…unless it comes from the Schaden region of Germany.
Before the main course, the amuse-bouche: You may have noticed Chris “I Ate The Meatloaf” Christie was all over TeeVee last week to promote his book. So far it’s sold fewer than 2300 copies. You hate to see it.
Time for an appetizer: So Dr. Oz, who I never watch because I don’t watch CNN, is running for the Senate seat currently held by Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, who is retiring. There’s one problem: Oz doesn’t live in Pennsylvania. He lives in New Jersey. Now that in itself isn’t disqualifying—my own House rep, the useless Alex “I Spent Campaign Money On A LOT of Chik-Fil-A” Mooney, didn’t live in WV at first, either. Oz recently registered in Philadelphia using his in-laws’ address and voted absentee from that address, but somehow I think that’s going to be a problem for the party that is determined to root out voter fraud.
The whole situation is ridiculous, and his own House rep had a perfect reply to the news:
I want to congratulate my North Jersey constituent Dr. Oz on his run for US Senate in Pennsylvania. I’m sure this fully genuine candidacy will capture the hearts of Pennsylvanians. https://t.co/poMegBfBfC
— Bill Pascrell, Jr. (@PascrellforNJ) November 30, 2021
We’re Americans so we eat our salads before the entrée: The QAnon/Stop The Steal coalition has come apart at the seams. Last week Lin Wood threw Sidney Powell (who may or may not be under investigation) under the bus. As Adrastos wrote about yesterday, Michael Flynn said on a recorded call with Lin Wood that QAnon was “nonsense” and on Monday Wood told all of us.
And now the main course: Lauren Boebert has been telling some really weird fake stories about Ilhan Omar, and one was filmed:
Over the Thanksgiving break, Lauren Boebert said she was recently in a Capitol elevator with Ilhan Omar when a fretful Capitol police officer ran up.
Lauren Boebert said: “Well, she doesn’t have a backpack. We should be fine.”
Boebert then called Ilhan Omar, “jihad squad.” pic.twitter.com/Y7f0nFbnud
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) November 25, 2021
There is a description of another retelling of it here.
Omar is understandably upset and Boebert won’t apologize. And then Nancy Mace (you remember her, right? She put profanity and fake antifa symbols on her property on Memorial Day and then got as much press coverage as she could) and Marjorie Taylor Greene got themselves involved:
Welcome to Congress pic.twitter.com/UvZDUjd53s
— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) November 30, 2021
Things further escalated Tuesday evening:
Nancy Mace to reporters just now: “All I can say to Marjorie Taylor Greene is ‘bless her fucking heart.’”
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) November 30, 2021
Kevin McCarthy called them in and, uh, it didn’t go well:
McCarthy had a meeting with Greene and Mace and told them to stop. Greene walked out of the meeting, ignored McCarthy, and started telling a reporter that she supports a primary challenge against Mace pic.twitter.com/hJ4yohW2uS
— Acyn (@Acyn) December 1, 2021
You know, this schadenfreude tastes pretty authentic to me.
(As delightful as I am finding all of these comeuppances, I have to say that Boebert and Greene are truly reprehensible and have put Omar’s life in danger (she played a tape of a threatening message a Boebert supporter left for her on Tuesday night), Mace is a compete fake, and it’s shameful that this is how our national legislature operates.)
The reason I am enjoying all of this is that should the Republicans take the House next year, it doesn’t look like Kevin McCarthy is going to be able to get much done. The nuts have taken the reins of power and that’s not a recipe for a successful legislative session.
This seems appropriate, no?