I don't know quite what to make of the whirl of events surrounding Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), third term member of the U.S. House until recently known for a series of inflammatory statements that made her one of President Trump's most vocal supporters in Congress--and, however weirdly, one of the most effective at rallying the base and getting under the skin of Democrats: "Once greeted with derision by Washingtonians as a shrill and zany show pony, she is now seen more as a savvy operator who understands the conservative base like few others" (Draper 2025).
I also don't know what to think about the Epstein files, information related to the superpedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019. Releasing the files won't get anyone fed or access to health care, nor will they help us mitigate climate change. Nevertheless, the Trump administration has been turning themselves into pretzels to keep them under wraps, so I can only conclude there must be something in there that Trump needs us not to know.
Yet, while Attorney General Pam Bondi, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and Sassmonger in Chief Karoline Leavitt have done what they can to protect the President from Epstein revelations, Greene was one of four Republican House representatives to sign a discharge petition directing the files be released by the Justice Department. All four personally resisted Trump's calls to unsign the petition, which passed both houses and then was signed by Trump. Shortly thereafter, Greene (alone among the four hardheads) announced she would resign her congressional seat after the first of the year.
[A}ccording to interviews with friends and associates... she had become politically isolated, feeling betrayed by Mr. Trump, disgusted with her own party and friendless among the Democratic opposition. When Mr. Trump announced on Truth Social last week that he had had enough of Ms. Greene’s apostasies, labeling her “Marjorie Traitor Greene” and threatening to run a primary opponent in her district, Ms. Greene felt blindsided. Terrified by the ensuing wave of death threats aimed at her and her family from apparent supporters of Mr. Trump, she could no longer see any upside to duking it out in the political arena. (Draper 2025)
I am not imagining that Greene has had a road to Damascus experience, and that she will now be advocating for abortion rights and citizenship for immigrants, or that she will join a holy order like Duke Frederick at the end of As You Like It. If she is a candidate again, or if she attempts conservative media stardom (Drenon 2025), I expect she'll be the same old MTG. (Call it the Megyn Kelly rule?) I don't feel at all sorry for her; she is reaping the whirlwind that she herself sowed. I am, however, impressed that she found her moral core, a line across which she would not take her partisan hackery.
In our city, we're not going to agree on everything, and on some things we will find ourselves to be strongly opposed. But I for one can respect, and deal with, people who find some core that is more important to them than partisanship or financial advantage.
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