May 27, 2023
Today the Texas House voted to impeach Texas attorney general Ken Paxton on 20 counts of corruption and bribery, removing him from office temporarily while the Senate prepares to try him.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) sided with Paxton, saying “No attorney general has battled the abuses of the Biden admin more ferociously—and more effectively—than has Paxton.” Former president Trump also backed Paxton, calling the Republican speaker of the Texas House “barely a Republican at all,” and threatened to target any Republican who voted for impeachment.
During the hearing, Republican state representative Charlie Green said that Paxton, too, had been calling representatives to warn them they would suffer political consequences for voting to impeach.
Paxton is a Trump loyalist who after the 2020 presidential election sued Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin to try to stop the counting of their electoral votes, charging that their elections saw widespread fraud. The Supreme Court threw out the case, saying that Texas did not have standing to sue, but not before it attracted the support of 17 state attorneys general and at least 126 members of Congress, including Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).
McCarthy is now speaker of the House and beholden to that extremist right-wing. In the fight over raising the debt ceiling so the nation can pay bills already incurred, the extremist Republicans have threatened to default on the nation’s bills in order to force the Democrats to defund their signature measures.
Tonight, President Biden and McCarthy announced they have agreed to a budget deal in principle, opening the way for the House to pass a measure to raise the debt ceiling. Now the key question is: do they have the votes to pass such a measure?
McCarthy continues to appeal to the extremists by attacking Biden, saying inaccurately that the president “wasted time and refused to negotiate for months” when, in fact, it was the Republicans who could not agree on what to bring to the table until April 26. But this may well not be enough; already Kyle Griffin of MSNBC reports that two Republican sources have said that the far right is already balking at the deal and is “plotting ways to gum up passage of the bill or add amendments to make it more appealing to hardliners.”
—
Notes:
https://twitter.com/SpeakerMcCarthy/status/1662624437399584768
https://twitter.com/ReallyAmerican1/status/1662555025393045508
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/05/27/texas-ken-paxton-impeachment-updates/
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/05/27/donald-trump-ken-paxton-impeachment/
https://www.texastribune.org/2020/12/11/texas-lawsuit-supreme-court-election-results/
https://www.axios.com/2020/12/10/house-republicans-texas-lawsuit-election
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/05/27/donald-trump-ken-paxton-impeachment/
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1662642497225359362
https://rollcall.com/2023/04/26/house-passes-1-5-trillion-debt-limit-increase-spending-cuts/
The vibe is the crazies will win and the country will lose. Biden handled this Republican terrorist time bomb masterfully. Yes he had to give up things that aren't fair. But he gained the high ground. Whatever bad happens will be squarely on the GOP shoulders in the minds of the majority of voters. But will the economic fallout here and around the world overwhelm whatever narrative advantage Democrats have achieved?
One thing is beyond dispute: the insurrectionists failed on Jan. 6, but their champions in Congress may be poised to deliver economic chaos that Trump wants in hopes it will somehow save him.
It's all so insane.
Republicans caused this. Democrats are being the adults in the room. Again. And again and again.
Stop whining. Pull up our collective socks and re-elect Biden, take back the House, and increase the margin in the Senate.
If the good people of Santos’ districted had sussed him out and elected a democrat, McCarthy’s bill would not have passed. If just one of those new red districts in NY or Florida had gone blue, McCarthy’s bill would have failed. If just a 547 voters in Colorado had voted for Democrat Adam Frisch, McCarthy’s bill would have failed. If there had been just one more sane normal Republican vote, McCarthy’s bill would have failed.
Once that bill passed, it took away much of the leverage the democrats might have had.
So, what do you want Biden to do? He is not dealing with normal sane people. He is dealing with people who want him and the Dems to fail and they see defaulting as a way to make that happen. The Unfreedom caucus is on record as saying that. As is the twice impeached, sex assaulter, criminal defendant, insurrectionist, former guy.
The alternative stealth bill that would “only require 5 sane Republican votes” isn’t going to happen. There aren’t those votes to be had.
Invoking the 14th amendment to pay the bills will be tied up in court, undermining the credibility of the USA. Would you lend money to the government under those circumstances?
Stop complaining about Biden. There is no young, handsome, charismatic, articulate, electable White Knight waiting in the wings to ride to the rescue. Biden cares about this country and it’s citizens.