Case In Point: Missouri
The Missouri Republican Party its very conservative, very pro-business and very corrupt. And now there’s a raging civil war inside the state legislature between the establishment and a neo-fascist wing (6 crackpot state senators) that identifies with the Freedom Caucus in DC. Earlier this week, the Missouri Independent reported that the establishment ousted some Freedom Caucus troublemakers’ from their committee chairs— and took away their parking spots. “The Republican civil war in the Missouri Senate,” wrote Rudi Keller, “reached a new crescendo of strife Tuesday, when Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden stripped four members of their committee chairs and declared he was acting against ‘a small group of swamp creatures.’ The action toward members of the newly formed Freedom Caucus took away traditional prerogatives of senior legislators and even relegated the targeted four to parking spots as far from the Missouri Capitol building as possible. Rowden said he was forced to act after caucus members tied up the Senate for 11 hours on Thursday in an unsuccessful attempt to force action on bills making it harder to pass an initiative petition.”
It’s worth noting that several of the Freedom Caucus nuts are running for statewide office including Bill Eigel (governor), Denny Hoskins (Secretary of State) and Andrew Koenig (treasurer). Rowden is also running for Secretary of State.
“The beginning of the 2024 legislative session in the Missouri Senate has been nothing short of an embarrassment,” Rowden said at a news conference. “A chamber designed to be occupied by civil, principled statesmen and women, has been overtaken by a small group of swamp creatures who all too often remind me more of my children than my colleagues.”
Members of the Freedom Caucus responded in a news conference of their own, then took their complaints to the Senate floor. For almost four hours, they filibustered approval of the journal and complained about Rowden’s punitive measures.
Rowden, said Sen. Rick Brattn of Harrisonville, is “somebody that wants to go out and say that we’re bringing peace, yet wants to bring nothing but war.”
Both sides accused the other of using public attention on the fight to win votes in statewide primaries later this year… “The chaos caucus has chosen to use the Missouri Senate as a place to try and salvage their languishing statewide campaigns and intentionally destroy the institution in an effort to claim that the game is rigged against them,” Rowden said.
Hoskins, however, saw the action as a desperate attempt by Rowden to revive his campaign.
“Senator Rowden is using the same playbook that Joe Biden is using on President Trump on me to try and silence me and win and beat me in a statewide race by using his position of power to be punitive,” Hoskins said.
When the afternoon floor session ended, it did not silence either side.
Rowden held a second news conference of the day outside his office, but not before Eigel approached reporters to get his version told.
“It’s never been about policy for them,” Eigel said. “It’s been about individuals trying to preserve power at the expense of what we believe are the issues that Republicans sent us to Jefferson City for.
This seems to have caused a unique proposal in the state Senate by Freedom Caucus lunatic Nick Schroer: a proposed rule change that would allow senators to settle their differences by challenging each other to a duel. “If a senator’s honor is impugned by another senator to the point that it is beyond repair and in order for the offended senator to gain satisfaction, such senator may rectify the perceived insult to the senator’s honor by challenging the offending senator to a duel.”
The proposal was drafted by state Sen. Nick Schroer, a Republican in the Missouri Freedom Caucus. The group’s members have been at odds with the Senate’s GOP leadership in recent weeks and have used procedural tactics to put the brakes on routine work. The caucus wants the Senate to immediately debate measures to make initiative petitions more difficult to pass, including one in support of abortion rights.
“Senator Schroer is deeply committed to restoring a sense of honor in the Missouri Senate,” Schroer’s chief of staff, James Murphy, told Newsweek in a statement. “While the idea of a duel may have been suggested in a metaphorical sense, the core message is about fostering respect and reminding members that the words used in a debate may have real consequences.”
Earlier this week, the Senate’s Republican leaders stripped Freedom Caucus members of their committee chairmanships and parking spots, while Senate Majority Leader Cindy O’Laughlin on Thursday said she “absolutely would” like to expel from the chamber state Sen. Bill Eigel, a vocal member of the caucus, according to the Associated Press.
“The beginning of the 2024 legislative session in the Senate has been nothing short of an embarrassment,” Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden said in a statement. “A chamber designed to be occupied with civil, principled statesmen and women has been overtaken by a small group of swamp creatures who, all too often, remind me more of my children than my colleagues.”