AR-15 Lapel Pins Are the Perfect Symbol for Today’s GOP

“Imagine members strutting around the corridors of Congress in late 2001 with a Boeing 747 lapel pin, or wearing a spiky replica of the coronavirus when New York City’s morgues were overflowing in the spring of 2020. Explain to me how worshiping an AR-15 — when the blood stains are still being scrubbed off a dance studio in Monterey Park, Club Q in Colorado Springs, or a bus in Charlottesville — is any different, really?”

— Will Bunch, commenting on the AR-15 lapel pins being worn by many Republican members of Congress.

The GOP’s Problem with the 1/6 Commission

“The problem is that the GOP has transformed into a cult of the person who instigated the attack, fed propaganda to radicalize his party and refused to denounce white supremacists. The party is thus terrified of recognizing that the problem of violent white supremacists is intrinsically linked to the disgraced former president and his accomplices.”

Jennifer Rubin

Greene Offers Cool, Level-Headed Respose to Efforts to Remove Her

“No matter what Kevin McCarthy does it would never be enough for the hate America Democrats. They are only set out to destroy Republicans, your jobs, our economy, your children’s education and lives, steal our freedoms, and erase God’s creation. And the bloodthirsty media are their henchmen who help them by relentlessly attacking anyone in their path.”

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) lashed out over a reported proposal to remove her from one of her committees because of her past controversial comments.

Kinzinger: GOP Has Lost Its Way

“I think the long term impact of this could be devastating… It’s important to be outspoken. That’s why I decided to put this on the line. We’ve lost our moral authority to be outraged. When you end up where principles don’t matter, beliefs don’t matter, it’s just about who can be the loudest and kind of maintain power through raw anger and aggression, you’re no different than a lot of Latin American countries at that point.”

— Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), telling Politico that the Republican Party has lost its way.

House Freedom Caucus Does Its Usual August Dirty Work

“The HFC always does something like this right before the August recess. They tried to boot John Boehner, they tried to push out the IRS commissioner, they tried to force a repeal of Obamacare and this year, they are trying to push out the deputy attorney general. They say they are responding to legitimate issues. Their detractors say they’re trying to raise money and split Republicans.”

Playbook makes a good observation about the House Freedom Caucus effort to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

The Cost of Republican Extremism

“Starting around the 2010 Tea Party surge, Republican voters have repeatedly chosen the most extreme candidates during primaries, and have paid a real electoral price, particularly in the Senate. … If Republicans held all these seats today, and if they hadn’t run and lost with Roy Moore on Tuesday, they would hold a 57-43 margin in the Senate, and Democrats would have no shot at taking back the chamber next year. Extremism has cost the GOP a lot of power, and blunted the natural advantage the Senate’s small-state bias gives the Republican coalition.”

Ezra Klein

Georgia Lawmaker Considers Quarantining HIV Victims

“I don’t want to say the quarantine word — but I guess I just said it. Is there an ability, since I would guess that public dollars are expended heavily in prophylaxis and treatment of this condition, so we have a public interest in curtailing the spread. … Are there any methods legally that we could do that would curtail the spread?”

— Georgia state Rep. Betty Price (R), the wife of former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, asking in a hearing this week “what are we legally able to do” to limit the spread of HIV throughout the state, Stat reports.