They Should Be Locked Up Along With Donald Trump –

The Big Picture – 
By Glynn Wilson – 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Confederate rebels who wanted to break up the United States in the 1860s failed in 1864, and similar rebels failed to take over the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. But 21 insurrectionist rebels in Congress are now holding the House hostage from inside the building, preventing any business of government from taking place by refusing to vote to elect a Speaker.

While this has so far been great fun watching on cable TeeVee complete with popcorn for Democrats, this can’t go on, and on.

President Joe Biden has called it a national “embarrassment,” and he’s right.

Look no further than a recent interview with the great Irish rock star Bono to see how important a fully functioning American government and democracy is to the rest of the world.

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On this somber occasion on Jan. 6, 2023 — just two years since a violent mob incited in a seditious insurrection by a sitting president to attack the United States Capitol building in an effort to find and hang the sitting Vice President and Speaker of the House, I’m not having fun anymore. This is excruciating, and I still have a very hard time even reading about it, looking at the pictures or heaven forbid watching any of the video footage from that day.

I literally can’t look at it anymore.

But I did look back to see what I wrote the next day on Jan. 7, 2021, and in the rest of that hellish month after the hellscape year of 2020, and I’m proud of what I wrote. I got the story right, well before many in the mainstream media in America.

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While I can’t be in the Capitol building to cover in person what’s going on there today, I can watch online on C-SPAN in a campground 10 miles north of the Washington Monument, just like they do in the Capitol Press Room. Nobody covers Congress from the gallery with a press pad anymore. They have TVs tuned in to C-SPAN, while they type away on their laptops.

This reminds me of the times back when I worked as a reporter for The New York Times, now 20 years ago. I was often filing reports from the field, while correspondents typed away at the stories on their laptops in their comfortable hotel rooms.

Just so you will know who all is behind this new insurrection, here are brief profiles of the 21 members of Congress who are refusing to vote for Kevin McCarthy as Speaker, as initially reported by NPR.

Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz. – Biggs is one of the leaders of this movement. He stepped forward to challenge McCarthy and was the first nominated by this hard-right opposition, winning votes on the first two ballots.

Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C. – The House Freedom Caucus member was one of seven members to sign a “Dear Colleague” letter outlining concerns, like “increasingly centralized decision-making power” that result in “massive, multi-subject bills that are unable to be amended or fully read, all driven by supposedly must-pass defense and appropriations measures” that amass large debt.

(The other six to sign the letter were: Republican Reps. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania; Paul Gosar of Arizona, Andy Ogles of Tennessee, Chip Roy of Texas, Andrew Clyde of Georgia and Eli Crane of Arizona.)

Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo. – The controversial Colorado firebrand narrowly won reelection by only hundreds of votes. She and others want a single member to be able to bring a motion to vacate the speaker.

Josh Brecheen, R-Okla. – The rancher and construction company owner is a new member of Congress, who aligned himself with the House Freedom Caucus during his campaign.

Michael Cloud, R-Texas – Cloud cites wanting to get the country on a “path toward fiscal responsibility” and notes that he’d “worked for months in high hopes and good faith that our conference would chart a course away from the status quo.”

Andrew Clyde, R-Ga. – The gun shop owner, who sent an encouraging text about Trump to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows days after Jan. 6 and previously called McCarthy “a friend,” was one of the seven signers of the December “Dear Colleague” letter that outlined fiscal issues and large spending bills as a major problem.

Eli Crane, R-Ariz. – The Trump-backed freshman, who flipped a House seat in November, was also one of seven signers.

Byron Donalds, R-Fla. – Donalds’ opposition was a particularly worrisome sign for McCarthy. Though he is a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, he was willing to initially vote for McCarthy, which he did on the first two ballots. He became the unlikely landing place for the 20 votes, himself winning those opposition votes on the last few ballots. He says he switched because McCarthy “doesn’t have the votes,” that negotiations need to happen.

Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. – Gaetz has been a principal instigator and steadfast opponent of McCarthy in this process. “Maybe the right person for the job of speaker of the House isn’t someone who has sold shares of themself for more than a decade to get it,” Gaetz said Tuesday.

Bob Good, R-Va. – Good, who has been at the forefront of the opposition, seems like one of the most dug in members. Good calls McCarthy part of the “swamp cartel,” claims that despite giving McCarthy a chance over the last couple of years, he hasn’t done enough to stop massive spending bills and hasn’t fought hard enough against the “Biden-Schumer agenda.” He’s also been critical of McCarthy’s PAC spending money, he says, against conservatives. McCarthy’s PAC said Wednesday night that it promised not to play in open primaries where there is no incumbent.

Paul Gosar, R-Ariz. – Gosar is one of the most controversial members of Congress. He’s defended white nationalists and spoken to them and was censured after posting an anime video depicting the killing of Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and President Biden. He’s also one of the leaders of this insurrection against McCarthy and was the first to rise to nominate an alternative. Gosar went viral Tuesday when he was spotted having a conversation with Ocasio-Cortez on the House floor about whether Democrats would help McCarthy get elected. Ocasio-Cortez said she told the faction: “Absolutely not.”

Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md. – The outlier in the Maryland delegation was one of nine Republicans who signed a letter Sunday saying the times called for a “radical departure from the status quo” and said “McCarthy bears squarely the burden to correct the dysfunction he now explicitly admits across that long tenure.”

Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla. – One of five freshman members to vote against McCarthy, Luna was one of the nine to sign the Sunday letter that said McCarthy’s negotiations have been “insufficient.”

Mary Miller, R-Ill. – The second-term Illinois representative has been quiet on her vote. But former Rep. Rodney Davis — whom Miller defeated in the GOP primary — told CNN on Tuesday that “I don’t think anybody from Illinois would be surprised by that vote.” Like the majority of other McCarthy defectors, Miller had Trump’s endorsement, denies results of the 2020 presidential election, objected to the 2020 Electoral College results and is a member of the House Freedom Caucus.

Ralph Norman, R-S.C. – While some of the 21 may be waiting to see which way the wind blows, Norman has been an early and hard “no” on McCarthy. The core of his problem with McCarthy is how to budget.

Andy Ogles, R-Tenn. – One of the five incoming freshmen opponents, Ogles so far hasn’t publicly indicated why. He was also, though, one of the nine signers of the letter saying McCarthy hadn’t done enough to meet conservatives’ demands.

Scott Perry, R-Pa. – Perry is chairman of the GOP Freedom Caucus – of which 19 of the 21 non-McCarthy voters are members. He said, as of late November, that he was pushing McCarthy to make rules changes that gave more power to members and weaken the speakership.

Matthew Rosendale R-Mont. – He said as early as November that he wouldn’t be supporting McCarthy. He’s critical of McCarthy for wanting to “maintain the status quo” for not giving members more power over legislation, like allowing debate on the floor instead of through committees. A spokesperson has said Rosendale would only vote for McCarthy “under extreme circumstances.”

Chip Roy, R-Texas – He’s been vocal in his opposition to McCarthy for months – unless he would support rules changes that would open up floor debate and give members more say. Roy said he was upset about spending bills passing without debate, particularly an aid package to Ukraine.

Roy has spearheaded the drive against McCarthy for months, nominating Biggs for party leader over McCarthy in November. Thirty members joined him in that preliminary vote, but McCarthy still won handily. Roy said Wednesday night he thinks he can bring along 10 members if demands are met, per CNN. But that still wouldn’t be enough to put McCarthy over the top.

Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas – Another of the five incoming freshmen to vote against McCarthy, even though a couple months ago, he strongly backed him. McCarthy even stumped for him in Texas, and McCarthy’s PAC donated $5,000 to Self’s campaign.

Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind. – Spartz, a Ukrainian-born member who has been criticized by some in her conference for her conduct on a congressional delegation to Ukraine and her criticism of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, was the only member to vote “present” on one of the votes. She said on CNN Wednesday she thinks McCarthy has worked hard but needs to listen to the opposition’s concerns, “come to agreement and not waste everyone’s time.”

I say to hell with these rebels. They should be indicted and charged with insurrection, prevented from ever holding public office again under the Insurrection Act, and locked up alongside their insane leader, Donald J. Trump.

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