It Needs to Be Said

When looking at Republican House leaders over the past few decades, it is clear that they have been flawed.

That being said, since at least Bob Michael in the 1980s, none of them have been deeply stupid, until Kevin McCarthy, that is.

He sent out the latest Republican legislative agenda, called "Commitment to America," and mailed copies of it to his fellow Republican leaders, including ……… Wait for it ……… Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi.

"Wait," you are saying, "Isn't Nancy Pel………"

Yes, yes she is.

It also turns out that, in addition to publicly going to unpopular places, like banning abortion and supporting voter suppression, it got a number of very basic things things deeply wrong, like misquoting the first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln:

We had a little sport with Kevin McCarthy’s “Commitment To America” plan of inaction earlier this week. I believe the concept of rake-stepping was discussed at some length. Well, the agenda had its rollout on Friday, complete with an explanatory video. And, well…WHAP!

From HuffPost:

The GOP’s video, “The Preamble to the Commitment to America,” opens with a narrator highlighting aspects of what it means to be an American. “We celebrate the rich heritage of the American story and the vibrancy of the American Dream,” the voice says, over footage of a drilling rig at sunrise. But this video snippet, an apparent nod to America’s natural resources, wasn’t filmed in America. It’s stock footage created by Serg Grbanoff, a filmmaker based in Russia.

Classic. But that's not all! The Daily Beast took note of McCarthy's use of an Abraham Lincoln quote and did what everyone should do when they encounter a Lincoln quote in the wild—make sure that Honest Abe is the one who said it. Turns out, it was yet another rake to the face. Per the Daily Beast:

“Commitment,” reads the quote, “is what transforms a promise into reality.”

For McCarthy’s purposes, it’s a pitch-perfect message. There’s just one problem: there’s no record of Lincoln actually saying it[...]What may have injected this phrase into the public’s bloodstream was not Lincoln but Lehman Brothers, the Wall Street titan that collapsed in the 2008 financial crisis. In 1986, Lehman Brothers placed a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal thanking its longest-tenured employees. At the top of the page is the full quote that is attributed in some places online to Lincoln.

Even Sideshow Bob didn't have this many bruises.

It really is remarkable just how committed to stepping on their own dicks the Republicans are.

Thank heaven for small favors.