Day: November 15, 2023

Playing To The Camera

I have often stated that I think cameras in Congressional hearings is a bad idea for all it is actors playing to the cameras for some sort of attention.

It seems that a Senate hearing turned into a infantile playground mash-up recently.

This incident occurred during a labor hearing in the Senate when a senator from Oklahoma showed his ass because he was all butt hurt over some Tweets a labor leader had made.

The calling out the leader to a fist fight….this dumbfuck thinks he is Andrew Jackson) and Bernie had to step in and calm things down.

“God knows the American people have enough contempt for Congress. Let’s not make it worse,” Sen. Bernie Sanders said as a Republican senator challenged the president of the Teamsters union to a fight during a hearing Tuesday. When it was his turn to ask questions during the hearing on labor unions, Sen. Markwayne Mullin read out Sean O’Brien’s posts on X calling him a “clown” and a “fraud” and telling him to “quit the tough guy act” after a previous clash in March, CBS News reports. “You want to run your mouth, we can be two consenting adults, we can finish it here,” Mullin said. O’Brien replied, “OK, that’s fine. Perfect.”

You want to do it now? Stand your butt up then,” Mullin said, per the Hill. “You stand your butt up,” O’Brien replied, prompting Mullin, a former mixed martial arts fighter, to rise from his chair in the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee room. Sanders, the committee’s chair, banged his gavel and said, “No, no, no, sit down. Sit down! You’re a United States senator, sit down.” When Mullin tried to suggest a cage fight to benefit a charity, Sanders attempted to get things back on track, telling the senator, “If you have questions on any economic issues, anything that was said, go for it.”

But if you prefer a visual then watch this….

Somebody needs to grow a pair and make these Congress people act like they are a ruling class.  This guy needs to be censured, then muzzled and then thrown off the committee and made to be a political spectator.  If he wears his anger on his sleeve maybe he should resign and work on anger management.

Now why the title?

This goofball ran to FOX News to get his time in the limelight.

After the verbal back-and-forth had ended, that GOP senator, Oklahoma’s Markwayne Mullin, decided he wasn’t done talking about the tussle, taking to Fox News to discuss it with Sean O’Brien. “In Oklahoma, you don’t do this,” Mullin told host Sean Hannity Tuesday evening. “Maybe you run your mouth in New Jersey, I don’t know, I’m not from New Jersey.” Mullin added that he refused to be intimidated by O’Brien, whom he referred to as a “mob boss” who wanted to “bring a mob mentality back to the Teamsters.”

When Hannity noted that he thought any other reaction from Mullin, who’d stood up from his seat as if ready to fight O’Brien, would’ve been “gutless,” Mullin concurred. “What did people want me to do?” Mullin asked, adding that he “used to get paid to fight professionally” (he’s a former MMA fighter). “If I didn’t do that, people in Oklahoma would be pretty upset at me. … I’m supposed to represent Oklahoma values.” Mullin concluded that “we need more of this, to be quite frank—I’m not saying more violence, but we need more people to be taught a lesson.”

The senator had a similar take when he spoke on Fox’s Bottom Line, whose hosts noted how “disrespectful” O’Brien had been with some of his online criticisms directed at Mullin. “I will tell you this for sure, that’s not how we behave in Oklahoma, and I’m an Oklahoman first,” Mullin said. “If you run your mouth, you will be called out on it.” When asked if there’d been anything that people at home couldn’t see during his run-in with O’Brien, Mullin answered, “The fear in his eyes when I stood up. He was scared out of his mind.” O’Brien didn’t directly address their bickering online, but he did like this tweet.

What a chest thumping primate?

If his hackles get up that easily then maybe he should stay off social media (if you knows what it is that is)

But hold on!  There’s more!

Representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee said Mr McCarthy “elbowed” him in the back while he was speaking with a reporter in Congress on Tuesday.

Long-term adversaries of Mr McCarthy’s, the pair led efforts to oust him from the Speaker’s office in October.

Mr McCarthy said the alleged altercation was accidental.

The incident, described by NPR journalist Claudia Grisales who witnessed the interaction, came just hours before Mr McCarthy’s replacement, new House Speaker Mike Johnson, passed his first major legislative test, a full House vote on his plan for avoiding a government shutdown.

“He’s a bully with $17m and a security detail,” Mr Burchett said of the former Republican leader. Mr McCarthy later told reporters the physical contact was accidental.

“If I would hit somebody, they would know I hit them,” the Californian congressman told reporters.

But in his ethics complaint, Mr Gaetz said Mr Burchett described the assault as a “sucker punch” and a “clean shot to the kidney”.

The ultra-conservative argued in a letter that the incident deserved “immediate and swift investigation by the Ethics Committee”.

“This Congress has seen a substantial increase in breaches of decorum unlike anything we have seen since the pre-Civil War era,” he wrote in the complaint.

This incident just fortifies my contempt for Congress and its theatrics….no matter what party stands in the light.

This is what we get when we allow mental midgets the reins of power….squabbling like demented 8 year olds.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

I Told You It Would Be Interesting

The game is afoot….that ‘shutdown’ game played every so often.

We have a new Speaker and time for him to show his stuff….and yesterday he did just that.

In what is seen as new House Speaker Mike Johnson’s first major test, he is attempting to pull off a feat that eluded predecessor Kevin McCarthy: Get a bill passed to avoid a government shutdown and keep his job. The House was expected to vote Tuesday on Johnson’s plan to pass a continuing resolution to avert a shutdown on Saturday, reports the Hill. Assuming that happens, the Senate was to move quickly as well.

  • The move: Johnson is using what Politico describes as a “parliamentary gimmick” to get his deal done. He is pushing a two-tiered funding schedule that provides money for some agencies through mid-January and others until early February, per the AP. The “laddered” funding plan has drawn plenty of critics, but it appears to have a chance. Johnson’s continuing resolution does not include steep funding cuts sought by conservatives that would have been deal-breakers to Democrats. It also puts off a decision on defense spending until the latter bracket. “We’re not surrendering, we’re fighting,” said Johnson, “but you have to be wise about choosing the fights.”
  • Needs Democrats: Johnson aims to pass the bill “under suspension of the rules,” a parliamentary maneuver that means he needs the support of two-thirds of the chamber and thus help from Democrats, per the Washington Post. Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said his party was “carefully evaluating” the proposal. Other Democrats sounded happy that Johnson had avoided spending cuts or “poison pill” additions and voiced their support, per the Hill. In the Senate, Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said he’s on board, as is the White House, reports Politico.
  • Jobis safe? Last month, McCarthy’s stopgap deal (passed under the same fast-track process Johnson is using) got him ousted because it angered the House’s hard-right flank. The House Freedom Caucus doesn’t like Johnson’s approach either, reports the Hill, but nobody appears to be trying to push Johnson out. Instead, the caucus said it is “committed” to working with him. Why the difference? “You have to ask the people that did that, that took out the last speaker—and how they can contort themselves into now supporting this speaker making the same play call,” said GOP Rep. Patrick McHenry, who served as interim speaker after McCarthy. Hard-right Republican Rep. Chip Roy said that while he disagrees with Johnson’s approach, he “commends” him for trying to solve a difficult situation, per the Post.

And then the proof in the pudding….the vote….

A big win for new House Speaker Mike Johnson: A stopgap funding bill to prevent a government shutdown passed easily on Tuesday. The House voted 336-95 vote to approve the two-tier bill, which funds some government agencies until January and others until February, the Washington Post reports. Johnson needed Democratic votes to pass the measure, which was rejected by dozens of hard-right Republicans. The Senate is expected to pass the bill with bipartisan support before the shutdown deadline of midnight Friday, reports the AP.

That part of the saga is a done deal….how will the characters start pulling this way or that?

Will he or won’t he?

Stay Tuned!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”