Early during President Trump’s State of the Union Message [See footnote below], Texas Representative Al Green, who already filed articles of impeachment against the President, shook his cane and shouted, refusing to stop disrupting the speech until Speaker Mike Johnson had the House Sergeant of Arms escort him out of the chamber. Green then went to the first camera he saw and declared, “I’ll accept my punishment! It was worth it.”
Speaker Mike Johnson had issued several warnings. “Members are directed to uphold and maintain decorum in the House and to cease any further disruptions,” he said. Then, “That’s your warning. Members are engaging in willful and continuing breach of decorum. And the Chair is prepared to direct the Sergeant at arms to restore order to the joint session. Take your seat,” Johnson said. Finally, “The members continue to engage in willful and concerted disruption of proper decorum. The chair now directs the Sergeant at Arms to restore order. Remove this gentleman from the chamber.”
Green’s official censure was assumed to be a certainty, and sure enough, Green was censured the next day. The vote was 224-198, with 10 Democrats joining all Republicans, so we know that at least ten Democrats have a shred of dignity and respect for the institution of Congress. (Green and freshman Rep. Shomari Figures, D-Ala., voted “present”) As the vote proceeded, Green sat by himself along the center aisle as tradition dictates.
Green had to be censured, which is considered a serious official rebuke. If he were not, then Congress would have been normalizing chaotic behavior going forward. Republican Rep. Joe Wilson (NOT “Joe Walsh”) was censured for shouting two words (“You lie!”) during an Obama SOTU, and his conduct was far less disruptive than Green’s. Nevertheless, when Mr. Green stepped into the well of the House to receive his official reprimand for a “breach of proper conduct,” the fool led his deranged Democratic colleagues in singing the gospel civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome.” (As one wag said yesterday, “When the Democrats are reduced to singing, you know they are losing.”) The Speaker had to raise his voice to finish reading the censure resolution.
Everyone of the singers should be censured as well.
Speaker Johnson was then forced to call a brief recess while Republicans and Democrats lingered on the floor, shouting at each other. The GOP had just cause to shout at the Democrats, while the Democrats had not one small metaphorical leg to stand on.
Green’s conduct was unacceptable. The censure was bi-partisan, though it should have been unanimous. His rationalization for his outburst was, as Green typically is, moronic. In his speech defending his indefensible conduct from the House floor, Green argued, “The decorum that you expect from me, you have to expect from the President!” In a silly and embarrassing speech, Green said that Democrats should engage in “righteous indignation and righteous incivility” in the face of Mr. Trump’s language, tactics and “attempts to circumvent Congress and the law itself,” he claimed. “There comes a time when you cannot allow the President’s incivility to take advantage of our civility,” he added. “It is time for us to take that stand.”
President Trump has never interrupted one of Green’s speeches, or any Democrat’s speeches.
All this amounts to is Green and the Democratic Trump Deranged Chorus protesting that Democrats lost, that they were unable to, in the immortal words of one of the singing comrades, “impeach the motherfucker,” and the their party is out of arguments, credible leaders, and, it seems, their minds. Here’s Al, making a fool of himself again…
Naturally, the rest of the Axis hacks are minimizing Green’s offense. The progressive activist group calling itself “Indivisible” called the ten Democratic defections “cowardly and unacceptable” and condemned Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the minority leader, for not being able to get his entire party to beclown itself in the censure vote. “This is Hakeem Jeffries sending a message to Dems: Don’t upset the apple cart,” said Ezra Levin, the group’s co-director. No, you dolt, it is Jeffries minimally behaving like an elected official of a republic. Hilariously, Levin said that Green’s leadership was what the Democratic Party needed.
On social media and in the Times comments to the censure story, Green fans pointed to the fact that GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green wasn’t censured when she heckled Joe Biden during his last SOTU address. Yup, she should have been. What else ya got? Reading through the NYT comments, the answer is either “Nothing!” or “Trump is Hitler.”
__________
*Footnote: I call it the State of the Union address because that’s what it was. Commenter Vinnymick (or on occasion “Michael”) informed me that robbing Trump’s fifth SOTU of that title was not, as a surmised here, another effort by the Axis to strip him of the privileges of his office, but that the media has been calling a new President’s State of the Union the “Joint Address to Congress” for a while now. Well, it’s stupid. I don’t know whose idea it was, but it makes no sense. I have also seen Trump’s speech described as a “Joint Address to Congress” more frequently than any previous POTUS. The theory is, I am told, that a newly elected President hasn’t been in office long enough to assess the “state of the union.” Well, Trump isn’t a new President: he already had an entire term. I just checked: when Gerald Ford gave his first “Joint Address to Congress” in 1975, it was unanimously called the State of the Union, and Ford said, “The State of the Union is not good.” The dual titles are confusing and unnecessary, and I say to hell with them. It’s the State of the Union speech.
Ethics Alarms 
“President Trump has never interrupted one of Green’s speeches, or any Democrat’s speeches.”
That is not the incivility to which Green was referring, and you know it.
(I type this, screaming into the wind…)
Now I know with 100% certainty that you’re smarter than this. I know the current progressive myth is that words are actions and vice-versa, but a member of the House violating House rules, disrupting a Presidential speech required by tradition and protocol, and defying the elected leader of the body of which he is a member isn’t a matter of “civility.” It is misconduct. And no individual’s words OR misconduct justify another’s misconduct. And there is absolutely no action by President Trump, ever, that is remotely comparable or that justifies that conduct. I don’t know why you would post such a comment. It can’t be defended logically, factually or ethically or according to common definitions of words either. Come on. Come on.
“Orange Man Bad!” What else have you got?
We don’t usually see “stupid” in action, but here you are, coming to a blog that espouses the best commentariat on the internet, and espousing your intellectual inferiority as some kind of sacred virtue.
proe32754 is a very smart, ethically based, thoughtful and caring person whom I have known for decades, and who even worked for me. This reaction is valuable from a diagnostic standpoint. First, there are many liberals, many of them devout Christians, who really do think that the United States should be in the business of income re-distribution and hard government over-sight of virtually all individual activities. Even though they know government is untrustworthy and incompetent as well as corrupt, they won’t give up—or are in denial about–the dream. They also somehow thought that the US was really on the way to this Nirvana, and living in a bubble—the arts, education, academia, the non-profit sector, they have been bombarded for years by one-way propaganda. They also tend to trust the news media, which is dominated by people with a similar orientation. Such individuals, who may be wise and perceptive in most other areas, shift to pure emotion now because they were under the influence of the mirage that the country was overwhelmingly in favor of the nanny state, and it isn’t and never was. Trump is the most jarring human splash of ice water in the face that these people could experience, so their reaction is visceral, emotional (angry) and irrational.
proe32754 is, under normal circumstances about 5X smarter than Al Green and under less intense circumstances would never support his act. We need to learn from people who react this way. My sister, for example, is essentially furious now all the time. It’s all rooted, unfortunately in hatred for Trump, some of it legitimately based on one comment or another, some on class prejudice and intellectual snobbery, a lot on ignorance of history and leadership, and too much on getting lied to by the news media. My sister, for example, insisted that the GOP was to blame for the illegals tidal wave because Trump killed the bill that was the best that anyone could do to stem that tide. But that was just an Axis lie, as Trump made clear in his SOTU. He didn’t need that law, and neither did Biden. My sister is also very intelligent about most things, but regarding Trump she is a fully programed useful idiot.
I don’t know how these people can be saved.
Mercy me, Jack; THAT was something…and goes in my permanent EA files!
PWS
Second. Sheesh! That’s really helpful and is a great diagnosis and answer to my perennially asking, “What is wrong with these people?” Thank you. Please repost as a comment of the day.
I think I could make a semi-reasonable case arguing that – excepting President Trump’s rude (but accurate) comment about Joe Biden being the worst President in history – Karoline Leavitt has been more uncivil towards Democrats than President Trump has.
At this point, the Democratic Party is totally defeated, though still flopping around on the floor desperately trying to revive from its death throes. The C-in-C has no need to waste time or oxygen on them. Let the subordinates perform mop-up duties on the Democrats, at least for now.
Democrats have described the interference with an official proceeding as an insurrection.
The State of the Union is an official proceeding laid out in the Constitution.
Al Greene interfered with the State of the Union Address.
Therefore, Al Greene is an insurrectionist (by the logic of some Democrats).
Al Greene should have been impeached.
-Jut
And how about that elegant, old school (19th Century?) cane Congressman Al was sporting? Redolent of anything?
I wondered about that. Thanks for putting it out there.
It comes to mind so often these days, Chris.
A wonderful bit of perspective from Prof. Turley:
“As I stated on the air yesterday after the vote, I watched the vote and the later protest in the well with profound sadness for an institution that I truly love. I first worked in Congress as a 15-year-old Democrat page. I revered the House and respected the members who worked on that floor. There was a time when this vote would have been unanimous against Green. There was a time when there were still things that remained beyond the pale; that transcended the rage.
It will take much more for the Democrats to “overcome” this moment. In a flash, they formally became the party of Al Green. As voters watched them rally around this unhinged member, their colleagues were being shown in cringe-worthy social media postings or clips spewing profanity in hearing rooms.
They have become more of a parody than a party.”
It struck me that there truly was a time within my memory when Congress was an esteemed body and acted like one. Congress people were treated with deference and acted accordingly. Now, they act like brats and are cheered on for doing so by their constituents and colleagues! Remarkable.
It has only occurred once that a member of congress has been impeached, namely Senator Blount from Tennessee in 1797 for treason. He was not convicted though as the Senate ruled they lacked jurisdiction. However the Senate voted to sequester his seat, effectively expelling him.
In practice expulsion is the most serious form of discipline members of congress have faced. The most recent expulsions are George Santos (2023, R-NY), and James Traficant (2002, D-OH), and Michael Myers (1980, D-PA). Prior to that, there were a lot of expulsions of Southern congressmen during the Civil War.
Congressman Preston Brooks (D-SC) beat Senator Charles Sumner (R-MA) with his cane at May 22, 1856 in the US Senate Chamber. Wikipedia has the following to say about this:
“An attempt to oust Brooks from the House of Representatives failed, and he received only token punishment in his criminal trial. He resigned his seat in July 1856 to allow his constituents to express their view on his conduct; they reelected him in the August special election to fill the vacancy created by his resignation. He was reelected to a full term in November 1856, but died in January 1857, five weeks before the new term began in March”
Just trying the recommended troubleshooting, Jack.
It worked!!!!
I like that Green is being celebrated as heroic and speaking truth to power (whatever that means!) and his actions were bravely civilly disobedient. Yep. Yelling at the President in the House Chamber, surrounded by hundreds of people, waving a cane all the while is now brave and righteous. Heaven help us all.
I suspect you saw the Democrat video where various lawmakers are mimicking fighting poses, challenging Trump to a street fight, ¿no? That is some amazing guerilla theater.
jvb
It’s ridiculous and within this article from, of all places, the Huffington Post (whatever happened to Ariana Huffington? Wasn’t she conservative?): Democrats’ Anti-Trump Meme Attempt Goes Viral For All The Wrong Reasons | HuffPost Latest News
“whatever happened to Ariana Huffington? Wasn’t she conservative?”
She came to the good ol’ U.S. of A. as a dyed-n-in-the-wool Conservative, but had an economic epiphany.
After correctly figuring that Lefties were FAR more easily herded, and discovering she could employ idiot Lefty bloggers (forgive the redundancy) to work for free was an enviable business model, switching teams made financially rewarding sense.
Seems to have worked out, she cashed out in 2011 to AOL for a cool $315 million; musta seen ’em coming…
PWS
Yes, she encountered “a liquidity even.” (My all-time, all=time favorite investment banker term.)
John, “speaking truth to power” — participle; any time a Democrat says anything.
A couple of suggested corrections / question for our host:
Right. Joe Walsh is another whack job. Fixed. Sorry.
Joe Walsh, wasn’t he a member of the James Gang. Who knew he was a Republican
Joe Walsh was a congressman from Illinois in 2011-2013, and lost the election from Tammy Duckworth, after his original district was gerrymandered away. He was known for his abrasiveness, and ran an unsuccessful primary against Donald J Trump in 2019.
He is not to be confused with one of the guitar players of the Eagles at Hotel California.
I was kidding. I guess I dated myself by going back before he joined the Eagles
Oh good: it was Reagan’s fault. It’s still dumb and confusing. Let’s see. That means there have been 1, 2, 3, 4,5. 6 and now 7 “Joint Addresses to Congress” and 37 SOTUs in the same period. But if Reagan’s second term SOTU speeches were all called that, so should all four of Trump’s in his second term.
Yes the singing members of congress deserve censure, however I doubt whether it is actually wise to censure them.
The worst part about the singing was how off-key it was…it makes your dog hide under the couch, yelping and howling in anguish.
I can’t help thinking the House Democrats would be much better off emulating THIS Al Green: Bing Videos
not sure I get it.
Greene said he would accept the consequences of his actions.
then, he sings in protest of his censure.
and he sings We Shall Overcome
if I cared enough, I would slap back at the Left with some quote from Malcolm X who, if I recall, loved to mock the singing of We Shall Overcome by the activists
-Jut
What’s there to get? He’s a moron.