You Can Bet On It
At least the country won’t be plagued by Madison Cawthorn after January. And the guy replacing him is just a garden variety wing nut, not an actual Nazi like the failed one-term Cawthorn. Unfortunately, Marjorie Traitor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz and Paul Gosar will be back in their full odiousness next term. And probably as much a headache for Kevin McCarthy as for the country. He deserves it; the rest of us… may not.
First McCarthy’s half dozen worst looming nightmares— aside from the returning shit-show— are a gaggle of racists, insurrectionists, fascists and QAnon morons:
J.R. Majewski (OH)- QAnon insurrectionist
Joe Kent (WA)- Thiel fascist
Carl Paladino (NY)- well known racist
Loren Culp (WA)
Sandy Smith (NC)
Mayra Flores (TX)- QAnon lunatic, just won the special election. So she’s already a member, her first official act as a member to whine incessantly that Pelosi pushed her young daughter when she sworn in.
“Far right candidates are surging in House races across the map,” exaggerated Alayna Greene. “Republican leaders increasingly fear that a red wave will wash in a raft of conspiracy theorists and extremists.” McCarthy, she reports, is worried that the establishment is growing weaker— retirees (and primary losers) include Fred Upton (R-MI), John Katko (R-NY), Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), Lee Zeldin (R-NY), Bob Gibbs (R-OH), Trey Hollingsworth (R-IN), Fred Keller (R-PA), Chris Jacobs (R-NY), Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH), Kevin Brady (R-TX), Vicky Hartzler (R-MO), Billy Long (R-MO), Tom Rice (R-SC) and David McKinley (R-WV), basically McCarthy allies. There’s also a chance that Rodney Davis (R-IL) will lose his seat to QAnon freak Mary Miller tomorrow in an incumbent v incumbent race where Trump has endorsed Miller, a neo-Nazi and racist. McCarthy, wrote Greene, “can expect to be saddled with new members who have zero loyalty or predictability” and some have already made it clear they are disdainful of McCarthy.
McCarthy worries he’s getting a boatload of Marjorie Traitor Greenes to deal with. “Greene, for example, has long gloated she's immune to punishment by McCarthy. That's been true even after she and Gosar appeared at a gathering of white nationalists hosted by outspoken Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes. [The number of seats the GOP wins], in conjunction with the number of these controversial candidates who win in the general election, will determine how much influence they have over the Republican conference. Republicans already have a nightmarish job whipping votes for certain legislation because of the House Freedom Caucus— which is experiencing its own identity crisis over the increasing radicalization of its members. These new candidates could complicate that dynamic further.”
No doubt McCarthy— and the whole GOP establishment in DC— are praying that Rodney Davis beats crackpot Mary Miller tomorrow. In Colorado’s new 8th CD R+3 partisan lean), I imagine the Republican Establishment is eager to see any of the other 3 Republicans instead of Weld County Commissioner Lori Saine, a certifiably insane extremist who the Democrats are hoping wins the GOP primary because she’s too extreme for the general and could be beaten in November by Yadira Caraveo. On the other hand, the more establishment candidate, state Senator Barbara Kirkmeyer, is pretty extreme as well, as is Janifer Kulmann. Kirkmeyer’s superPAC has been sending negative mail and negative Digital ads against both Saine and Kulmann to the tune of around $80,000. As of last week, Saine was lagging in fundraising but trying to make up for it in insanity, which often works in Republican primaries. Tomorrow's the big day.