A House Oversight Committee meeting was pondering whether Attorney General Merrick Garland be held in contempt of Congress when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), responded to a question from Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) by saying, “I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading.” Stay classy, MTG! (In truth, MTG has never been classy). “That is absolutely unacceptable,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez interjected, proving that she’s not wrong all the time. “How dare you attack the physical appearance of another person?”
Greene then turned her wit, such as it is, on AOC, asking, “Are your feelings hurt?” “Oh, girl? Baby girl,” Ocasio-Cortez replied, trying hard to sink to the ridiculous Republican’s level, “Don’t even play.” Then Greene asked Ocasio-Cortez, “Why don’t you debate me?,” and AOC snapped back, “it’s pretty self-evident.”
I wonder what she was referring to? Jean Kerr once wrote that it was folly to argue with a six-year-old because you would inevitably start sounding like one.
“You don’t have enough intelligence,” shot back Greene, eschewing the more sophisticated, “I’m rubber and you’re glue” bon mot.
Repeated demands from Democrats to strike Greene’s words from the record and force her to apologize followed, but House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) ruled that Greene’s insult of Crockett did not violate House rules against engaging in “personalities” during debate.
See, insulting someone’s fake eye-lashes isn’t engaging in “personalities.” How Clintonesque of him! Presumably calling someone fat, ugly, and stupid would also not violate the rules.
Then Rep. Crockett, thinking along the same lines, asked Comer, “I’m just curious, just to better understand your ruling…If someone on this committee then starts talking about somebody’s bleach blond, bad-built butch body, that would not be engaging in personalities, correct?” This tit-for tat predictably triggered more chaos. Comer, who is apparently useless, played the “Eh? What?” card as well as the “I’m trying, so don’t expect me to be competent” card. “I have two hearing aids. I’m very deaf,” he said. “I’m not understanding — everybody’s yelling. I’m doing the best I can.”
If that’s the best you can do at running a meeting, why the hell are you in Congress? Later, Greene was defiant.
“I will not apologize for my words, and I will not change them,” she said.
Greene, Crockett, AOC and Comer are all embarrassments and disgrace our government. With uncivil, unprofessional, disrespectful jerks like this running our legislative branch, it’s no wonder that public trust in the government is at an all-time low.
How long before another caning takes place?
Ethics Alarms 
Okay. A prize for the P.G. Wodehouse, “Eh?What?” being deployed so artfully. Made my night.
Is there no one who will get rid of this woman? I’m looking at you, Georgia Republicans.
I used to have a lot of tolerance for Greene, but she’s used that up.
What you have here is a failure to communicate. Years ago when the representatives had studied the classics they could insult each other on a much higher level. Caning was employed as a last resort. Today, our representatives are products of our public education system where the original classics have been banned for being offensive to one group or discarded as irrelevant to current society.
Linguistic presentations today reflect the gutter because that is how the teachers they had speak. The idiocracy is here and the people have spoken – if not poorly.
Members of Congress reflect the values and character of their constituents. Sad but true.
The precipitating exchange needs to be included. While I do not know if it was relevant to that proceeding, it does bear relevance on the dual system of justice being practiced by Biden’s DOJ under Garland.
From CNN article claiming MAGA rhetoric as racist. Crockett slams Greene as ‘racist’ following contentious House committee meeting
“At the markup, Greene started by asking Democrats on the committee if any of them employ the daughter of Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the criminal trial in New York of former President Donald Trump. As Republicans have sought to curry favor with Trump, they have gone after Merchan’s daughter, who has ties to Democrats, as they seek to undermine the case.
Crockett, a Democrat from Texas, asked Greene, “Do you know what we’re here for?”
Greene shot back: “I don’t think you know what you’re here for … I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading.”
To be honest, I would wonder if she MTG had said “put your glasses on 4 eyes so you can see what you are reading” would be much different. We are examining the exchange through male eyes, not how females insult each other. Because women are more verbal than physical they tend to be more personal in their cutting attacks than men. As such, they attack their adversary’s looks while men make light of the opponents size, musculature and intellect – ie little Marco. This is what diversity of experience often brings us. Let’s just call it “toxic femininity”. The question is should males decide how females should fight with each other?
The CNN article plays down Merchan’s daughters involvement. CNN also fails to remind people that Merchan has gagged Trump and his immediate team from saying anything about the potential conflict of interest he has with his daughter’s activities.
Merchan’s daughter has been elevated to soaring heights in the money raising world by virtue of her familial relationship with Judge Merchan and this trial. Further Dan Goldman (D)NY who is on the Oversight Committee has paid Merchan’s daughter over $150,000 for services recently.
“The precipitating exchange needs to be included. While I do not know if it was relevant to that proceeding, it does bear relevance on the dual system of justice being practiced by Biden’s DOJ under Garland.”
Sure, but it doesn’t matter regarding the gutter-level discourse, for which there can be no justification.
Incidentally, Ann Althouse thinks the incident is funny, and just snarks from the sidelines. It isn’t funny. It’s tragic.
And this is the superior, above it all, “ah, you silly peasants” attitude so much of the scholarly class displays about contemporary politics. If they allowed themselves to care about the cultural rot, they might actually contribute to finding a solution.
Jack
I am not surprised at the female reaction to the exchange. Many will find it funny because snark and other verbal parries are how women fight. Men win by inflicting physical damage on the opponent. Women win when they are inflicting psychological damage. To Ann it is merely a boxing match.
Absolutely. MTG’s responses that would have actually undergirded MTG’s initial statement were abundantly available had she wanted to take the high road.