Well, we knew this was probably going to happen sooner or later. The push to expel Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has begun...sort of. Will it be successful? That is an entirely different matter. Two-thirds of the House will need to sign off on this, and only five members have ever been expelled. Two, Michael Myers and Jim Traficant, both Democrats were expelled in 1980 and 2002 respectively for corruption and bribery charges.
You have to go back to the start of the American Civil War to find the other three members, John William Reid, Henry Cornelius Burnett, and John Bullock Clark—all Democrats. The reason they got the boot was simple: they backed the rebellion of southern states.
So, if Greene is expelled, she makes it into the history books, not just as the sixth member to be purged from Congress, but the first Republican to be added to the list, not that that’s any real honor. The resolution was introduced on Friday over Greene’s past incendiary posts against Nancy Pelosi when she was a private citizen. There is one glaring issue, however (via The Hill):
Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) on Friday formally introduced a resolution to expel Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) from Congress over her past indications of support for violence against prominent Democrats.
"I believe some of my Republican colleagues, and one in particular, wish harm upon this legislative body. And I'm not saying this for shock value. It's the conclusion I drew after a member of Congress advocated violence against our peers, the Speaker and our government," Gomez said on the House floor.
"I take no joy in introducing this resolution," Gomez continued. "But any member who incites political violence and threatens our lives must be expelled. And I'll do everything I can in my power to protect our democracy and keep all my colleagues safe."
[…]
More than 70 Democrats have signed on to the expulsion resolution so far, according to Gomez's office.
Aside from the difficulty of securing support from Republicans to get a two-thirds majority to expel Greene, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) indicated Friday that House Democratic leaders aren't getting behind Gomez's resolution.
"Members are very unhappy about what happened here, and they can express themselves the way they do. What Mr. Gomez did is his own view. And that is not [the] leadership position," Pelosi said at a press conference in the Capitol.
Wait…so Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leadership aren’t behind this…at all. This is dead in the water. It’s theater. It’s once again Congress wasting time on trivial matters. Remember the words folks: ‘all talk, no action.’ When the same play is repeated over and over again, voters get tired, populism rises (as it should), and anger becomes overwhelming. If Pelosi isn’t even supporting this measure, then what are we even doing here— it’s just another expedition into the land of make-believe, which liberals love to visit.
Look, Greene has said some wild things. She’s out there, but she was elected. She didn’t commit treason. She didn’t commit a crime. Members of Congress are just soft. Period. The motion to remove Greene from her committees was already egregious and a slap in the face to the voters who sent her to D.C. You may not like her. You may hate her, but she was elected by the people to represent their interests. If this is the new standard, the ‘Greene Standard,’ then Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and other progressive firebrands have to go as well. That’s the rule.
It boils down to Democrats not liking a member of Congress. Well, I’m not a fan of Omar and her alleged anti-Semitism, so she gets the ax. See how silly this is becoming. The boomerang never fails to hit the face of the Democrat who chucked it.
If Democrats want to defeat Greene, I suggest they cobble together at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee headquarters and find someone who can run against her. In 2022, they can try and beat her. If they can’t, tough luck; you can’t always get what you want.