From Dana Milbank at the Wash Post in a Op-Ed…..
- Killed a bipartisan border-security bill, the toughest in decades, that he himself had demanded and senators had painstakingly negotiated.
- Killed off, at least for now, funds to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia’s invasion and Taiwan defend itself against China.
- Tried to pass military aid to Israel but watched it go down to defeat on the House floor.
- Held a vote to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas after months of build up — only for it to fail in a dramatic floor vote.
The last happened Tuesday in ugly fashion. At a closed-door Republican caucus meeting in the morning, Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.), who had shepherded the articles of impeachment, said Mayorkas had to be impeached because “this reptile has no balls to resign.”
The reptilian reference, first reported by Politico’s Olivia Beavers, evoked an age-old antisemitic trope. Biden White House official Ian Sams protested the “vile” remark about Mayorkas, who is Jewish, adding a line about “reptilian men” from the American Jewish Committee’s glossary of antisemitic terms….
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The House, which began its workweek Monday evening, ended its week Wednesday morning (Democrats had a retreat scheduled), leaving lawmakers just four working days before the next deadline to keep the government funded on March 1. Deadlines to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act come shortly thereafter. And lawmakers have made no discernible progress on any of this….