-up of the 21st century’s evil empire.”
Much more likely is that Republicans will degenerate into their own civil war. Almost half the party— 101 voted yes, 112 voted no— are now wedded to positions far beyond the Ukrainian battlefield. Trump, in his acquiescence, is also now strangely linked to these stances. The idea that Biden conspired with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to harm Trump’s 2020 election prospects is now accepted as nonsensical. So, too, is the notion that Putin poses an exaggerated risk, or is in fact a friend. If Ukraine was worth another $61 billion, how could it possibly be a threat to US democracy? Perhaps the courtroom so shrunk Trump’s field of vision that he failed to apprehend what he had agreed to outside it.
