For the fourth time in the last two weeks, Georgia freshman Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called for a motion to adjourn the House on Thursday morning.
The move has no practical effect other than to force every single House member to come to the floor to vote on, well, whether the House should adjourn.
It’s purely a time-waster – and an attempt by Greene to be a fly in the ointment of the Congress. (She was stripped of committee assignments by the House last month following revelations about a number of anti-Semitic and Islamophobic comments she’d made before coming to Congress.)
Greene explained her, uh, strategy to CNN’s Annie Grayer earlier this month:
“Unfortunately there are some Republicans that are unhappy with these type of floor procedures because it messes up their schedule. But Republican voters really don’t like that type of Republican mentality up here. They really want Republicans to stand up and stop these radical crazy policies.”
(To be clear: A motion to adjourn does zero to stop policies – whether they’re the “radical crazy” ones or any others.)
What’s becoming increasingly clear as Greene pursues this pointless attention-getting effort is that even many of her Republican colleagues are losing patience with her.
On Thursday, 40 Republicans voted against her motion, the largest number who have done so since she started pulling these stunts on February 24. The last time Greene filed a motion to adjourn (March 3), just 18 Republicans voted against it. Her earlier attempts were opposed by almost no GOPers.
So there’s increasing unhappiness about what she’s doing – although it doesn’t yet extend to the party leadership. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (California) voted with Greene on Wednesday and, when asked by CNN’s Daniella Diaz about the move, ignored the question.
The Point: Greene’s performative politics aren’t meant to accomplish anything other than get her more attention, more cable TV hits and more fundraising dollars. At what point do a majority of House Republicans say enough is enough?
