Quick Hits: Volume CCCXXXIX

 - Chaos on the U.S. House of Representatives floor Tuesday evening. 

The Republican effort to impeach Department of Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas failed Tuesday night in a dramatic House standoff that came down to the wire thanks to three Republican defectors.

The resolution was defeated 216 to 214, as Republican Representatives Tom McClintock of California, Ken Buck of Colorado, and Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin joined the united Democratic caucus in voting against impeachment. Representative Blake Moore (R., Utah) joined the “no” side at the last minute to break a tie and allow Republicans to bring the resolution to the floor again. Representative Steve Scalise (R., La.) was absent due to cancer treatments.

Some GOP House members took to X to criticize their fellow Republicans who voted not to impeach, with Representative Nancy Mace (S.C.) saying those four chose “to snub the will of the people.” Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) told reporters after the vote that “there was a motion to recommit,” meaning “that we can bring the articles of impeachment back to the floor maybe as early as next week. So this is not over yet.”

The articles of impeachment accuse Mayorkas, who has presided over record levels of illegal immigration, of “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” and “breach of public trust.”

My unpopular opinion (at least among the political right)? This is the correct call. 

Is Mayorkas incompetent? Perhaps. Derelict in his duty? Definitely appears so. But if you believe then President Donald Trump's so-called "perfect phone call" with the Ukrainian president was not an impeachable offense, then Mayorkas' poor job performance isn't either. 

You'll never convince me that it's somehow justified to weaponize power because the opposite side has done so. I'll concede that's where we seem to have arrived in today's American politics, but it doesn't make it any less sleazy. 

- The Minnesota Senate has a new Majority Leader ahead of the legislative session slated to begin next week. 

Longtime St. Paul lawmaker Sen. Erin Murphy will be the leader of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor majority in the Minnesota Senate.

DFL senators elected Murphy as majority leader on Tuesday, a little less than a week before the 2024 legislative session begins. Murphy replaces Majority Leader Kari Dziedzic, who had been the top Senate Democrat since their party won a 34-33 majority over Republicans in the 2022 election.

Dziedzic announced last week she had to step down after learning her cancer had returned after she underwent surgery to remove a tumor during the legislative session last year. The five-term senator will remain in office but announced she would vacate the leadership role last Friday.

If you recall, Murphy won the DFL endorsement for Minnesota governor back in 2018, only to lose in the Dem primary to current Gov. Tim Walz. For all the virtue signaling prog men engage in over more women needing to be in elected office, they certainly have no qualms about stepping over them to obtain power (see also Mark Dayton usurping DFL-endorsed Margaret Anderson-Kelliher in the 2010 gov race). 

Would love to be that proverbial fly on the wall when legislative leaders meet with Walz this upcoming session. 

- For a stretch in the early to late 1990s, I became a fan of country music. The artists who really swayed me were Garth Brooks, Clint Black, John Michael Montgomery, Alan Jackson.......and Toby Keith. 

The song that drew me in to Keith's music was his debut single on his second album Boomtown, released in 1994. 

This song was especially resonant because I had just seen my ex fiancée a month earlier, and she told me she was dating a guy. Since the gist of the song "Who's That Man" is about a divorced guy driving by his former house to see his ex married to another guy who's fathering the divorcee's kids, it's not perfectly analogous. Nevertheless, the tune still impacted me in that someone had taken my place seemingly against my desires. 

Keith not only sang about matters of the heart, he also was unapologetically patriotic, especially when singing of putting a "boot in your a**" if you dare cross America. 

Sadly, it was announced Tuesday morning that Keith succumbed to cancer at age 62. 

While it's difficult to say goodbye to our favorite musical artists, their enduring "art" will make it feel as though they're always with us. 

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