In Marjorie Taylor Greene, a glimpse of the future
The first two weeks of the Biden presidency provide a glimpse into our political future. While Joe Biden has had a seamless rollout, Republicans have been mired in the controversy surrounding the conspiracy theories espoused by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). Greene has, among other things, called for the executions of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), President Barack Obama and former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton; harassed a teenager who survived the carnage at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida; and questioned whether a plane actually hit the Pentagon on 9/11.
While Biden has had a remarkably successful two weeks, Greene has, in effect, become a spokesperson for her party. A recent poll finds Greene with a plus 10 percentage-point favorability rating among Republicans, while Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who holds the third-highest position in the House GOP leadership and supported President Trump's impeachment, has a minus 28 percent rating. Cheney, the daughter of the former vice president and spokesperson for establishment conservatives, suddenly finds herself a minority within a minority while Greene dominates cable news.
How did it come to this? One reason is the weakness of the House Republican leadership. Strong leaders exercise real power. Pelosi is one. Emulating Sam Rayburn, one of the most powerful speakers in history, Pelosi has flexed her political muscle since returning to the speakership. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is not a strong leader, and never was. Back when Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) unexpectedly resigned, McCarthy, then Boehner's number two, was the presumptive heir apparent. But McCarthy did not have the votes. Instead, House Republicans drafted Ways and Means Committee chair and former vice-presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) into the speaker's slot - a decision Ryan came to regret. As speaker, Ryan dealt with an unruly Freedom Caucus, and later had an uneasy relationship with Donald Trump. When Ryan happily departed, the long-serving McCarthy was the obvious, but reluctant, choice.
McCarthy's vulnerability was evident from the start. After years of offensive comments, McCarthy and the Republican Party moved against Iowa Rep. Steve King in 2019, but only after he became an object of scorn back home. As one GOP aide put it, King won "a lifetime achievement award for awful comments." The final straw was a New York Times interview in which King said, "White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization-how did that language become offensive?" McCarthy blocked King from serving on the House Judiciary and Agriculture committees. Iowa voters later finished the job, voting King out of office in a 2020 GOP primary.
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