by Ann Reichlin
According to the September 19 Cook Report, Marc Molinaro is a toss-up Republican. Perhaps that’s why Mr. Molinaro threw himself into the GOP’s budget war: A war that they waged against themselves. And he is demonstrating his magic power of morphing to meet the moment.
On the one hand, he voted with leadership to advance a continuing resolution to keep the government running. The next minute he collaborated with the prime bomb thrower in the GOP’s Crazy Caucus—the notorious Matt Gaetz—on legislation that moved the Washington Examiner to observe that “Even if the plan manages to work, it won’t get them any closer to avoiding a government shutdown.”
Mr. Molinaro cast plenty of odious yes votes, some of them for anti-environment amendments. One would prohibit funding to implement the Paris Climate Accords. Another would prohibit funds to carry out executive orders pertaining to climate change. A third would limit the salary for the Special Envoy for Climate. It is fair to ask, based on these votes, whether Marc Molinaro is a climate change denialist.
Then there was another failed attempt by the GOP to pass a Continuing Resolution with only Republican votes. Molinaro voted yes on this too—in spite of the fact that it would have made dramatic cuts to domestic spending. Does Molinaro really want to shred the public safety net?
Happily, the Democrats in Congress, who actually have the capacity to govern, stepped up and helped pass the Continuing Resolution to keep the government running without making egregious cuts to domestic programs.
To his credit, Molinaro did vote in favor of the Continuing Resolution. But like the political weather vane that he is, he was willing to vote for all kinds of nasty versions, just to appease his extreme colleagues.
Editor’s note: We grant the privilege of The Last Word to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who lays out the Democratic conditions for the next round of this fight in November: https://x.com/Acyn/status/