Among the consequences of elections is that some familiar folks are gone by or before the first of the following year. In 2019 some are leaving because they lost the November 6 election; some had planned to leave and did not run for reelection; and some who did not have to run in 2018 are in reduced or changed circumstances.
Just like Ko-Ko in The Mikado, “I’ve got a little list” of people “who never will be missed [by me, anyway].” Bye-bye and good luck to them! In no particular order, here they are.
Speaker Paul D. Ryan. Claiming some months ago that he was leaving as Speaker and as a Member to spend more time with his family in Wisconsin, something that did not occur to him in the many years of his service until he was almost certain that the Republicans would lose the House and that he would no longer be Speaker, his departure rids us of one of the most grandiose persons ever to hold that post.
His comments and responses at his so-called press conferences were always peremptory and made Sarah Huckabee (“I’ll let you know”) Sanders look like a chatterbox.
Mr. Ryan positioned himself as a master of taxation policy . His written exhibits touting tax cuts resulted in his taxation nickname, Congressman Asterisk. This is because the proposed tax reductions were numerical while the proposed tax collections were uniformly asterisks. Who knew from whence the government would collect taxes? Not Mr. Asterisk!
The Freedom Caucus. This gang of reactionaries who harassed their fellow-Republican Speakers (Boehner and Ryan) with threats of removal can now pound sand because there is no Republican Speaker to harass.
One of the most familiar members is Shirtsleeves Jim Jordan. While out of harassment opportunities through the Caucus, he is said to be seeking a Republican seat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to be chaired by Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland.
There he can throw spitballs (for five minutes) at an immunized furniture salesman who sold high-priced and bulletproof furniture to an avaricious Cabinet member. I see Shirtsleeves Jim subjected to a swift gavel from Mr. Cummings.
Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III. Can there be any doubt that this guy got the short end of the stick?
He had a safe Senate seat in Alabama; helped Trump get elected; got the appointment as Attorney General; and then obeyed the Department of Justice rules and recused himself from the Mueller investigation. This led to an avalanche of Trumpian invective and Tweetorama spanning the period of early 2017 to date.
Now the White House is looking for a new A.G. after appointing a Mueller opponent to supervise him as a temp.
This new A.G. will have to satisfy Trump that he will be left alone.
The only president to solve this problem for sure and 100% was John F. Kennedy: he appointed his brother! Sure, J. Edgar Hoover was there at the time but it didn’t seem to matter much.
Non Hugging Republican Losers. At a press conference the day after the election Trump intoned their names in a funereal voice and averred that they lost because they would not “accept the [sic] embrace” of POTUS. They each lost by a few points in a district where –perish the thought–Trump was unpopular. Had they been hugged, they probably would have lost by twenty points.
Their departures, along with others, put the House in control of the Democrats.
Kris Kobach. This gentleman lost to a Democrat for Governor of Kansas. He is a proponent of the lie that there was “massive” voter fraud by 11.3% of non-citizens residing in the United States amounting to some 3.2 million votes in 2016. As Secretary of State of Kansas, Kobach instituted voter suppression measures that he claimed were needed to protect the nation.
In a federal case in the District Court in Kansas, the plaintiffs sued Kobach because there was no evidence to support his claims. In March of this year, the plaintiffs won. The judge found that Kobach had erected substantial obstacles to voter registration in Kansas by people eligible to vote; that there was no credible evidence of voter fraud; and that Kobach was in contempt of court.
Earlier Kobach convinced Trump that his false claims were true. Briefly, Trump created a commission, headed by Kobach, to head off this fictitious voter fraud. The commission was disbanded.
Kobach is a disgrace. Bye bye indeed!
Senator Lindsey Graham. I included him not because he lost an election but because he is rumored to be a candidate for Attorney General and might leave the Senate.
Sen. Graham will attend the opening of an envelope and is a Fox fave who is always available for tv. He changes his positions (almost) as often as he changes his underwear. He hates Trump. He loves Trump. Get it?
Were he to leave the Senate he could not be quite as garrulous as he is now because the Attorney General can’t gab about investigations and such. Were his circumstances to change through the appointment, I would be happy to say bye bye, so his is a provisional inclusion.