I’m working on a piece with some more thoughts about the Rep. Omar (D-MN) controversy. For now, on the vote: I thought jumping to passing a resolution was always a mistake, an overreaction, too reactive. In the event, it was unobjectionable enough that every Democrat and almost every Republican voted for it. Even though I thought doing any kind of resolution was a mistake, I also thought the whole “Dems in disarray” narrative was overblown. Certainly it’s a distraction from what they want to be focused on. But these things happens. Then they’re done. Then three days later it’s like it never happened.
But I’m actually pleasantly surprised at how un-divisive it ended up being. Every single Democrat voted yes, including Omar. And why not? It was a broad-ranging and unexceptionable condemnation of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and racism.
The real headline is that 23 Republicans voted against the resolution. On its face, presumably that means they voted “no” as a statement that they didn’t find the resolution strong enough. But the actual roll call, well … it’s not all that clear. Steve King, the actual anti-Semite and white nationalist in Congress, voted “present”, not doing his GOP colleagues any favors.
It’s not much better from there. The list of 23 is heavily stocked with some of the most hard right Republicans in Congress: Gohmert, Gosar, Massie, Yoho, Burgess, Palazzo, Biggs. Palazzo is a big time confederate flag supporter and … well, not great on race issues. And that applies to at least some degree to lots of those on the list. House number three leader Liz Cheney voted against it and (probably the only one party leaders are happy about) Lee Zeldin, one of two Jewish Republicans in Congress, did too.
Even if you say you’re voting no because it’s not strong enough, you’re still on the record voting “no” on a pretty hard to disagree with statement against various kinds of bigotry. And honestly, most of the people on the list read as people who may really disagree with key parts of the resolution on the merits, certainly on Islamophobia, some on racism and – let’s be honest – a number on anti-Semitism too.
I still think this is mainly a tempest in a teapot. But inside the teapot, Republicans managed to turn this apparent heartache for Democrats into a non-trivial GOP self-own.
