January 30, 2023

"His chief aim, he asserted, is to bring egalitarianism to a legislative process dominated by lobbyists and powerful committee chairmen."

"As a conservative, he said, he and his allies intend to use this push for greater transparency 'to draw the American people into our vision.' Mr. Gaetz became cagier when the subject turned to how he intended to use his influence on the burning issues of the day, including the debt ceiling and funding for Ukraine. 'Well, I mean, we’ll see,' he replied."

38 comments:

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

"Arsonist" and "far right" and "tormentor" all right up front. No need to wonder how objective this profile will be.

RideSpaceMountain said...

"I am not some Lord of the Flies nihilist"

Well Matt...so many on the other side of the aisle are. Hell, some of them take this stuff so seriously they dress up as batgirl when they're not filling the nihilistic void in their lives with cheeseburgers.

"Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori" is not how we should could keep approaching consistent heads-they-win/tails-we-lose defectors in the prisoner's dilemma that is the United States House and Senate.

I want scorched earth and heads on pikes, warpaint and fireside chanting optional. I have faith in you.

Dude1394 said...

Well you ARE a republican states the democrat party propaganda outlet the NYTimes.

Ann Althouse said...

""Arsonist" and "far right" and "tormentor" all right up front. No need to wonder how objective this profile will be."

With the Nixonian "I am not."

Gusty Winds said...

"far right" - usual bullshit.

Gates and his MAGA allies forced some GREAT concessions. No more bullshit 4000 page omnibus bills. No more tagging on amendments like "weapons for Zimbabwe" onto a farm bill...

You know why they hate single subject bills?? Because you can't hide waste of money bullshit inside them nobody can find.

Gates is fighting for real transparency. We should all be grateful after the lies and secrecy of the Pelosi / Schiff House and the J6 Committee.

Why not believe that his efforts we actually toward egalitarianism as stated? The House Represents the American People. Not the House itself, nor the FBI, IRS, CIA, Ukrainian Army etc...

Gates stands out because he is a good debater and has BALLS. Unlike the majority of GOPe members in the House and Senate.

Kate said...

-- With the Nixonian "I am not."

When will people learn that when you say, "I am not xyz," you've immediately associated yourself with xyz and that's all we'll think about.

rhhardin said...

He missed the point of Lord of the Flies. The point is that when authority reappears on the scene, normalcy instantly reappears.

tim in vermont said...

If he is “far right,” where would Mussolini fall on this spectrum?

n.n said...

Far-right as in anarchist? Or conservative centrist in the American model? Anti-slavery, anti-diversity, pro-Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness with equal, not "=", not equitable, not selective discrimination.

Shared responsibility, progressive prices, audits under the hammer in death only, and funding the apartheid regime in Kiev, the wicked witch of the West is melting.

tim in vermont said...

It’s ironic that the NYT would worry that a “far right,” you need to say that in John Denver’s voice, politician is one of those tucking peaceniks who might balk at funding Ukrainian hyper-nationalists.

Rocco said...

So Matt Gaetz is a 'Political Arsonist', but the question is 'how [Gaetz] intends to use his influence on the burning issues of the day'."

So he intends to fight fire with fire? I guess that's better than getting burned by the RINOs and Democrats.

Michael K said...

The NY Times, and its aging white female readers, make clear their hatred of this Congressman who aided in pressuring McCarthy to do some reform as Speaker.

Sebastian said...

"Political Arsonist"

Apart from the fact that Nancy was first lady of progs, is there any reason not bring political arson the house she built?

David53 said...

Obviously he's not talking about the real life "Lord of the Flies" story.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/shipwreck-deserted-island-south-pacific-survivors-60-minutes-2021-04-04/

Chuck said...

Matt Gaetz did an amazingly electrifying interview, tonight, with Ari Melber on MSNBC.

I can already picture the Althouse commentariat screaming, “MSNDC?!? You expect us to pay any attention to that left-wing propaganda outlet?!? Gaetz appeared there, by his own choice. An utterly amazing interview that went for about 25 uninterrupted minutes; unheard of in prime time cable news. To his great credit, Gaetz answered questions directly and with impressive articulation, if entirely lacking in evidence. To his great credit, Melber let Gaetz answer; didn’t interrupt or cut Gaetz off. Every second of the lengthy interview was substantive. So; there.

victoria said...

Perv, transporter of underage girls across state borders. Any of his "pearls of wisdom" are obliterated by these facts, and they are facts.

He is vile and disgusting... and a Republican.


Vicki from Pasadena

victoria said...

Really, Chuck... electrifying? He can't even spark a valid debate, much less an interview. Boring, not very bright and, like Jim Jordan, a pervert. You actually think he is a viable political person. Sad person you are, sad.


Vicki from Pasadena

Known Unknown said...

Purple prose from a blue stater.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

vikki buys the left's lies.

Drago said...

victoria: "Perv, transporter of underage girls across state borders. Any of his "pearls of wisdom" are obliterated by these facts, and they are facts.

He is vile and disgusting... and a Republican."

Morgan Freeman Narrator Voice: Of course ictoria from pasadena, along with Inga and gadfly, declared it was "perfectly normal" for Joe Biden to shower with his adolescent daughter.

West TX Intermediate Crude said...

The problem is that wanting to stop spending money we don't have is now far right arson-adjacent deplorable thinking.
It should be a common assumption, but it's a radical concept in the current zeitgeist.
We are doomed.

Drago said...

Hunter Biden's tax payer funded Hooker: "vikki buys the left's lies."

vickie doesnt know that a democratical is in prison for pushing the human trafficking lies while engaging in actual criminal behavior.

You have to remember that victoria is a huge booster for the underage children grooming activities of her psycho lefty allies. Once you understand that all her projection lies come into clear focus.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Vikki still loves her fraud

Aggie said...

'New Powers', huh? Tell me about his committee appointments then.

tim maguire said...

rhhardin said...He missed the point of Lord of the Flies. The point is that when authority reappears on the scene, normalcy instantly reappears.

Whenever Lord of the Flies comes up, I feel the need to point out that there was a real life Lord of the Flies that happened right about the same time the book was written and it was nothing like the book.

The book is garbage. A 2nd rate fantasy with nothing to teach us about the human condition or the world in which we live.

Chuck said...

Victoria I was not agreeing with anything put forward by Matt Gaetz. I don’t get to decide who, among House Republicans, becomes important for them. I carry no brief for Gaetz or McCarthy or the Freedom Caucus.

The point I was making — several points, actually — were as follows:

1. Gaetz and Melber were actually discussing things. There were questions, and answers. They were not simply yelling at each other.

2. The production of the interview was superb. Melber’s team had all the relevant Gaetz video clips ready to play, instantly. They forced Gaetz to answer for his past declarations like, “Kevin McCarthy… will never be Speaker.”

3. They made news! Gaetz confirmed remarkable details about the deal he made to allow McCarthy to become speaker. There was, or is, a written memo. Gaetz wouldn’t agree to produce it. But he readily agreed to talk about it. Committee deals; personnel deals; rules deals; policy deals.

4. Gaetz claimed, totally unconvincingly, that he didn’t request a pardon from the White House. Ari hammered him for several minutes on that.

And there was a lot more. Certainly the most revelatory interview with a House Republican since the Speaker election. It was a particularly interesting interview for me because I know that Greene and Boebert and Gosar could not have mustered the articulation, much less the sensibility, to make it a worthwhile interview.

You should watch it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ47DYYcqZ4

tim maguire said...

My introduction to Matt Gaetz was the smear campaign around his skeezy lifestyle (backed up by his televangelist haircut). But as a representative, he seems pretty solid.

Jamie said...

[Lord of the Flies] is garbage. A 2nd rate fantasy with nothing to teach us about the human condition or the world in which we live.

I disagree that it has nothing to teach. Did you watch the Waffle House video?

The fact that a real group of boys worked cooperatively to survive when cast away doesn't necessarily reveal much to us either. Those six boys were friends, raised in a cooperative village society. The boys of LOTF were supposed to have been British boarding school kids - haven't we all heard the stories about British boarding schools, at least of that era? I wouldn't characterize them as "cooperative," from those stories.

So maybe one lesson is, the way you'll behave under stress is significantly affected by your prior experiences and training. It's not sufficient either to assume that humanity is irredeemably fallen and selfish or that everyone has a powerful, innate tendency toward altruism. There's more to human behavior than nature - nurture does play a role.

History certainly indicates, though, that you'll be closer to the truth with the former than the latter, individual anecdotes notwithstanding. (And of course this is why Marxism always fails. People won't act altruistically toward strangers - or even toward their neighbors, if the choice is your child or your neighbor - when the pool of resources is limited.) Heinlein got it right, I think, in Starship Troopers; to build a reliable moral framework for a society, you have to start from the premise that self-interest will override societal interest most of the time for most people, especially when there's a threat. And you have to build outward from self-interest: family, community, city, nation, humanity. To pretend that the "lesser" priorities don't exist only leads to, well, what we see in socialism: people desperately trying to game the system to get as much as possible of the scarce resources for their "lesser," closer interests, and government having to legislate and enforce "altruism" under threat of fines, imprisonment, and ultimately death.

Where it's less of a reliable predictor is in the "irredeemable" part.

Lawlizard said...

What if Kevin McCarthy and Matt Gaetz ginned up the speaker of the house drama to lock in the liberal Republicans and then push through reforms for the house.

Drago said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Drago said...

LLR Chuck has spent years desperately pleading with the Althouse commentariat to please, please, PLEASE(!) watch MSNBC!!

So amusing.

victoria said...

Chuck, i actually watched the entire interview.


Vicki from Pasadena

Rusty said...

Drago said...
"LLR Chuck has spent years desperately pleading with the Althouse commentariat to please, please, PLEASE(!) watch MSNBC!!"
Since his stated claim is to destroy this blog I rarely read any of his nonsense.

Chuck said...

Blogger victoria said...
Chuck, i actually watched the entire interview.



That’s great! What did you think?

Did I mischaracterize anything?

Chuck said...

Blogger Rusty said...
Drago said...
"LLR Chuck has spent years desperately pleading with the Althouse commentariat to please, please, PLEASE(!) watch MSNBC!!"
Since his stated claim is to destroy this blog I rarely read any of his nonsense.



That’s not true. It’s never been true. I’ve never written that; never wrote anything like that.

You cannot find anything like that from me in any writing. Search it, look for it. You won’t find anything like that. I demand that you show these readers what the fuck you are talking about.

I quite like Althouse. I have enormous respect for her as a lawprof and scholar. I generally agree with her on matters a of art, culture and taste. I occasionally disagree with her. I don’t think anyone could ever find an occasion on which I disagreed with Althouse is a disrespectful way.

My single greatest disappointment and disagreement with Althouse is how she moderates her comments. She allows far too many distracting personal attacks that detract from the main blog topics. That’s a particular pity, because the blog posts themselves are usually so very interesting.

Drago said...

LLR Chuck is lying again. tsk tsk tsk

LLR Chuck emphatically and loudly and proudly, and in my opinion helpfully, asserted, of his own psychotic volition, that he was at Althouse blog for just 2 reasons:
1) To drive a wedge between Althouse and her readers
2) Attempt to drive Trump's support down

LLR Chuck's always ineffective efforts along the those lines were always interspersed with LLR Chuck behaving in the most cringe-worthy and downright creepy "Eddie Haskell-like" way with over the top suck up comments to Althouse.

Looks like LLR Chuck has invited himself back onto the blog (recall he was banned for his previous atrocious behavior) and has fallen right back into his old tricks.

Because of course he is.

Drago said...

LLR and Whitmer Fanboy Chuck: "I demand that you show these readers what the f*** you are talking about."

And we "demand" that you seriously consider not posting when you are 2 pitchers of G&T's into a 4 pitchers of G&T's sort of day.

Drago said...

LLR Chuck: "My single greatest disappointment and disagreement with Althouse..."

LOL