Decorum, Republican Style

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

GOP Congresswoman Marge Greene of Georgia is not a person who would normally be associated with a word like “decorum,” and is, in fact, better known for her lack of decorum as evidenced by her recent flaunting of naked photos of President Biden’s son while Greene was participating in a committee hearing at the Capitol.
 
At a House Oversight Committee hearing on July 21^st, Greene showed images of the President’s naked son which she had specially printed at taxpayer expense into poster formats so that they could be easily seen by journalists and other on-lookers as she waved them around at the committee hearing.   It was a cheap political stunt for which Marge was roundly criticized by fellow House members.  
 
Decorum be damned!
 
Then, this past Wednesday, while Marge was presiding over the House as fellow Republican Steve Scalise was speaking, someone yelled a comment in the chamber, and Greene banged her gavel and piously called for “decorum” in the House.  It was such a hypocritical and ironic request on her part that many Democratic lawmakers who were present responded by laughing uproariously.  At least one House member later publicly noted the irony of someone who had foisted “dick pics” into a House proceeding having the gall to then chastise others over a lack of decorum.
 
Decorum indeed!
 
And in a separate incident of decorum run amok, GOP Congressman Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin made quite a scene late on Wednesday night of this week when he came upon a group of young Senate pages lying on the floor of the Capitol Rotunda looking up at the artwork on the inside of the dome and taking pictures.  It was near midnight, a time when there are usually no visitors in the Capitol.
 
But Congressman Van Orden was there.  He had been hosting a beer and cheese event in his office for some of his constituents and was leading the group on a late-night tour through the Capitol when he came across the young people who were bringing their summer of work at the Capitol to a close with their own impromptu tour of the building.   According to multiple news reports Van Orden began screaming and cursing the young people, and getting in their faces while demanding that they leave the building.  
 
One of the pages wrote a transcript of the encounter minutes after it occurred.  In that summary he quoted the irate congressman as screaming:
 

“Wake the f--- up you little s---s.  What the f--- are you doing?  Get the f---out of here.  You are defiling the place.”  

(Someone was defiling the place – he had that part right – but it wasn’t the kids!)
 
Van Orden called the young people, ages sixteen and seventeen, “pieces of s---” several times and also used the word “jackasses” to describe them.  One source described the congressman’s demeanor as “physically aggressive,” and said that he got within inches of some of the student’s faces.
 
Members of the House and Senate from both parties have criticized their colleague’s behavior.  His office did not deny that the incident occurred.
 
Decorum?  It must be in the eye of the beholder!