Canary in the coal mine or just a GOP loudmouth?
It was too bad that Congress was not in session this Thanksgiving week because the resignation announcement of U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was still crackling like a turkey in a backyard deep fryer as the Georgia Republican kept taking shots at GOP leaders.
“Our legislative majority has been mostly wasted,” Greene said, taking yet another swing at her fellow U.S. House Republicans. “Everyone just runs their mouths.”
While the Rome Republican may have been a MAGA fan favorite, there isn’t much love lost for her here at the U.S. Capitol. That was obvious from the radio silence of GOP leaders and her Republican colleagues to news she would step down.
Even low-level freshmen House Republicans were more than happy to publicly dump on Greene this week.
“I never saw her as a big force in anything, whether it be domestic or foreign policy,” said U.S. Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-Florida. “She and I don’t share the same politics. My goal is to get things done.”
That’s an ironic last line — because much of Greene’s criticism of GOP leaders in Congress has been about their refusal to act on President Donald Trump’s agenda. That included keeping the House out of session during the recent government shutdown.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy — who had his own run-ins with Greene during his short time in that post — echoed many of her criticisms.
“You only get two years to be in the majority,” McCarthy said, worried that more GOP lawmakers will follow Greene out the door. “She’s almost like a canary in a coal mine.”
Greene had a notable “the emperor has no clothes” moment in recent weeks about how the GOP has handled the Obama health care law. With insurance subsidies expiring for 22 million Americans at the end of the year, GOP leaders in Congress seemingly had no plan to deal with higher premiums.
While Democrats were unable to win an extension of the subsidies during the recent shutdown fight, the political momentum still seems to be favoring them. The GOP is struggling to figure out a response.
“Republicans have yet to present us with an effective plan to fix it,” Greene said. She was saying something out loud that everyone knew — that Republican leaders were completely unprepared for that health care fight.
Greene’s time in Congress will certainly be remembered for a number of controversies, like heckling Democratic President Joe Biden during his State of the Union address. But not many would have predicted that she would end up being a GOP truth teller.
Jamie Dupree has covered national politics and Congress from Washington, D.C., since the Reagan administration. His column appears weekly in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. For more, check out his Capitol Hill newsletter at http://jamiedupree.substack.com
