Slouching Towards Oblivion

Monday, October 23, 2023

Today's GOP Clusterfuck


Don't be fooled into thinking any of these guys is somehow a "reasonable Republican", even though Emmer and Scott had sense enough to confirm Biden's win.

From Daily KOS in 2021
U.S. House Representative from Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Tom Emmer: a man who looked to be on the fast track into Congress with a record as a state legislator where he attempted to nullify federal law, abolish the minimum wage, and drug test people on government assistance. He also tried to have a bill passed that explicitly had language written into it that “Minnesotans have no constitutional right to an abortion” which sort of contradicts a pretty important Supreme Court ruling you may have heard about, and actually tried to pass legislation to allow pharmacists to deny to sell people contraceptives based on their religious beliefs. Emmer denies evolution and climate change and once froze up during a debate when asked how old he thought the Earth was.

Emmer is also vehemently in the anti-gay category, as he once sponsored a ban same sex marriage in Minnesota, chastised colleagues for discussing an AIDS outreach program by calling it “disgusting discourse”, and has frequently been seen in the company of Bradlee Dean, the head of the “You Can Run But You Can’t Hide” Ministry, which has been classified as an anti-gay hate group for its stance that murdering gay people is “moral”. He also took time in 2015 to call for the repeal of Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform, because apparently he’d like another chance to drive the American economy into a ditch, only eight years after the last time.

Rep. Emmer was surprised when he held a town hall back in February 2017, and hundreds of people showed up to fill a 150 seat venue, dwarfing the attendance from any previous town all in recent years. After it was over, he responded that if people have the nerve to show up and don’t like how he’s doing his job, he’ll just cancel the town hall altogether.

In June of 2018, as the Trump administration’s “family separation” policy was being executed, and migrant children were being torn away from their parents and kept locked in cages by immigration services… Tom Emmer defended that strategy on immigration, claiming that it was up to Congress to stop a policy that Trump could start, and could stop at any time with a stroke of his pen. Also, if Congress was supposed to do something about it, Emmer might want to inform members of his own party, since at the time they controlled the House and the Senate.

During his term Emmer prioritized weakening the Endangered Species Act in July of 2018. His voting record has remained heinous.
  • December 18th, 2019: Emmer ignores his Congressional duty to hold a president who has been proven to commit high crimes and misdemeanors accountable and votes against the first impeachment of Donald Trump.
  • May 15th, 2020: Emmer votes against the HEROES Act, to further support the healthcare industry and citizens affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
  • December 10th, 2020: Emmer signs his name to an amicus brief to the Supreme Court, begging them to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The same election that he won re-election in.
  • January 13th, 2021: Rep. Emmer votes against the second impeachment of Donald Trump, because the Republican Party no longer feels like they should be accountable for anything, including failed coups that result in the deaths of both their participants and police officers.
  • February 4th, 2021: Tom Emmer votes to keep Marjorie Taylor Greene’s committee assignments, because he wouldn’t want her to be accountable for all the bigoted remarks and conspiracy theories she’s spread online (probably because she’s a kindred spirit).
  • February 25th, 2021: Emmer votes against HR 5, the latest version of the Equality Act, that would provide workplace protections for LGBTQ Americans.
  • March 3rd, 2021: Rep. Emmer votes against HR 1, a bill created to prevent the corruption of money in politics, and protect voter access to the ballot box.
  • March 3rd, 2021: Tom Emmer votes against the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021.
  • March 10th, 2021: Emmer votes against the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, because he feels people deserve to die in poverty during a pandemic.
  • March 17th, 2021: Rep. Emmer votes against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm (which statistics show, makes them more likely to use those firearms against women in their lives).
  • May 19th, 2021: Rep. Emmer votes against HR 3233, the creation of a commission to investigate the Capitol Attack.

Though Scott has been in Congress since 2011, he’s not as well known as Judiciary Chair Jordan or Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA), who recently withdrew from the Speaker race. Scott serves on several committees in the House, including the Committee on Armed Services and its readiness and intelligence subcommittees; the Committee on Agriculture; and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and its CIA and NSA subcommittees. He’s also a member of the International Conservation Caucus, a bipartisan caucus devoted to the conservation of natural resources.

Scott is less conservative than Jordan, though he still holds many of the standard Republican positions. He’s against gun control, same-sex marriage, abortion and marijuana legalization. While he did sign an amicus brief supporting Texas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit contesting the 2020 election results, he also joined a letter saying Congressmembers had no authority to object to Electoral College votes without an investigation. He also spoke out against the January 6 riots, and attended the inauguration of President Joe Biden.


Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia’s 8th District announced Friday morning that he would be running against Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) for House Speaker.

“I have filed to be Speaker of the House. We are in Washington to legislate, and I want to lead a House that functions in the best interest of the American people,” Scott wrote on X.

Earlier today, Scott told CNN correspondent Manu Raju that the GOP’s removal of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy “makes us look like a bunch of idiots.”

Though Scott has been in Congress since 2011, he’s not as well known as Judiciary Chair Jordan or Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA), who recently withdrew from the Speaker race. Scott serves on several committees in the House, including the Committee on Armed Services and its readiness and intelligence subcommittees; the Committee on Agriculture; and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and its CIA and NSA subcommittees. He’s also a member of the International Conservation Caucus, a bipartisan caucus devoted to the conservation of natural resources.

Scott is less conservative than Jordan, though he still holds many of the standard Republican positions. He’s against gun control, same-sex marriage, abortion and marijuana legalization. While he did sign an amicus brief supporting Texas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit contesting the 2020 election results, he also joined a letter saying Congressmembers had no authority to object to Electoral College votes without an investigation. He also spoke out against the January 6 riots, and attended the inauguration of President Joe Biden.

In 2001, when Scott was in the Georgia House, he was the first Republican to align with Democrats in removing the Confederate Stars and Bars from Georgia’s state flag. In 2021, he was appointed to the commission to rename military bases named for Confederate figures. The following year, the commission recommended the military proceed with the plan to rename the bases.

Speaking of looking like an idiot - when Jordan failed the first time, Austin hit all the news channels declaring it was the Democrats' fault because they all voted for Jeffries.

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