Stupid MAGA Republicans
Two things happened today which confirms that a minority of Republicans are succeeding in dividing their conference and undermining their only majority to influence policy on the federal level.
I'll provide two examples:
ONE:
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green was on the Charlie Kirk show today, complaining that Republicans in the House "have no spine" because they didn't vote for her impeachment petition for Secretary of the Department of Homeland Alejandro Mayorkas.
Charlie was amening her claim twice, but he also asked why Republicans decided not to hold a vote on it and instead shuffle it off to another committee.
Neither Charlie nor Green had a clue. The answer is that such an impeachment is merely a gesture with no teeth. Biden's policy would simply continue after Mayorkas is impeached.
WHY? Because these MAGA idiots never heard of the doctrine of the unitary executive. As former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew McCarthy (SDNY) writes in 2018:
Elementary Constitutional Principles: In our system, we have a unitary executive. All executive power is vested in a single official, the president of the United States. That means subordinate executive officers do not have their own power; they are delegated to exercise the president’s power. When they act, they are, in effect, the president acting.
Read the full article here (no paywall):
https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/04/trump-and-the-unitary-executive/
The Unitary Executive Theory just says that when any employee of the Executive branch acts on any matter, it should be construed that the action is on behalf of the President. So all employees (cabinet members and agencies etc.) are subordinate to the President, which also means that the President is responsible for all actions implemented by those subordinates.
That's one reason Andy McCarthy had counseled Republicans that impeaching AG Eric Holder (for contempt of Congress and 'Fast and Furious') was superfluous, inasmuch as Pres. Obama was ultimately responsible.
As McCarthy writes: "Prosecutorial power is executive in nature. Federal prosecutors therefore exercise the president’s power. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Special Counsel Robert Mueller have no power of their own; they exercise President Trump’s prosecutorial power for as long as that arrangement suits President Trump. The president does not need cause to fire them. He does not need to explain any dismissal to Congress—'Gee, it’s Thursday and I feel like firing someone' is good enough."
Trump was unaware of the Unitary Executive theory in constitutional law, because all he knew about the presidency comes from cable news. He paid for his ignorance, because he didn't know that as a subordinate officer to the president (by statute), the president could have legally fired the special counsel (Mueller), without cause. And by declassifying the counter intelligence investigation, he would have exposed the fraudulent predicate (the Hilary-funded Steele Dossier) for the FBI to have begun the investigation. Both actions would have ended the prolonged death by a thousand cuts the nation witnessed.
That is not me saying this. Andy McCarthy said it:
As president of the United States, Donald Trump is in charge of classified information held by the executive branch, as well as of sensitive internal correspondence and memoranda maintained by executive departments and agencies. Just as he has the undeniable authority to fire a special counsel, so too does he have the undeniable authority to order the deputy attorney general and the FBI director to disclose the materials Congress has demanded—and to fire those subordinate executive officers if they fail to comply.
[...]
There has never been a moment since Donald Trump has been president that he could not have ordered the disclosure of information on the unmasking of Americans in intelligence reporting, on applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, or on electronic communications detailing the FBI’s rationale for opening the Russia investigation or tanking the Clinton case. If the Justice Department and FBI are withholding this information without good reasons, it is either because Trump wants it withheld or because he is insufficiently competent to induce his subordinates to carry out his instructions.
Trump also didn't know that presidents are the chief law enforcement officer, based on the unitary executive doctrine. Everyone in government accepts that law enforcement is vested solely in the person of the president. And presidents most often make decisions that are in the best interests of the nation, AND incidently, can be in the president's personal interests too. Sometimes its unavoidable. Presidents must enforce the law and enlist other sovereigns to assist. That's all that Trump had done with regard to Joe Biden, and it was legal.
Instead, Trump got impeached a second time because his sole rebuttal to the abuse of power allegation was, "it was a perfect phone call and this impeachment is a hoax." NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR A NATION OF DUMMIES!!"
TWO:
The House leadership might have had more pressing business to tend to, like the budget. Here, I will just furnish quotes from today's editorial of National Review.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/11/mike-johnson-has-a-kevin-mccarthy-problem/
It provide ample evidence that the 'hateful eight' Republican House members, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz, who paralyzed the chamber in order to topple Speaker McCarthy, were motivated by nothing more a petty dislike of McCarthy, and by getting public attention for themselves.
The speaker of the House is supporting a continuing resolution to fund the government at current spending levels for a few months. Some Republicans oppose the continuing resolution. With only a handful of Republican votes to spare, the speaker might have to rely on Democratic votes to pass the continuing resolution and avoid a government shutdown.
No, this editorial isn’t from September. Speaker Mike Johnson is already finding himself in roughly the same position Kevin McCarthy was in. Congress must pass a funding bill by the end of this week, or else the government will shut down.
[...]
Johnson says this approach is beneficial to fiscal conservatives because it prevents the oft-practiced yet ignominious congressional tradition of passing massive omnibus spending bills around Christmastime when members just want to go home and aren’t paying attention to what they’re voting for. But enough GOP House members have already said they would not support Johnson’s proposal to sink it. They oppose it because it doesn’t include spending cuts.
So if Johnson wants to pass his laddered CR, he will need to rely on Democratic votes in the House. This was the grievous sin that supposedly necessitated Kevin McCarthy’s removal from the speakership a little over a month ago.
[...]
But reality hasn’t changed since McCarthy was speaker: Republicans have a slim majority in the House, and Democrats have a slim majority in the Senate and control the White House. Large spending cuts aren’t politically possible. Government shutdowns aren’t effective ways to enact spending reforms and have failed every time they’ve been deployed for that goal. Republicans don’t benefit politically from shutdowns, either.
Today’s events foreshadows a train wreck. With a splintered party, and the nomination of Trump, the MAGA wing of the party will be responsible for Biden's re-election.