I'm so old, I remember when Republicans deserved their nickname as the Grand Old Party, GOP. They were known as solid citizens, skilled in business, dedicated to fighting communism, defenders of freedom, committed to our Constitution, competent leaders.
Those days are gone, at least when it comes to Republicans in Congress. Now the GOP is best known for dysfunction, incompetence, unreliability, lack of a moral compass, fealty only to Donald Trump.
Today was a clear example of this. It was a remarkable Tuesday for political junkies like me. Any doubt that the GOP is better termed the POP, Pathetic Old Party, should have been put to rest by what transpired in the Senate and House.
Over in the Senate, there's every indication that the border security legislation that Republicans demanded accompany funding to support Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan is dead. Or on life support with a dismal prognosis for survival.
Again, this was a Republican priority. The GOP prides itself on being strong on border security. Republicans demanded the legislation because they knew it would be a bitter pill for Democrats to swallow.
And it was.
But after months of intense bipartisan negotiations, a deal was struck that gave Republicans many of their top priorities on border security, while giving Democrats exactly nothing when it came to comprehensive immigration reform, such as a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who have been in this country for a long time.
Nonetheless, most Democrats were prepared to hold their nose and vote in favor of the border security legislation because Republicans had made it a condition for approving the aid to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan.
Today, it was crystal clear that because of Donald Trump, the same Republicans who had demanded that border security be part of the foreign security legislation were set to vote against border security tomorrow.
The reason is obvious, since Trump spoke it out loud: he doesn't want anything done to improve conditions on our southern border because he wants to keep border security as a cudgel he can bash Biden with in the presidential campaign.
Naturally this is horribly un-American. It's beyond disgusting that Republicans are willing to pass on border security legislation that, while imperfect, is much better than the status quo. The union representing Border Control Agents wants to see the legislation pass.
Doesn't matter. Donald Trump has spoken. Virtually all Congressional Republicans are eager to obey him. So what if the United States is harmed? The top priority of the GOP is to do whatever it takes to please Trump.
Further proof of that took place today in the House, where a vote on impeaching Alejandro Mayorkas, the Homeland Security secretary, was scheduled. Constitutional law experts, including conservative ones, agree that Majorkas hasn't done anything that rises to the level of a "high crime or misdemeanor," the standard for impeachment.
That not-so-minor detail didn't stop Republican leaders in the House from having sham committee hearings where the only valid criticism of Mayorkas was that he's carrying out border security and immigration policies that they disagree with.
Well, that's the nature of politics. Biden won the 2020 election. He gets to pick cabinet secretaries. If Republicans want a different set of secretaries, they need to win the 2024 presidential election. But today House Republicans couldn't even convince the members of their caucus to vote to impeach Mayorkas.
That vote failed when four Republicans voted "no." (One of the four voted that way as a procedural maneuver, so there were only three genuine "no" votes.) Another attempt at impeaching Mayorkas will occur when a Republican congressman returns from getting medical treatment. That attempt has a decent chance of success.
So on the same day, Senate Republicans were saying they plan to vote against a bill to strengthen border security, while House Republicans tried unsuccessfully to impeach the Homeland Security secretary for not doing enough to make the border secure.
Sure sounds like those House Republicans should be impeaching Senate Republicans, since they're the ones who don't want to improve border security, not Mayorkas.
Lastly, the House failed to approve a standalone bill with billions of dollars of aid to Israel. Biden had threatened to veto the bill, should it reach his desk somehow, since it didn't include aid to Ukraine and Taiwan.
Still, it was an embarassement to Speaker Johnson and the rest of the House leadership team that two important bills went down to defeat today. Whether you love or hate Nancy Pelosi, you'll have to admit that she could count votes and had much stronger control of her party than Johnson does.
Anyway, I'm sure it won't take long because more examples of Republican dysfunction are evident in Congress. I just hope our country can endure the problem of having one of our two major political parties be so incompetent at serving the needs of the American people.
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