Too bad Trump can’t be the dictator on Day One that the commies claimed he would be because the Republicans in Congress seem committed to making things much more difficult than they have to be. They need to get on board or get out of the way. We’ve lost one nominee already, and they are showing that familiar wobbliness that they always get about Pete Hegseth and several others. They have announced no clear plans for the first hundred days, and when someone does not tell you the plan, you can assume that there is no plan. Plus, they seem to be going back to their old habits of selecting congressional leadership not based on core attributes like merit, loyalty and lib owning. Trump 2.0 is focused and eager to keep his promises and make America great again. The GOP Congress seems far too focused on business as usual.
This will not do. The old-school GOP types are failing to read the big America-shaped room. There’s a new sheriff in town and you better not leave him to face the bad guys all alone at high noon. An election is coming in just two short years; 2026 should be, if history is any guide, a bloodbath for the president’s party. But it does not have to be. Trump has shown that the old rules do not apply to him. This could be a triumph, but the Republicans in the House and the Senate need to get on board. It’s either the Trump dance or the usual failure Kabuki dance.
I say let’s go with YMCA.
First, we need some unity on Trump’s appointments. I know some of them are not to the GOP squishes’ liking. Too bad. Advise and consent is a thing; since I am not smarter than the Founders, I am not advocating that they rubber stamp anyone. But if you oppose a Trump nominee, it had better be for a better reason than Deep State hacks are upset, or she allegedly loves Putin, or the Dem go-to of bogus sex charges. You would think that after Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh, they would realize how the scam works. And I worked on Capitol Hill for a little while – please spare me the feigned shock and horror that somebody scored some booty on the side.
We need unity to the extent we can get it. We know Lisa Murkowski is the worst and that Susan Collins has to be a Maine Republican, but everyone else needs to fall into formation. We do not have time for showboats, wimps, or losers. I like John Thune’s Marvel villain name, and he needs to channel that vibe by bringing down the hammer. No slackers, no dissenters, no more scalps for the Democrats.
Over in the House, Mike Johnson has his work cut out for him with a narrow majority complicated by several folks taking off for administration jobs. But he already wavered on the transexual bathroom issue before finding some spine and taking a stand. His problem is that he wants to be nice, while the rest of us want to be victorious. Nice will not cut it. He has a key role in getting the Trump agenda passed. What’s the plan? What are the priorities? Who knows? Not us. There has been a long tradition of the GOP caucus leadership keeping us and the members in the dark, then dropping a garbage download at the last minute and demanding it be rammed through without thought, reflection, or amendment. That model cannot continue. Not only do the members need time to review legislation, but We The People do too – because we will catch the nonsense ourselves.
Johnson needs to be organized and focused to get President Trump’s agenda moving. But first, he must ensure that the right Republican is in the right job. We’re done with committee chairman picked because they are pals of the Speaker or are simply old. We need people committed to the President’s agenda wielding the gavels. Sadly, it is not clear that the GOP gets this. One example is the fight for the House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair. The choice for this critical slot is simple and obvious, yet the GOP is making it hard. Darrell Issa of California, who previously chaired the House Oversight Committee during the first Trump term, is an Army vet and a supporter of Trump on Ukraine and everything else. He’s up against Ann Wagner of Missouri, who was an ambassador to Luxembourg, which is barely a country, and is a huge Trump backstabber. Oh, she also identifies as a girl, which some of these hacks think matters. We’d take differently-abled lesbian Hindus of color chairing every committee if they were America First.
But Wagner is an establishment snake. She just adored Trump over the last few months when she was running for reelection, but she will almost certainly revert to form if chosen. In 2016, she withdrew her Trump endorsement because he said mean stuff. She wanted to censure Trump over J6, though he did nothing wrong. Who needs that kind of invertebrate playing to the Washington Post chairing a key committee when you can get someone like Issa who will be with us in Ukraine and whenever else it counts?
This is the kind of unforced error the GOP needs to avoid. But the problem is that the GOP caucus has traditionally been unable to avoid unforced errors. The House needs to come out swinging with the legislation Trump needs to cut the budget and our taxes, focus on high-payoff investigations, and hold its tiny minority together. Everything depends on what happens up on the Hill. That is Trump 2.0’s Achilles heel, and the Democrats realize it even if our own people don’t seem to.
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