To all liberals – especially those in Hollyweed – whose heads are still exploding over the election of Donald Trump, stand down and relax. Congressional Republicans have your back.
In what can only be called one of the most tone-deaf actions the party of Lincoln has ever delivered, House Republicans voting on a 2017 rules package decided the first vote of the new Republican rule in Washington would be to restructure the independent ethics office overseeing House members.
Not even Donald Trump can drain the swamp when status quo Republicans have a fire hose on the other bank pumping enough water to turn the swamp into Lake Michigan. Of course, after seeing the backlash the next day and being chastised by Trump, Republicans backed off the vote in what is clearly an embarrassing start for the House. You have to wonder if these folks were even paying attention to what voters said in November.
Unfortunately for the 62,979,879 people who voted for Trump, this lack of understanding of what voters are saying is not solely related to the decision to alter the rules for the ethics office. There seems to be a thread in Congress that belies the harmony promoted by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan. At the very least, there appears to be little understanding of whose name was on the top of the ballot in November.
Exactly who elected Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham president? Based on their comments about the widely analyzed Russian hacking episode, McCain and Graham took it upon themselves to go way beyond senatorial talking points in whacking Russia and Vladimir Putin over the head. Similar to what President Obama has done with all his antics in trying to preserve his legacy and make Trump’s entrance as difficult as possible, McCain and Graham were unable to control themselves and do what was best for Trump by moderating their responses.