It’s “March Madness” in the nation’s capital, where the dysfunctional House of Chaos has left town on spring break and the cherry trees around the Jefferson Memorial are in full and, for many, final bloom.
The National Park Service plans to cut down about 150 trees to make way for a new seawall and sidewalks. Chalk it up to climate change. There’s another problem several blocks east where the legislative body is unable to legislate and the Republican conference in the House resembles a circular firing squad, while the Democrats watch from the sidelines.
Before leaving on yet another recess, the House was thrown into one more crisis when conspiracy theorist and Jewish space laser discoverer Marjorie Taylor Greene tossed one of her trademark bombs. She introduced a measure to remove Speaker Mike Johnson after only five months on the job. His crime: compromise with Democrats to pass a spending bill to prevent a government shutdown.
Speaking of high crimes, House Republicans have abandoned their signature project for this Congress, the impeachment of President Joe Biden. It seems they couldn’t find any crimes or misdemeanors, especially after their star witness turned out to have ties to Russian intelligence and was indicted for lying to the FBI.
This was the pet project of Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R-Kentucky), who wanted Republicans to be able to say Donald Trump’s two impeachments were no big deal. It was also a humiliating defeat for Fox News and Sean Hannity, both having pushed this in hundreds of fact-free broadcast segments.
Greene left her bomb in midair since she didn’t trigger the requirement for a vote within two days on the removal of another speaker. It took 22 days and three tries last October to pick a replacement for Kevin McCarthy, but the queen of chaos may thirst for the spotlight too much to care about the damage and humiliation of a repeat. She has said she’ll force a vote if Johnson brings up funding for Ukraine.
There was no money for Ukraine or emergency aid for Israel for the Gaza war in last week’s massive spending bill, but it did include $3.8 billion in regular military assistance and missile defense systems for the Jewish state. Most Republicans voted against the bill.
Meanwhile, the GOP majority keeps shrinking as veteran members leave without waiting for their terms to end. By the time Congress returns on April 9, it may be down to a one-vote margin.
The Republican Conference appears to range ideologically from far Right to extreme Right, as moderates become an endangered species. Most cite frustration with the chaos in their party.
Netanyahu should know better than to address Congress
JOHNSON HAS been talking about inviting Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of the Congress to contrast Republican support for the Israeli prime minister’s conduct of the war in Gaza with intensifying criticism among Democrats.
Netanyahu should know better than to accept such an invitation while he is at loggerheads with Biden over the next move in the war, but he has trouble resisting the temptation to meddle in partisan US politics. Last week he did a private video hookup with Republican senators, and, according to leaked reports, he trashed the Democratic administration and president. Bibi is getting old and apparently has forgotten all the damage he did when he led the GOP lobbying against the Obama-Biden administration’s Iran nuclear deal in 2015.
On Monday he canceled a White House visit by aides to discuss Gaza strategy, after the United States abstained on a nonbinding UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire and hostage release.
National Security Council spokesman Adm. John Kirby said the administration is “perplexed” that Bibi is “choosing to create a perception of daylight” between the two allies. Israeli sources say the prime minister’s cancellation was intended to appease the uber-hawks in his coalition.
Trump, in an interview with Israel Hayom, owned by the Adelson family, Trump and Netanyahu benefactors, warned that Israeli should “get the job done” in Gaza because – and here he was correct – it is “losing a lot of the world” support. He then went back to trashing Biden and Jews who don’t vote for him.
The disgraced former president kept up his antisemitic tropes and defense of January 6 rioters and insurrectionists. He called them “hostages,” “political prisoners,” and “patriots” who he’d free if he becomes president. On the other hand, he might also be calling them cellmates.
Israel’s troubles are only growing in Washington and beyond. The status of Israel’s democracy was downgraded this month by the Varieties of Democracy Institute for the first time in its history. It dropped one level from liberal democracy to electoral democracy, the same category as Poland and Brazil. The change was attributed to “government attacks on the judicial system.”
Biden wants Bibi to think more about postwar Gaza – the president is thinking in terms of peace with the Palestinians, the prime minister about military control. But Jared Kushner has another idea. The former president’s son-in-law who is also a real estate mogul wants to develop some beachfront property in Gaza, maybe some luxury condos, a hotel or three, a casino, and maybe a Club Med. But first something needs to be done about the locals.
“Gaza’s waterfront property could be very valuable,” he told a Harvard University meeting. “I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up.” Maybe he’d be investing some of the $2b. the Saudis gave him when he left the White House. Of course, it wasn’t a payoff, don’t even think such things.
THERE’S A lot more madness this March. Trump is talking about bringing back to his campaign convicted felon Paul Manafort, who went to prison for tax evasion, bank fraud, and other crimes. The bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee called him a link between the Trump 2016 campaign and Russian intelligence.
The Islamic State terrorist group took credit for the bombing of a concert venue in Moscow. Bet you didn’t know “ISIS is a false flag operation run by Israeli intelligence to harm Muslims.” That’s the view of an anti-Israeli Islamist posted on X (formerly Twitter) and “liked” by Israeli-Arab Knesset member Ahmad Tibi. Pro-Hamas users of social media are posting similar accusations.
As lawmakers rushed off for another recess, the Republican Study Committee, a group of House conservatives that includes the leadership, dropped yet another bombshell. In a preview of what they want to do if Republicans control the White House and the Congress next year, they called for cutting Social Security and Medicare by $1.5 trillion and raising the retirement age from 67 to 69. In a big gift to their Big Pharma donors, they want to repeal Medicare’s ability to negotiate drug prices and remove the $35 out-of-pocket cap on insulin. They also plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act and impose more restrictions on abortion and IVF.
I can hear Democrats cheering them on. Go for it, they’re saying, make my day and my election.
This is madness.
The writer is a Washington-based journalist, consultant, lobbyist, and former American Israel Public Affairs Committee legislative director.