Luna's Lunatic Proxy Voting Theater
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I know I am going to come off sounding as if I am a curmudgeonly old school traditionalis…

Well. Hang on a minute here.

That’s what I am.

While we can all have a good howl at Spartacus and his Day of Senatorial Emotive Performance Art – the only thing missing was the literal toga – it was much ado about nothing. Booker isn’t much of anything, and his barking at the moon affected nothing. There was no bill, no resolution to be stymied or heroically bolloxed. It was just a lonely man swaying, bug-eyed, at a podium in a cavernous, dark, empty chamber that echoed much like the voices in his cranium do.





However, what has been happening in the House has been a Theater of the Absurd. What makes it even more appalling is that it’s been led by one of the MAGA media darlings who looks great on camera while spewing all the tough talking points until it comes to her own personal convenience following longstanding rules.

I’m referring to one of Florida’s representatives, Anna Paulina Luna, who quit the ‘Freedom Caucus’ in a huff this week because those GOP ingrates wouldn’t back her motion to allow a rules change for new Congressional parents to vote by proxy.

WHUT

She’s just ‘shattered’ by the betrayal, you know.

Anna Paulina Luna resigns from House Freedom Caucus, says ‘mutual respect’ was ‘shattered’

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., is resigning from the House Freedom Caucus, she announced in a letter to fellow conservatives on Monday.

It’s the latest escalation in her fight against House GOP leaders and a small group of members on the right flank of their conference over the issue of proxy voting. Luna has teamed up with Democrats and several other Republicans on a mechanism aimed at forcing consideration of legislation that allows new parents in the House to vote remotely for 12 weeks around their baby’s birth.

“I have consistently supported each of you, even in moments of disagreement, honoring the mutual respect that has guided our caucus,” Luna wrote. “That respect, however, was shattered last week.”

Holy smokes, snowflake. I couldn’t believe it when I read that. Get over yourself.

But sweet thing wasn’t through yet.





What Luna did next to circumvent House leadership was introduce her bill to change the rule as a ‘privileged’ resolution.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., is forcing a vote on legislation to enable new parents serving in Congress to vote remotely in the weeks surrounding the birth of their child.

Luna introduced the measure as a “privileged resolution” on Tuesday, which gives House leaders two legislative days to take up the measure.

It’s the latest in an increasingly high-stakes fight between Luna and House GOP leaders, who have teamed up with some of Luna’s now-former House Freedom Caucus colleagues to ensure she cannot force a vote on the legislation.

Luna’s initial plan to fast-track her bill despite opposition from House GOP leaders involved a discharge petition, a mechanism for getting a bill onto the House floor if it gets a majority of lawmakers’ signatures – which Luna’s resolution did.

…Luna’s bill, which is co-led by Rep. Brittney Pettersen, D-Colo., would give new moms and dads serving in Congress the ability to vote by proxy for up to 12 weeks surrounding the birth of their child.

Luna not only worked with Democrats to sidestep both the Speaker of the House and a hard and fast constitutional rule…

…but pissed off Johnson to the point where he shut the whole circus down.





Before I offer up some supporting facts and opinions, let me just state for the record my own – I think this is an abominable way for Luna to behave. Being a member of Congress is a privilege, and with that comes following the rules, some of which are locked in stone for a reason.

Proxy voting is one of those and a Pandora’s box of the first magnitude. Your giving birth doesn’t confer some special additional status on you as a member of Congress, as you can always resign to spend that time with your child. Likewise, those new fathers.

But what’s so infuriating about this entire exercise is that, unlike, say, me as a military mother, Rep Luna and her fellow actors in the virtue-signaling parade of ‘FOR THE CHILDREN‘ petitioners…

…have a brand-new $12M daycare facility right there.

I mean, I had to go begging for people to watch a tiny Ebola all those years on active duty and still pay for before and after care when he got old enough for grade school. When one of us was on a scheduled six-month deployment – or, in major dad’s case, off to war or some 3d world s**t hole like Somalia – talk about a daycare nightmare. You learn some world class panic care juggling skills.





You are also very poor paying for the best child care you can find.

But here are Congresswomen, some of the most privileged people on Earth, trying to remove one of the most sacrosanct mechanisms for preventing Congressional voting abuse purely for their convenience? When they already have assets for childcare – and hugely affordable ones – available?

How dare they.

No corners were cut building the U.S. House daycare. It’s a state-of-the-art, 26,000 square-foot facility, complete with a miniature version of the National Mall in the playground.

To employees of the U.S. House, however, it represents more than just a top-end daycare. For a lot of them, the chance to send their kids to any daycare at all is nothing short of a miracle.

The average wait time for a U.S. House employee to get their children into government daycare is three years. For a mother in politics, that means the only way to get childcare in order to keep representing the people who voted you into power is to get on the waiting list before you’ve even conceived.

…The new U.S. House daycare, which will provide care for up 120 children, is expected to bring that waiting list down from 3 years to 1. Once in, House representatives won’t get free care. The $1,100 to $1,700 monthly charge, however, will be significantly lower than the average private daycare in the D.C. area

While Luna may have gotten Democrats and a few turncoat squishes to roll with her, there’s a good amount of seething anger. Not one Republican woman voted for her, and you would think if it were so almighty a woman’s issue, they would have.





MTG had something to say about that.

…As a mom, I know all about seasons of life. If you aren’t capable of doing the job your constituents sent you to do, then you should step aside and let someone else do it. 

We have critical bills to pass to prevent illegals from voting and to stop judges from vetoing President Trump’s agenda. 

It’s a shame that selfish politicians are putting themselves before the American people.

If you can’t hack it, nothing says it’s indentured servitude.

Please go home.

There is little sympathy among the knuckle-dragging class for this charade.

And, as this Xweet says, the tactical implications of being the first through that long-unopened door are so unbelievably horrifying, why on Earth would they allow it?





Can this be undone?

I’m no Congressional procedural expert – I only play one here at HotAir – but I’m getting the impression it’s up to Luna to pull it back. What about the ‘proxy is unconstitutional’ part of it?

I haven’t the first clue.

What a stupidly self-centered piece of vanity art to blow yourself up on.

Some people tend to start believing their own press, and I guess this is what happened here.

We’ll have to see how much of a darling she is when this all shakes out and, if she’s successful, when the damage starts rolling in.

 





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