When infrastructure meets road
Republicans are under attack.
Who’s behind the outrage aimed squarely in their direction?
Their fellow Republicans.
This is gonna be fun.
Georgia’s ever-undignified congresswoman, Marjorie Taylor Greene, has made it her personal crusade to attack many of her 32 fellow Republicans who claimed they want better roads and bridges with their vote supporting Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill (now law).
Greene calls them “traitors.”
She has a mighty broad definition of “traitors,” I suppose.
She angry-tweeted the names of the 13 Republicans in the House who voted for the infrastructure bill (now law).
Then, she angry-tweeted their phone numbers.
All of that might seem like fun to some people. But not to one of those Republicans – Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, who’s been getting death threats.
Greene is always attacking somebody about something.
That’s the 2021 Republican way.
To heck with policies that benefit their fellow Americans.
Greene stages protests against mask mandates on the floor of the U.S. House, that have, so far, led to her being assessed $60,000 in fines.
By the end of her term, she might owe Congress more money than she’s earned.
Marjorie Taylor Greene is hardly the only Republican in Congress in permanent attack mode.
Arizona’s Paul Gosar has found himself in hot water because he circulated an animation depicting him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), then turning his wrath on President Biden.
Why Gosar thought it was funny, is beyond, well, just about everybody except Paul Gosar.
The Democrats in the House certainly didn’t think it was funny.
They slapped a censure on him. He’s condemned, and considered persona non grata in the House, sort of.
Gosar? Greene? They’re rarely seen discussing real policies.
In fact, most Republicans seem to prefer talking about: Biden’s mental state; Anthony Fauci; Black Lives Matter or Antifa over things they really aren’t doing; vaccine or COVID-19 misinformation; Democrats being “woke,” or unwieldy proponents of “cancel culture”; the supposedly “stolen” 2020 presidential election; critical race theory that’s not even being taught; mask mandates; vaccine mandates; members of the Democratic Party, by calling it the DEMOCRAT Party; and, of course, Democrats who’re secret communists, socialists or Marxists.
None of those things have anything to do with improving the lives of Americans.
It’s just silliness.
Shortly after the passage of the infrastructure bill (now law!), Rep. Guy Reschenthaler had an opportunity to talk about policy.
He didn’t.
He accused the Democratic behind the bill of having “radical, socialist goals.”
Hum?
The only Democrats who voted AGAINST that bill were the six who’re most likely to be called socialists/Marxists/communists by Republicans – (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortex, and her fellow members of “The Squad”).
As predictable as Reschenthaler’s claim of “radical socialist goals” was, he still gets points for not following the idiotic playbook of Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala).
Palmer’s claim that the infrastructure bill (now a fabulous new law) was ‘recklessly expensive” was a hoot.
Especially since he voted against it. But he’s now taking credit for its passage.
“Completion of Birmingham’s Northern Beltline has been a priority of mine since I was elected to Congress,” he wrote as if he expected everybody to forget that he’d been an emphatic no vote.
Policy didn’t matter.
Accusing Democrats of throwing away money on projects for which he’ll eventually be at the ribbon cuttings for is all that matters, I suppose.
It’s not the policy. It’s the posturing.
It’s not for the betterment of your constituents. It’s for the betterment of your reelection war chest.
Even some folks at Fox News are issuing attaboys for Biden’s new infrastructure law.
Bret Baier boldly claimed it’s a “bipartisan win for Biden.”
That’s thrown some Republicans into a tizzy.
Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, is outraged by PBS because they’ve welcomed a new Asian-American character to Sesame Street.
Schlapp angrily asked, “What race are Ernie and Bert? You are insane PBS and we should stop funding you.”
Schlapp doesn’t understand that the race of puppets has nothing to do with policy.
Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter, and anchor for Entertainment Tonight, and 40-year TV news and newspaper veteran. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.