Tlaib is okay? Santos? The new speaker’s House is off to a bad start.
It is better to have a House speaker, even if someone relatively unknown, than to not have one. But so far, under Mike Johnson ... it’s just barely better.
The rebooted 2023 Republican House majority is not exactly off to a roaring start. I’ll cut Johnson some slack on the Louisianian’s early efforts to put together a deal for Israel aid; separating it from assistance for Ukraine aid is probably the path of least resistance. But soon after taking the gavel, Johnson told Fox News, “We can’t allow Vladimir Putin to prevail in Ukraine because I don’t believe it would stop there,” so it would be good if Johnson’s legislative output matched up with his professed values.
Maybe the speaker has a plan to get Ukraine aid passed after the Israel aid. (And don’t forget Taiwan, either. Or additional funding for border security. Oh, and that ticking clock on avoiding a government shutdown.)
But this week, the House chose to not censure Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib and voted not to expel New York Republican George Santos — a lousy start that allowed two of the most embarrassing members in the chamber to wriggle off the hook. House Republicans, you guys climbed out of the abyss of hopelessly divided chaos for this?
On Wednesday, the House voted to table an effort to censure Tlaib over her comments and actions related to the Israel-Gaza war. Tlaib continues to insist that Israel deliberately bombed a Gaza hospital, and that U.S. intelligence indicating Israel didn’t do it is falsified, long after the allegation has been dispelled by objective outside observers.
In a world where so many people seem panicked about “disinformation” in the form of your great-aunt Edna posting on Facebook that President Biden sold Nebraska to China, plenty of folks seem awfully blasé about a member of Congress promoting false stories about Israeli war crimes and accusing the Biden administration of providing cover.
But 23 Republicans voted to spare Tlaib from being censured, and 24 House members — 11 Republicans and 13 Democrats — didn’t even vote. What, were they bingeing some Netflix series or something? This is your job, folks. Tlaib is now claiming vindication, repeating her earlier released statement that the effort to censure her was “deeply Islamophobic.”
Expelling Santos would have required a two-thirds majority, which is a fairly high bar to clear. But the fact that six New York House Republicans introduced the resolution to expel their colleague indicated that there were GOP members willing to exorcise the shameless pathological liar from their midst. Santos faces 23 criminal indictments, and last month his former campaign treasurer, Nancy Marks, pleaded guilty to making false statements, obstructing federal campaign regulators, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Sure, expelling Santos would create a vacancy until a special election was held, and that would put House Republicans at a slight, and I mean slight, temporary disadvantage compared with keeping Santos. But running a GOP House majority with 220 Republicans and three vacancies is only a smidgen more difficult than the current circumstance of 221 Republicans and two vacancies. And within a couple of months, Republicans would get a new member in that seat who isn’t a national punchline and evidence that you can fabricate your life story and still be elected by inattentive, overly credulous voters.
But just 179 members voted to get rid of Santos. Nineteen members — 15 Democrats and four Republicans — voted “present.” Way to take a stand, guys. The JFK Library will be calling any moment to notify you of your Profile in Courage awards. And 22 members 11 Republicans and 11 Democrats didn’t vote. We often hear politicians declaring “It’s time to get Americans back to work again.” The House of Representatives would be a nice place to start.
Johnson has been on the job for barely a week, and it’s fair to give him some time to get his sea legs. But rebuking some of the House’s most embarrassing members was low-hanging fruit; there were Democrats irked at Tlaib and Republicans eager to get rid of Santos. This week was a missed opportunity to mete out some consequences for bad behavior, the sort of improvement the House’s image desperately needs.