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About Those GOP Legislators Quitting the...

About Those GOP Legislators Quitting the House….

To date, twenty one Republcians have said they are departing the House of Representatives. This number does not include the GOP legislators who already left, such a George Santos, the disgraced fomer representative from New York. As a general proposition retirements from Congress are not inherently bad. There are instances where members are not up […]

Ultimatums from the House Freedom Caucus...

Ultimatums from the House Freedom Caucus won’t stop the spending binge

Presently, members of the House Freedom Caucus and a few of its allies are in a cage match with the rest of Congress and the White House over excessive federal spending. Last month, they led an unsuccessful charge against the continuing resolution that was enacted to keep the government open through early March. To be sure, they […]

Why did anyone vote against expelling Ge...

Why did anyone vote against expelling George Santos?

On Friday, Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) was expelled from the House of Representatives. The vote was 311 to 114. Democrats overwhelmingly supported booting Santos, whose many misdeeds have been described in both a House Ethics Committee report and the media. Some have wondered why anyone would vote against booting Santos. The partisan breakdown of the “nay” votes tells part of the […]

The American right needs to be right (an...

The American right needs to be right (and American)

As a graduate student long ago, I considered writing my dissertation on the history and permutations of 20th-century American conservatism. I abandoned that task when it became clear to me that few universities had any desire to employ an expert on the right. My colleague Matthew Continetti rescued me from the recurrent itch to resurrect […]

Ulysses S. Grant’s final battle

Ulysses S. Grant’s final battle

A strange notice appeared in the March 27, 1867, issue of the Pulaski Citizen newspaper, which usually carried mostly brief news items and short advertisements for attorneys, carpenters, and goods for sale. “The Kuklux Klan will assemble at their usual place of rendezvous . . . [on Tuesday] exactly at the hour of midnight in […]

Could George Santos torch the House by v...

Could George Santos torch the House by vacating the Speaker?

The other day, George Santos (R-NY) took to X (formerly Twitter) to decry his enemies and victimization. Part of the tweet said, “What the “ethics committee” did today was not part of due process, what they did was poison the jury pool on my ongoing investigation with the DOJ. This was a dirty biased act […]