Marjorie Taylor Greene is so much an embarrassment that she even shocks Republicans. And it's really hard to shock Republicans. After all, look what all they've condoned in the former president.
Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent put it well Thursday when he wrote: "Republican leaders were shocked, shocked to learn" about revelations that the freshman North Georgia U.S. representative in 2018 and 2019 approved of calls for the "execution" of Democrats. "They are so troubled by this that they plan to sit her down and give her a slap on the wrist with a little plastic ruler."
Actually there's not even a little plastic ruler involved. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy plans to have a "conversation" with Greene.
If any of us suggested such violence as "a bullet to the head" toward the Speaker the the House or any other politician, the FBI would be knocking on our doors. And rightly so.
Greene is dangerous to democracy. She also has supported QAnon conspiracy theories about a global pedophilia cabal and she stalked victims of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting and suggested they "staged" the tragedy.
But last fall she was elected to Congress. She's been in office now three weeks and sports virus masks - when she must - that say things like "Trump won" and "Censored." During the Capitol riot when members of Congress were hiding in a crowded room, she was one of the Republicans who smirked as they refused to take a proffered mask and wear it for the protection of themselves and others in the room.
The New Yorker's satirist Andy Borowitz writes of her: "Marjorie Taylor Greene is making Americans nostalgic for the wisdom of Sarah Palin."
But Sargent reminds us that "the dispiriting truth of the matter" is that Greene's threatening and foolish behavior "doesn't make her much of an outlier in today's GOP."
Some of her fellow lawmakers - yes, Democrats - first called for her expulsion after the Jan. 6 attempted insurrection, accusing her of being an "accomplice" to what happened at the Capitol because of her embrace of Trump election lies and other conspiracy theories. Her statements have more recently resulted in her temporary ban from Twitter. Now, with the revelations of social media posts and "likes" before her election, there are again calls for her ouster.
"Her very presence in office represents a direct threat against the elected officials and staff who serve our government, and it is with their safety in mind, as well as the security of institutions and public servants across our country, that I call on my House colleagues to support my resolution to immediately remove Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene from this legislative body," said U.S. Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-California, on Wednesday.
Pelosi, too, has weighed in - not so much on Greene herself as on her GOP leaders for not doing more to rebuke Greene.
"What I'm concerned about is the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives, who is willing to overlook, ignore those statements," Pelosi said Thursday at her weekly news conference. "Assigning her to the Education Committee when she has mocked the killing of little children at Sandy Hook Elementary School, when she has mocked the killing of teenagers in high school at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school - what could they be thinking? Or is thinking too generous a word for what they might be doing? It's absolutely appalling."
Greene has blamed her posts on "teams of people who operated her social media accounts" before she was elected. One wonders if those teams wrote "censored" and "Trump won" on her masks. Or if the "teams" found a body double for Greene to chase behind the Parkland survivor and taunt him with insults.
Sadly for the greater Chattanooga region, Greene is one of us. When not in Washington, she hails from Rome, Georgia, and represents residents of Dade, Walker, Catoosa, Whitfield, Murray, Chattooga, Gordon, Floyd, Polk, Paulding, Haralson and part of Pickens counties.
It was in Whitfield County where Greene held a town hall meeting Wednesday and a local WRCB television reporter was thrown out for asking the congresswoman a question.
In that town hall meeting, Greene mostly avoided the uproar over her social media posts and instead talked about what she is focusing on in Congress, including gun rights, anti-abortion legislation and passing a law designed to prevent transgender individuals from playing sports with teammates of any gender except their gender at birth.
She criticized the media for reporting on her social media use and called CNN, which reported her posts, "the enemy of the people."
When asking questions of public officials makes you or anyone - even the media - an enemy, then we'll all need masks that say "Censored."