We reported earlier on how House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) went “full-metal stand-up comic” in wacky comments made during her press conference Thursday in which she described her fellow House Democrats as “the greatest collection of intellect, integrity, and imagination, for doing the right thing for the American people.”
Much of Pelosi’s generous characterization of her colleagues, of course, is in the eye of the beholder. Especially the part about “the greatest collection of intellect, integrity, and imagination.” There are too many examples of House Dems behaving badly and disproving Pelosi’s point in the process, but we’ll focus on one that happened just a few hours after she uttered her statement.
A number of Democrats took to the House floor on Thursday to decry the Senate’s failure to change the filibuster rules in a 52-48 vote, which included all Republican Senators as well as Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.
One of those House Democrats was Rep. Mondaire Jones, a freshman member who represents New York’s 17th congressional district and who is also considered to be a member of AOC’s “Squad.”
Jones, who said during the speech he gave that he had worked tirelessly along with Democrat members of the House on the two so-called “voting rights” bills that are at the center of the filibuster standoff, didn’t just throw the “Jim Crow” card around with wild abandon during his remarks. He went so far as to call those who voted Wednesday night to keep the filibuster rule in place “white nationalists“:
My brother, and fellow colleague, Congressman Allred deserves my gratitude for leading the fight to preserve the right to vote, and save our failing democracy. With Terri Sewell (Congresswoman) and John Sarbanes (Congressman), it has been a pleasure to work together over the past 12 months on both the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, as well the Freedom to Vote Act.
We are witnessing the most serious assault on our right to vote in history, as you have just heard. White nationalists also used the Jim Crow filibuster yesterday to block voting rights legislation on the Senate Floor.
Watch Jones demonstrate what Pelosi apparently feels is “intellect, integrity, and imagination” by calling members of the Senate “white nationalists” in his floor speech below:
We aren’t called to put our lives at risk, unlike John Lewis or his generation. They were only calling us to use the rights that they won: our votes, our voices.
We can continue to march like the ones before us. pic.twitter.com/keNDTorzCI
— Rep. Mondaire Jones (@RepMondaire) January 20, 2022
First, we ought to congratulate Jones (?) Jones for taking Joe Biden’s “you’re either with us or you’re no better than racist segregationists of the past” talking point and running with it. Because if there’s one thing we can say about Democrats is that they are one-trick ponies when it comes to trotting out the race card when they don’t get what they want.
But beyond that, here are a couple of observations that are rather inconvenient to Jones’s “argument.”
For starters, the “Jim Crow filibuster” was a key tool for Democrats during the Trump years, where they abused it hundreds of times to stall judicial confirmations and other parts of Trump’s agenda. Senate Democrats even used the “Jim Crow filibuster” The week beforeTo block a Sen. Ted Cruz (R.Texas) bill that would have imposed Sanctions on Nord Stream 2 Pipeline.
Secondly, I’m sure “white nationalist” Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), who is also a proponent of the filibuster, would dispute being described in such a way. It’s just an opinion. Further, Democrats used that same “Jim Crow filibuster” to block Scott’s police reform bill two years ago, and I certainly don’t remember hearing anyone on the left referring to the Democrats who blocked it as “white nationalists.”
Pelosi may rebuke Jones, or will she not? Because the House has a rule for conduct during a debate that “strictly” forbids “impugning the motives of another Member, the Senate or the President, using offensive language, or uttering words that are otherwise deemed unparliamentary.”
I’m pretty sure describing colleagues on both sides of the aisle in the other chamber as “white nationalists” qualifies as “impugning the motives” and as “offensive language” and “unparliamentary.”
These attacks may be offensive, but Democrats must continue to use this argument if they want to lose more seats in the midterm elections 2022. Because few things in this country are more illustrative of a person’s character pr lack thereof than to viciously fan the flames of racism against your political opposition as a form of childish, unstatesmanlike pouting and for no other reason than because you couldn’t get what you wanted.
Related: Gallup Survey on ‘Party Preferences’ Going Into 2022 Midterms Confirms Dems’ Worst Fears About Biden
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