Press: GOP freak show: Who’s in charge?

The law of averages prevails. Put 435 people together, anytime, anywhere in the country, and you’re bound to have a handful of misfits – even if those 435 people also happen to be elected members of Congress.

Nevertheless, what’s stunning today, among Republican members of Congress, is how many misfits there are and how much they’re allowed to get away with. In fact, looking at the House Republican caucus, it’s no exaggeration to say that inmates have taken over the asylum. Every week we see actions by certain Republicans that are more and more troubling.

Last week marked a new low when Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), who repeatedly refers to the progressive “squad” as the “jihad squad,” expressed her fear that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), a Muslim, might be a suicide bomber. Then, she said, she realized “She doesn’t have a backpack, she wasn’t dropping it and running, so we’re good.”

Boebert, who first gained notoriety by insisting, unsuccessfully, on carrying a gun on the House floor, is also one of four Republican members of Congress – together with Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Paul Gosar (Ariz.), and Madison Cawthorne (N.C.) – who offered a congressional internship to Kyle Rittenhouse.

Gosar, of course, exhibited his own violent instincts by recently posting an anime video in which he killed Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and attacked President Biden with a pair of shears – all in good humor, he insisted. After a “conversation” with Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), Gosar took down the video – only to repost it a few days later.

Gaetz took things a step further. One day after a gunman killed nine people in San Jose, in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley, Gaetz urged supporters to take up arms against Silicon Valley executives. Attacking what he called “the internet’s hall monitors out in Silicon Valley,” Gaetz told a rally in Dalton, Ga.: “We have a Second Amendment in this country, and I think we have an obligation to use it.”

Perhaps the nuttiest of all is Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). Still a member of Congress, despite having once endorsed violence against Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama, insisting an airplane never hit the Pentagon on Sept. 11 and alleging that a space laser started last year’s California wildfires to benefit a Jewish bank (?), Greene’s now engaged in a bizarre feud with fellow Republican Rep. Nancy Mace (S.C.), whom she called “the trash in the GOP conference.” Mace responded to Greene on Twitter with three emoji: bat, poop, and clown.

To which list of misfits, now add Kentucky’s Thomas Massie, who – just days after a Michigan teenager shot and killed four fellow students at Oxford High School – released his Christmas card showing him and six family members in front of their Christmas tree. But, instead of a family pet or wrapped presents, all seven of them, including one clearly underage daughter, are brandishing a long gun, along with the greeting: “Merry Christmas! Ps. Santa, please bring ammo.” For bad timing and bad taste, Massie wins the prize.

Such improper, even dangerous, behavior by so many House Republicans is bad enough. What makes it far worse is that the one person, who could and should exercise a little discipline, is missing in action. To this date, Leader McCarthy has neither condemned any of this outrageous behavior nor taken corrective action.

It’s not a question of politics. It’s a question of good manners. Bad behavior we would never tolerate by any teenager is not acceptable for members of Congress, either.

Press is host of “The Bill Press Pod.” He is author of “From the Left: A Life in the Crossfire.