The Marjorie Taylor Greene Vote: Chris Smith Courage and Greatness; Jeff Van Drew Cowardice and Disgrace
Last night, the United States House of Representatives voted to remove Congresswomen Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) from all committee assignments, including the Budget and Education Committees. It was the least the House of Representatives could do. Marjorie Taylor Greene is America’s Julius Streicher, the infamous Nazi propagandist. She deserves immediate expulsion.
Americans by and large are a good and decent people who know that Marjorie Taylor Greene, the leading American QAnon advocate is unworthy of service in the House of Representatives. They reject categorically her vile advocacy of assassinations of Democratic political leaders, including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Nancy Pelosi, her sick embrace and support of conspiracy theories denying the 9-11 attack on the Pentagon and the mass shootings at Sandy Hook and Parkland, and her despicable antisemitism and racism.
Donald Trump has lauded her as a “future Republican star.” And Marjorie Taylor Greene has been the American leader in the magnification and spreading of the stench of Trumpism. Hell is too good a place for the wretched Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Of the Republicans in the US House of Representatives, 199 representatives, led by their contemptible pathetic weakling leader Kevin McCarthy voted to protect the profoundly evil Marjorie Taylor Greene and enable her to retain all her House committee memberships. Only 11 Republican representatives voted to remove her committee assignments.
This is conclusive proof that the Republican Party is a sick institution that deserves to die and be replaced by a new, vital Center-Right party. And Liz Cheney would be an ideal first nominee for president of this new party.
I dedicated my entire adult life to the service of the Republican Party. It was the party of four great American presidents, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, and the greatest American of the 20th century, in war and peace, Dwight David Eisenhower. In truth, I will always be proud of being at my core an Eisenhower Republican. There are, however, very few Eisenhower Republicans left.
America needs two strong, competitive political parties, a center-left party and a center-right party. The Democrats are a vital and vigorous center-left party, but unfortunately for America, the GOP. can no longer fulfill this role for the center-right. A new center-right party is needed.
Some have compared the vote last night to the 1954 Senate vote of censure of Wisconsin US Senator Joe McCarthy. The comparison, however, is odious. Tail Gunner Joe deserved the Senate censure, but as compared with Marjorie Taylor Greene, he was a saint!
The vote last night was a moment of truth for the two Republican members of the US House of Representatives from New Jersey, Chris Smith and Jeff Van Drew. It was a test of both character and competency.
Chris Smith met this test, voting to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments. He emerged as a man of competency, courage, and supreme greatness.
Jeff Van Drew is a pathetic lapdog follower of Donald Trump and Kevin McCarthy, and he voted to protect the wicked Marjorie Taylor Greene from any punishment. The vote revealed that the contemptible Van Drew is a political coward and a disgrace to New Jersey.
Chris Smith’s vote of supreme conscience was no surprise to those of us who know him well. He is a man of deep conviction, courage, and unquestionable political independence. His record of leadership in the fight for human rights and against antisemitism is second to none in the modern history of the United States Congress. He is a true conservative in the tradition of Edmund Burke and Ronald Reagan, venerating democratic institutions and the rule of law.
By contrast, Jeff Van Drew is a despicable servile follower of Donald Trump, who in his conversion during the 2020 campaign from the Democratic to the Republican Party proved himself to be the ultimate political prostitute. Unfortunately, today’s New Jersey Republican Party is very much the party of Jeff Van Drew Trumpian fealty. It no longer is the party of Tom Kean, reflecting the Politics of Inclusion and the successful quest for educational and economic excellence.
It will be an ugly blot and disgrace to New Jersey if Jeff Van Drew is reelected to the House of Representatives in 2022. He does not merit service as a municipal dogcatcher, let alone the United States Congress.
Chris Smith, however, by his superb record of service, distinguished by his unimpeachable ethics, character, and integrity, bolstered by his vote last night, merits reelection to the House of Representatives forevermore. He is a role model for any young New Jerseyan aspiring to a political career. As we say in Yiddish and Hebrew, may Chris Smith live as long a life as Moses, at least 120 years!
Alan Steinberg served as Regional Administrator of Region 2 EPA during the administration of former President George W. Bush and as Executive Director of the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission.
I have come to expect NOTHING honorable, NOTHING decent,
NOTHING admirable, NOTHING worthy of Jeff Van Drew.
I vividly remember his ‘cringeworthy’ spot on national TV
pledging loyalty to a mentally and morally unfit president.
I remember Jeff Van Drew paying Craig Callaway $110,000.00
when he was campaigning against Amy Kennedy.
No one has ever explained this to me in a meaningful way.
I KNEW HOW VAN DREW WOULD VOTE —- MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE
Chris Smith brought honor to New Jersey.
Jeff Van Drew is an embarrassment to New Jersey and has erased his honor
far into the future.
.
I used to think he should go back to drilling and pulling teeth.
But not any longer, dentists are people of character.
Character is lacking in Jeff Van Drew.
Alan Steinberg doesn’t think he should be a dog catcher.
……………..,Any Suggestions???
Without going into why voting to strip Congresswoman Greene’s committee seats sets an ugly precedent that can easily backfire on those who push that (i would remind people about a certain Nevada Senator (Reid)who pushed through “The Nuclear Option” in Senate procedure, Which recently Mitch McConnell used on court nominees, with a “Thank you Harry Reid”, while Democrats stood by with apoplexy, forgetting that they had done this to themselves. They should consider what might happen if in 2022 the slim lead that Democrats hold in the House might be flipped to a Republican Party.
Congresswoman Greene was elected by a 75% majority, and whether people like or dislike her present sentiments, her constituents, who she represents, might not consider the stripping of her seats to be what they would want. In the case of Congressman Van Drew, his constituents spoke after the results of his vote on the first impeachment proceedings by their votes, and again apparently approved of both his party switch and his voting record. On upcoming impeachment trial, both Alan Dershovitz of Harvard Law, and Jonathan Turley have in articles and interviews made clear their positions that what is occurring is Unconstitutional, and from a political visual standpoint something more irrational than a modernistic art, in fact more in line than what you might pull out of a sewer.