The Right-Cheek Ass Clown for January, 2023

The new year is just a week old, and today is Friday the 13th ... an appropriate day to announce the first ass clown award recipient of 2023. Tempus is fugiting, as my Mother would have said.

My first inclination was to give this first award of the year to the former Prince Harry of the UK, now known as Harry Mountbatten-Windsor, in honor of his bridge burning literary and interview crusade against his family. Although I still think he's worthy of an award, I have, after long thought and discussion with my chief advisor*, decided instead to recognize a different recipient, one whose behavior over the last few weeks has been appalling on many levels.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Readers, I present the tinfoil and toilet paper crown to

The Right-Cheek Ass Clown for January, 2023

The GOP Majority

of

The House of Representatives

and

House Speaker (so far) Kevin McCarthy

The GOP bloc in Congress has long distinguished itself by childish behavior, bomb-throwing, ignorance of the Constitution, self-righteous arrogance, and disdain for the rules of good governance, but the new GOP House majority has proudly displayed a level of buffoonery and incompetence for the ages over the election of an emasculated Kevin McCarthy as Speaker, its own organization for the coming session, and its focus on vengeance politics and cultural warfare rather than the real problems of real people. 

It took fourteen ballots over two days - a number not seen since 1923 - for the Republicans to submit to the blackmail of 20 extreme hard-core members to elect California's Kevin McCarthy to a speakership so weakened by the promises he made to garner votes that the position will be nearly powerless and incapable of providing guidance and leadership.

House Republicans, of course, worked hard to put the best possible face on the embarrassing mess. McCarthy characterized the chaos as a good thing because the GOP had "learned how to govern." Texas Representative Chip Roy said with a straight face that “This was about empowering people — empowering rank-and-file members,” and his fellow Texan Dan Crenshaw declared that “The new rules and the way of doing business is good.”

And although the GOP has thundered loudly at every opportunity for the need for government to be more open, transparent, and accountable, even many House Republicans are angered over the secrecy surrounding some of the concessions McCarthy made in his attempt to secure the support of extreme Republican members.

It's first order of business upon seizing power was to introduce legislation to withdraw funding for new personnel and equipment upgrades for the Internal Revenue Service, blatantly lying about what the funding would have paid for and cementing the GOP's subservience to its deep-pocketed big-business and ultra wealthy supporters. Indeed, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that cutting this funding, thereby crippling the ability of the IRS to do its job, would result in an increase of approximately $114 billion in deficits over the next ten years. The proposed legislation will certainly go nowhere in the Senate, but is a clear indication of the GOP's lack of serious consideration for government funding and shameless casting of middle-class taxpayers under the bus to satisfy its backers.

It's a hallmark of today's GOP that, immediately upon taking control of the House, it forgot all of its thundering about kitchen-table issues and moved directly to address the red-meat issues guaranteed to inflame its base. There is nothing at all about this party that is honorable or defensible.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Readers, our first ass clown awardee of 2023 is the GOP House majority and its would-be ringleader. One can only hope that the country at large sees that the inmates are now running the asylum.

Have a good day, and come back tomorrow for Cartoon Saturday ... you'll need it.

More thoughts then.

Bilbo 

* That would be Agnes.