Minorities in the House of Representatives are rarely relevant, but the current GOP minority is only a few seats from taking back control. That makes its deliberations Wednesday over two of its Members an important message about the party’s potential return to power.
A few dozen backbenchers want to depose Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney from the House leadership for voting to impeach Donald Trump. Other Members are concerned about the high public profile of Marjorie Taylor Greene, a freshman Member from Georgia with kooky views. If the House GOP punishes Ms Cheney while saying nothing about Ms Greene, it will deserve a longer time in the wilderness.
Ms Cheney’s impeachment decision was a vote of conscience, as GOP leaders said at the time. She joined nine others in voting to impeach Mr Trump after an assault on the Capitol that followed weeks of false election claims from the White House. Some Republicans say Ms Cheney has special obligations to reflect the GOP conference as a leader, but GOP leaders didn’t whip the vote and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was offering little guidance.
Ms Cheney should get credit for daring to stand alone despite the political risks. The Trumpians are vowing to defeat her in a primary in 2022, and Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Trump acolyte, flew to a rally in Cheyenne last week to stir up opposition. Donald Trump Jr. called into the rally to promote a primary challenge to her in 2022.
If bowing before all things Trump is the litmus test for being a loyal Republican, the party should get used to continued losses in the suburbs. Mr McCarthy should be defending his colleague’s vote as a matter of principle, even if he disagreed with it, rather than living in fear of the wrath of Mar-a-Lago.
As for Ms Greene, Democrats are trying to make her the face of the GOP after stories have emerged that she bathes in internet misinformation. The news last week was a Facebook post from 2018 in which she speculated that California’s wildfires were really started by a space laser. Somehow the Rothschilds were involved.
She has promoted the QAnon nonsense and called Mr Trump the right leader to defeat “this global cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles.” She has said there’s no evidence a plane hit the Pentagon on 9/11 and suggested the 2018 Parkland, Fla., school shooting was a false-flag event.
Ms Greene somehow won a crowded primary, then a run-off, in her heavily GOP district. But it’s not clear how tuned-in many Georgians were to her wilder views. John Cowan, the Republican she beat, recently said voters wanted a flamethrower. Now, he added, “A lot of people call me and say, ‘Wow, we didn’t know she was really going to be this way!’” Mr Cowan could have used more help from the rest of the party.
But Ms Greene won, and she deserves to be judged on how she handles herself in office. Democrats also have their share of cranks in the ranks. “Israel has hypnotised the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel,” Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar once wrote. After being elected, she explained her view of why Congress backs Israel: “It’s all about the Benjamins baby.”
California Rep. Maxine Waters urged people to harass Trump Administration officials at restaurants or gas stations, and she now runs the Financial Services Committee. The point is that ousting a Member of Congress has usually been left to the voters, with the exception of criminal behaviour.
The House GOP could deny Ms Greene committee assignments, as it did with former Iowa Rep. Steve King in 2019. But Mr King had spent years in Congress making noxious racially tinged statements. Iowa voters defeated him in a primary. Ms Greene has been in the House for only a month. Mr McCarthy’s best option for now might be to warn her about future comments and behaviour, and if she crosses a line he can then strip her of committee slots. Voters in her district will get another chance in 2022, and Georgia Republicans could also reconfigure her district based on the 2020 Census.
Congress has had many oddballs over the decades, but in our social-media age the opposition will try to turn the words of even a single Member against the whole party. That’s the GOP’s Marjorie Taylor Greene problem. Congress today also has many Members like Mr Gaetz, who view the House as a platform for their personal political brand rather than a place to legislate.
The main goal of the House minority is to become the majority, and in 2022 Republicans should have an excellent chance. But they’ll squander it if they purge serious Members like Liz Cheney and let themselves be defined by conspiracy theorists and Parkland truthers.
The Wall St Journal
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