There are way too many Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives, mostly because of Karl Rove, the architect of Bush Two’s 2004 re-electuion. And after SCOTUS punted five days ago in the political gerrymandering cases on a technicality, we still don’t know what Roberts & Co. will do if they ever get around to deciding that issue on the merits.
Paul Ryan, who really doesn’t like Donald Trump, has many, many problems with his Caucus. Remember Speaker John Boehner? He resigned in 2015 without completing his term because of the constant revolts against his leadership from hard-core conservatives in the House; he now pulls down a paltry $400,000 a year as a board member of Reynolds American, the second biggest tobacco company in the United States. No doubt, he is much happier where he is now.
There are, depending on how you look at it, three versions of the GOP in the House and Senate. Maybe just two, but let’s have a quick look.
There are the so-called moderates, who, most likely, don’t like Trump at all, because he has broken with most of their traditional values, such as free trade and being nice to their wives, at least on the surface.
Then there are the Freedom Caucus folk, led by obdurate Mark Meadows (R-NC). They are against most things that are good.
Then, there are the crazy-ass evangelicals, who think that God rules the Republican Party, and that voting is simply a matter of discerning God’s will. Count former Alabama senator Jeff Sessions among them — and he for sure doesn’t like Trump any more.
Trump said three days ago that he wants the House to pass an immigration bill.
The conservative version of an immigration bill went down on Thursday, and the moderate version (which has lots of bad stuff in it) was supposed to be taken up yesterday, but Ryan, McCarthy & Scalise just don’t have the votes….so, they may call for a vote next week, maybe not (https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/22/trump-immigration-legislation-congress-664287).
Then, with a single tweet, Trump made it clear that he wouldn’t support the so-called moderate immigration bill, telling Ryan — who’s on his way out — to wait 'til after the mid-terms — which the GOP is more than likely to lose, bigtime, because of the man they cast their votes for in 2016. And the very obstinate House conservatives may vote Ryan out of his Speakership real soon.
Moments ago, Trump told associate solitary reporter Johanna Jones, confidentially, that it is the solemn duty of all Republicans in the House to greatly intensify, by any means necessary, their all-out war against every Democrat in the House. “Johanna, I know damn well that as the greatest leader of this country ever, I’m the one who set all this stuff in motion because, as I have said before, everybody who crosses into our country illegally from Mexico is nothing more than vermin and vomit. But I am so smart that all I have to do is blame everything on the Democrats, even though I instigated the whole thing.”
“But that’s the way I do things.”
“I am the only one who can make America great again."
All our Washington-based associate solitary reporters, especially Jones, are watching very closely how this plays out, even as the Total Chaos at the border is absorbing much of our collective attention, as well.