Joe Henderson
In an interview with GQ called the Trumpiest Congressman in Trump’s Washington, Matt Gaetz said, “The organizing principle of today’s politics is ‘stay interesting.’” Yeah, that’s one reason Gaetz is President Donald Trump’s kind of guy.
This is what passes for interesting. Like the President, Gaetz is loud, arrogant, brash, and abrasive. He is not on a first-name basis with things called facts, and he likes to butt in where he doesn’t belong.
Take Georgia politics, for instance.
The Representative from Florida’s 1st Congressional District inserted his mouth, ego, and ambition into the decision by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, by the way, to appoint Kelly Loeffler to the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the retiring Johnny Isakson.
Trump wanted U.S. Rep. Doug Collins to fill the seat. And that’s where Gaetz took his goober-smooching cue to threaten Kemp – yes, threaten – for daring to think on his own.
“If you substitute your judgement for the President’s, maybe you need a primary (challenge) in 2022,” Gaetz tweeted.
By the way, Matt, it’s spelled judgment – no “e” in the middle. No need to thank me.
Ryan Mahoney, an adviser to Kemp, shot back that Gaetz should forget about receiving an invite to the Governor’s feral hog hunt because “self-serving politicians who wear tight, acid-washed jean shorts and cowardly hide behind their keyboard can’t cut it in South Georgia.”
It’s big-picture time.
It doesn’t matter which Republican Kemp chose to fill the seat. We can be sure that soon-to-be Sen. Loeffler will dutifully fall in line and vote as instructed by Trump and Mitch McConnell. Surely, Gaetz and the President know that much.
So, this is just Gaetz being Gaetz – bellowing, bloviating, and making even less sense than usual. He’s jumping and down like a hyperactive grade-schooler, trying to show the teacher he knows the right answer.
In this case, Trump is the teacher, and Gaetz wants the boss to know he is still 100 percent on the team.
Gaetz may be the best example in the country of why Washington politics has become more than dysfunctional; it has turned into a national embarrassment. I guess Gaetz would call that interesting, though.
Is it interesting to help lead a charge, as Gaetz did, of GOP lawmakers into a secure area and disrupt depositions related to the President’s impeachment? Or is proof that Gaetz isn’t ready for the big stage?
Is it interesting that as a freshman Congressman, Gaetz introduced a bill to abolish the EPA? Or was it a lame cry for attention?
Gaetz drew wide criticism for his relationship with Charles Johnson. Johnson is a blogger who has denied the Holocaust happened, but Gaetz invited him to the State of the Union address. That’s not interesting. But it is peculiar, and maybe a little telling.
Gaetz probably doesn’t have to worry about re-election because he represents one of the reddest regions in Florida. Maybe he takes that as a license to say and do with impunity whatever his impulse suggests.
He is not yet 40 years old, and maybe he thinks his blind love for the President will result in a Cabinet post if Trump is re-elected.
Maybe.
The other side of this, though, is that guys like Gaetz eventually fall, and they fall hard.
What seems “interesting” today might have dire ramifications tomorrow. Gaetz has certainly stretched the limits.
This country faces serious challenges, both domestically and abroad. It’s a time for sober leadership, not self-aggrandizing clowns.
Put another way, being boorish is not the same as being interesting.
14 comments
Harold Finch
December 4, 2019 at 8:19 pm
Gaetz is a bufoon, clown, bully and arrogant prick!!! Worst kind of politician! Even his fellow R’s don’t like him. 🙁
Beverly Terpening
December 4, 2019 at 10:35 pm
Yes he is embarrassing for Floridans, at least those not Cult#45 followers. But yes he probably in a safe seat in his red district and his family has a lot of political pull in FL politics. He’s just another silver spoon baffin like his friend Don Jr. But the got booed off a stage when presenting Jr’s fake book. Oh well such is politics in this country.
gary
December 5, 2019 at 1:52 pm
I love it when you losers hate us! It means we are on the right track! TRUMP 2020!
Sonja Emily Fitch
December 5, 2019 at 5:51 am
AFTER A LOT OF THOUGHT I WOULD LIKE TO AWARD THE 2 YEAR OLD WHINING, YELLING AND OVER ALL TEMPER TANTRUM AWARD TO GAETZ. YESTERDAYS PERFORMANCE AT THE JUDICIAL HOUSE HEARINGS WAS SUPERB. THE ONLY PROBLEM IS GAETZ IS GETTING TO BE SO PREDICTABLE HE IS GOING TO HAVE TO STEP UP HIS ‘DISTRACTION ACTS. CLOSE SECOND WAS DOUG COLLINS. this is serious. VOTE DEMOCRATS 2020
Fraser
December 5, 2019 at 12:29 pm
He can’t fall that hard. Even if he gets booted to the curb politically, there’s a spot on Fox News just waiting for him to fill it.
gary
December 5, 2019 at 1:51 pm
Another partisan opinion by Joe the hack! Matt is exactly what we need in Florida to combat the batshit crazy DemoRats!
Kevin
December 5, 2019 at 3:05 pm
I agree Gary. I don’t live in Florida myself, but I would be proud to have Gaetz as my representative.
I think Joe is projecting when he refers to Gaetz as “jumping and down like a hyperactive grade-schooler.” This article indites Joe of the very personality he portrays of Gaetz.
What is really hilarious to me is that Joe criticizes Gaetz for misspelling judgment, while forgetting to add the work “up” in the above mentioned quote about “jumping and down.”
Juan Yglesias
December 5, 2019 at 3:02 pm
Says the LIBERAL writer.
Steve Traina
December 5, 2019 at 9:54 pm
I hope for your sake you threw away the pen you wrote this article with and washed your hands afterwards. What short straw did you draw to have to write about this tool?
JD
December 6, 2019 at 12:10 pm
Some of the comments here reflect that the urban legend of the Neanderthal-like, knuckle dragging Florida Man isn’t a legend but reality. Matt Gaetz is a tool. If Pelosi would install a help yourself bar outside the House chamber, perhaps dummy would just remain outside and self entertain.
Tom
December 11, 2019 at 3:18 pm
Matt Gaetz is making all the noise he can, while he can, and seems to figure that if it worked for his exalted leader, it can work for him, too. But like all clowns who aspire to run the show, he just doesn’t have the ringmaster talent to run the three-ring circus. He’s no Donald Trump.
Judy
December 12, 2019 at 3:54 pm
As a Floridian, Gaetz makes my skin crawl. He was the guy in HS who thought he was “cool,” always trying to start a fight with his bullying then running the other way when someone actually challenges him back. You can see Gaetz and his Ilk (Collins, Jordan and Nunes) plot in the back, Matt’s smirk wide & gleeful as they make their ultimately failed plans for world domination. He is the worst kind of pol – devoid of all original thought & thinking himself brilliant. Bringing up Hunter Biden’s supposed drug problem while Gaetz ‘s mugshot for a DUI is publicly accessible is the height of hypocrisy & arrogance. No wonder he’s a Trump fan; they share the same qualities.
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