The Republicans/MAGA 1 March 2024-

So, 112 ignoble, infantile Republicans voted to endanger civilization
By George F. Will
In today’s Republican Party, dominated by someone who repudiates the internationalism to which Eisenhower committed the party seven decades ago, the cabal of grotesques might yet predominate.
Stoking the passion that is their excuse for pandering — the nihilism of a febrile minority in their party — a majority of House Republicans voted last Saturday to endanger civilization. Hoping to enhance their political security in their mostly safe seats, and for the infantile satisfaction of populist naughtiness (insulting a mostly fictitious “establishment”), they voted to assure Vladimir Putin’s attempt to erase a European nation.

16 April
Johnson’s Plan for Ukraine Aid Meets Republican Pushback, Muddying Its Path
The Republican speaker’s strategy for moving foreign aid measures for Israel and Ukraine through the House has outraged many in his own party, increasing calls for his ouster.

Heather Cox Richardson April 13, 2024
There are really two major Republican political stories dominating the news these days. The more obvious of the two is the attempt by former president Donald Trump and his followers to destroy American democracy. The other story is older, the one that led to Trump but that stands at least a bit apart from him. It is the story of a national shift away from the supply-side ideology of Reagan Republicans toward an embrace of the idea that the government should hold the playing field among all Americans level.

7-12 April
Trump says he stands with Johnson as Greene threatens ouster
(Axios) Former President Trump offered much-needed praise Friday for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) as he faces threats to his gavel from his conference’s far-right flank.
Why it matters: Trump’s assurance that he stands “by the speaker” came as conservative firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has ratcheted up her attacks on Johnson in the latest display of GOP congressional dysfunction.
The presumptive GOP presidential nominee’s comments, during a joint appearance with Johnson from his Florida club, were a blow to Greene’s efforts.
Greene asserted she would not back down from potentially pulling the trigger on a resolution to oust Johnson, sending a dear colleague letter on Tuesday accusing him of “serving Democrats.”
It’s “unfortunate that people bring [motion to vacate] it up because right now we have much bigger problems,” Trump said.
His comments came just hours after a sizable number of conservatives blasted Johnson’s decision to vote down an amendment to a bill reauthorizing section 702 of FISA pertaining to warrant requirements.
9 April
What’s behind the latest right-wing revolt against Mike Johnson
Ukraine aid — a growing point of contention — is at the heart of the recent GOP drama.
(Vox) House Speaker Mike Johnson could be facing the most perilous threat to his leadership yet as Congress once again debates Ukraine aid.
Johnson recently made clear he wants to hold a vote on sending more funding to Ukraine after the House returns from recess on Tuesday. That stance has infuriated far-right members like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who has vocally opposed the provision of such funds. Greene’s dissent over Ukraine — along with far-right members’ dismay over bipartisan government funding deals — has prompted her to issue an open threat to Johnson’s job.
Mike Johnson faces revolt by hard-right Republicans over Ukraine aid package
Some House members remain staunchly opposed to proposal and one of them has already threatened to oust the speaker
Speaker Johnson’s job is on the line as the House returns
Deep divisions on issues like Ukraine and border security may force the speaker to once again turn to Democrats to pass his priorities
(WaPo) House Republicans are dreading their return to Washington on Tuesday, anticipating their deep divisions will jeopardize high-stakes legislation in a way that may end in the ouster of Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and further throw the chamber into dysfunction.
The next two weeks are the most critical of Johnson’s nearly six-month tenure atop a very wobbly House with a majority that continues to narrow. His chief priority is passing a bill funding Ukraine that also sends aid to Israel and Indo-Pacific allies. Unlike a national security package that passed the Senate, House Republicans across the ideological spectrum insist that any foreign aid deal must also include measures that strengthen U.S. borders.
‘Increasingly chaotic’: Why House Republicans are heading for the exits
The decision by 21 Republican lawmakers to depart is indicative of the broader morale problem within the GOP conference
The tumultuous year in a slim majority hasn’t necessarily pushed departing Republicans to seek higher office or pursue other opportunities away from Capitol Hill. But it reaffirmed for most that they made the right call to leave, that because the House has become more partisan, it is now more difficult to pass legislation that makes an impact than when many were first elected.
The decisions to depart are yet another sign of the broader drop in morale within the GOP conference. Many Republican lawmakers have largely accepted that their inability to govern is a predicament of their own making. They acknowledge that overcoming their legislative impasse relies not only on keeping control of the House in November, but also on growing their ranks significantly enough to neutralize the handful of hard-liners who wield influence by taking advantage of the narrow margins.

26 March
Vulnerable Republicans bet their seats on Trump
The fate of the GOP House majority this fall rests on a small but pivotal group of lawmakers — the 17 Republicans who represent districts won by President Joe Biden in 2020.
In the so-called crossover districts they represent, Donald Trump isn’t exactly an asset at the top of the ticket. So each of the 17 has to carefully consider the political trade-offs between embracing the polarizing former president and distancing themselves from him.

22 March
Not the best of weeks for the one-happy-family Republicans – presuming there ever was one.
(AP) Rep. Mike Gallagher, a Wisconsin Republican, said Friday he would resign from the House, leaving House Republicans with the thinnest of majorities. Gallagher announced he would resign his position on April 19. It will leave Republicans with a 217-213 majority in the House, meaning that they cannot afford to lose more than one vote on a party-line vote.
Enraged Over Spending Bill, Greene Threatens to Oust Johnson
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, on Friday took the first step toward ousting House Speaker Mike Johnson, filing a resolution calling for his removal after he pushed through a $1.2 trillion bipartisan spending bill that enraged the hard right.
Republicans lash out at Greene over threat to oust Speaker Johnson

8-9 March
Alabama senator Katie Britt delivers Republican response to Biden’s State of the Union – video

Republicans baffled by Katie Britt’s State of the Union response: ‘One of our biggest disasters’
The 42-year-old Alabama senator is a rising Republican star but her kitchen table speech did not land well even in her own party
As a Gallup poll showed 57% of American voters think the US would be better off if more women were in elected office, Alyssa Farah Griffin, a Trump aide turned never-Trumper, said: “Senator Katie Britt is a very impressive person … I do not understand the decision to put her in a KITCHEN for one of the most important speeches she’s ever given.”
Speaking to CNN, Griffin added: “The staging of this was bizarre to me. Women can be both wives and mothers and also stateswomen, so to put her in a kitchen, not at a podium or in the Senate chamber where she was elected after running a hard-fought race, I think fell very flat and was completely confusing to some women watching it.”
‘Dramatic,’ ‘creepy’ and ‘insincere’: Republican Katie Britt’s SOTU rebuttal is the butt of the joke
‘Seriously, the Katie Britt response is scary as s***. This is like a sci-fi movie. This is Handmaid’s Tale coming to life,’ one person posted on X
Katie Britt Gave People Serious ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ Vibes With SOTU Response—And The Memes Were On Point
GOP Senator Katie Britt inspired instant ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ comparisons with her bizarre State of the Union response.
(Second Nexus) Alabama Republican Senator Katie Britt delivered the Republican response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union on Thursday night, presenting a counter-narrative to his critiques of the GOP and highlighting what she sees as a darker reality under his leadership.
But her remarks—made from her kitchen table in Montgomery, Alabama—inspired comparisons to The Handmaid’s Tale, a novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood that was written at the height of the Reagan administration and satirized political, social, and religious trends of the 1980s.
Don’t go in the kitchen. I’m delivering a State of the Union response.
By Alexandra Petri
Fellow MOMS, if you are like me, you lie awake at 2 a.m., wondering how you can BE in three places at once: this KITCHEN, the Senate and the opening monologue of a Purge movie. But you see, we CAN do it, by WHISPERING slowly with an intensity usually reserved for WASP moms trying to prevent their daughters from making a SCENE in the J. Crew fitting rooms. (We’re not LEAVING yet PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER.) I am delivering these remarks in a WAY that makes you think this isn’t ACTUALLY my kitchen and I’m not SUPPOSED to BE here, but no one has dared REMOVE me because I am SPEAKING in a TONE that makes the PROSPECT of interrupting me TOO FRIGHTENING!
A lot of moms can’t see themselves in Katie Britt’s kitchen
By Monica Hesse
The Alabama senator’s performance seemed aimed at suburban women whom Republicans have done little to win back
(WaPo) Before Sen. Katie Boyd Britt (R-Ala.) had even begun her State of the Union rebuttal on Thursday night, an ally reportedly had already sent around a helpful list of talking points that conservative pundits could use to describe her — again, as-yet undelivered — speech. They should make comparisons to Ronald Reagan, according to the New York Times, which reported the memo. They should say that Britt came across as “America’s mom.”
When Britt did appear, it became clear she’d gone balls-to-the-wall with the mom theme, broadcasting solo from her Alabama kitchen in such a way that, if you were watching with the volume down, you would have assumed you had stumbled upon a commercial for either stain remover or Il Makiage.

Trump Ally and Daughter-in-Law Officially Take Over R.N.C. Leadership
With the installation of Michael Whatley and Lara Trump, Donald Trump tightened his already firm grip on the party apparatus.

5-6 March
5 Takeaways From Super Tuesday: Trump Wins and Haley Exits
Donald Trump racked up delegates, but also revealed weaknesses. Nikki Haley conceded to cold, hard math.
Donald J. Trump rolled up victories across the country on Super Tuesday, and by the end of the evening it was clear that the former president had left Nikki Haley in the delegate dust.
Mr. Trump’s coast-to-coast wins — in California, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and beyond — brought a new mathematical certainty to what has been the political reality for some time: He is all but certain to capture the Republican Party’s presidential nomination.
Ms. Haley made it official on Wednesday morning, exiting the race but withholding her endorsement of Mr. Trump. Instead, she said he must work to win over her voters.
That is important because tucked inside Mr. Trump’s often dominant statewide victories on Tuesday were signs of vulnerability for the fall. He showed some of the same weakness in the swingy suburban areas that cost him the White House in 2020.
How Republicans Voted on Super Tuesday
Donald J. Trump won the vast majority of counties in the Republican primary on Tuesday. Below, explore the county-level vote and see the types of areas that supported Trump and Nikki Haley in several states, based on precinct data.

2 March
Reminder: Alaska and Maine are two of the 15 states voting on Super Tuesday, three days away, where a combined 865 delegates are at stake. But along with the D.C. primary, as Steven Shepard notes this morning, GOP conventions and caucuses in Michigan, Idaho and North Dakota will select 119 delegates over the next three days — more than Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina combined.
5 GOP contests to watch before Tuesday, including one Haley might win
Republicans in four states and the District of Columbia will be voting over the next few days.
From the Potomac to the Palouse, Republicans across the country are filling caucus sites, convention halls and even a downtown Washington hotel this weekend. There are as many contests in the next three days as there were over the entirety of the last two plodding months, in which the primaries were few and far between. The four states — and the District of Columbia — voting over the next three days will send roughly as many delegates to the Republican nominating convention as those earlier states.
Most of the contests are almost certain to demonstrate former President Donald Trump’s hold over the GOP, and they’ll help him rack up even more delegates heading into Tuesday, putting him in an even stronger position. But one of the contests this weekend might actually go to former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, giving her a first — perhaps only — win in the race.
Sunday: The District of Haley?
Haley enters the weekend 0-for-5 in primaries and caucuses, but her best chance to notch a win anywhere in the nominating process might be this weekend in the District of Columbia.
… [She] could win all 19 delegates at stake in the contest. She also continues to rally to her side as much of the anti-Trump faction of the GOP as possible. Last night, Sens. LISA MURKOWSKI and SUSAN COLLINS revealed they are backing Haley.