Over the past week, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie spent more time on TV trying to “rescue” Republicans from self-destruction than Dr. Anthony Fauci spent trying to save Americans from the latest Covid variant.
Of course, the health of American democracy would improve tremendously if Christie’s pleading resonated. This, just as surely as the health of the American people would if Fauci’s did.
Unfortunately, sales of the book Christie was peddling suggest that his pleading fell on deaf ears. Granted, it did not help when talk show host Nicole Wallace cross-examined him about glaring omissions in his book that favored Fox News. Because this celebrated prosecutor suddenly looked like the proverbial kid who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
As for Fauci, well, as some point this year, the American people began treating him like their crazy uncle who got out of the attic and ended up on TV …
That is why the spread of this latest Covid variant will be matched only by the spread of Republican-on-Republican violence. And while anyone in their right mind should be concerned about the former, anyone in their right mind should understand why the latter is so heartening.
Attorney Lin Wood continues to have tensions with other prominent individuals in the Trump world — saying on Saturday that he’s at ‘war’ with lawyer Sidney Powell and retired Lt. General Michael Flynn.
Wood on Friday claimed that he believed Flynn, Powell, and others involved with the pro-Trump ‘Stop the Steal’ movement are grifters.
Previously, Wood has clashed with pro-Trump Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, as well. Wood bizarrely claimed in early October that the far-right GOP congresswoman is actually ‘a communist.’ Greene responded, describing Wood as a ‘monster.’
(Newsweek, November 27, 2021)
Wood, of course, is the QAnon fixer who is also now threatening to sue Fox News pundits Tucker Carlson and Dan Bongino. And, aping the projection his cult leader Trump does so reflexively, Wood claims they defamed him by claiming he’s a grifter who stole millions from the defense fund MAGA dupes created for Kyle Rittenhouse, the poster boy for white vigilantism.
But I see no point in dignifying their spat with any further comment. Not least because far more heartening is the metastasizing spat among Republican members of Congress, which Newsweek chronicled on November 30 as follows:
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As U.S. Representative Lauren Boebert faces backlash for comments deemed anti-Muslim made against Representative Ilhan Omar, some Republicans have denounced her remarks [insinuating Omar might be a suicide bomber] — while others have defended her.
Congresswoman Nancy Mace, who represents South Carolina’s 1st District, told CNN … ‘I didn’t come to Congress to throw bombs on Twitter, to take advantage of people by saying crazy things to raise money or to be a comedian.’
Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois retweeted a video of Boebert’s remarks, adding the caption: ‘Boebert is TRASH.’
Congressman Tom Reed of New York called her out for ‘high school level’ antics while on CNN Monday night.
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia responded on Tuesday to Mace condemning Boebert. ‘@NancyMace is the trash…’
Mace hit back, writing: ‘What I’m not is a religious bigot (or racist). You might want to try that over there in your little ‘league.’’
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy released a statement on Saturday, but did not go as far as to condemn Boebert, writing: ‘She has apologized for what she said and has reached out to Congresswoman Omar to meet next week.’
Boebert and Omar continued to spar over the issue Monday after Omar accused Boebert of failing to directly apologize for the ‘hurtful and dangerous’ remarks during a phone call.
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On it went … and on it goes – highlighted by Boebert refusing to issue a full apology after Greene overruled McCarthy and warned that would not be the Trumpian thing to do. Yes, that duly censured Greene – who seems to think her only reason for being in Congress is to troll and otherwise insult fellow members.
So, if you needed any evidence that the lunatics are running the political asylum the Republican Party has become, the way this incident played out is Exhibit A.
Ultimately, though, the story is not these lunatics or their craven leaders. It’s the media that keep covering their manifest absurdities – the consequences for public discourse be damned. In other words, just as they continually covered the political arsonist Trump in 2016, knowing full well that their coverage was only fueling the destruction of American democracy, they are covering many political arsonists today, knowing full well that remains the case.
Because the brand of politics these lunatics are normalizing amounts to little more than waking up every day and thinking not how to serve constituents, but what to say or do to incite outrage, banking on viral media coverage. And it works every time.
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