Wicker Basket Case

And so yesterday Democrats in Congress passed the COVID emergency relief bill, with the Republican Party voting unanimously against it.  Not a single Republican vote was cast for the bill.

I've been writing here how disastrous a decision that would be for the Republican Party in the 2022 mid-term elections, considering that the bill is supported by 75% of the country, including 60% of Republicans.  Yet zero Republicans in Congress voted for it, something that the entire GOP will be deservedly painted with in the mi-terms.

And if anyone has a doubt about that, I offer this tweet from Sen. Roger Wicker posted a few hours after the bill officially passed.  

Why this tweet is so notable is that Senator Wicker is a Republican.  And he voted against the bill.  Yet here he is, mere hours after the bill passed -- over his own vote, and the votes of every Republican in Congress -- telling you one of the many reasons the bill is so good and so important!!  He stuck by his party and got his "No" vote on the record, but is trying to get carried along by the fumes of why it will help Americans so much, as if he can get some credit for those great things.

​By the way, to make this all the more notable, Sen. Wicker represents Mississippi, not only one of the most Red states in the country, but a state which just this week removed the requirement to wear a facemask and also eliminated many of the health mandates the state had previously required.  Yet here he is, in his tweet, extolling the virtues of the bill's funding which will "ensure small business can survive the pandemic."

Of course, if he was really interested in anyone surviving the pandemic, he would have done everything he could to keep his own state from removing facemask rules and getting rid of health mandates.  Oh, and would have voted for the bill.

It's a shame that, despite these important reasons he notes, every single Republican in Congress -- including himself -- voted against it.  The good thing for Democrats, though, is that Sen. Wicker helps explain to the public one of the many reasons Democrats in the Senate and House voted for the bill.  Something voters in Mississippi and across the nation should expect to see in Democratic mid-term election ads flooding the airwaves.

MSNBC host Chris Hayes posted his own tweet about Sen. Wicker's twee and the reaction to it.  He wrote -- "There is gonna be A LOT of this. Politically, I think this bill will play in the long run like the auto rescue and Dems should use it as a political cudgel every single last chance they get."

Which is precisely what I've written here often, and what others have, too.  And which Democrats will. 

And if anyone has any doubt of that, they only have to look at the tweet from Sen. Roger Wicker who voted AGAINST the bill and yet hours later, terrified of the blowback that he knows will be coming, was doing everything he could to try to trick people into thinking he was for it.

That's how disastrous it was for the Republican Party to have voted unanimously against the COVID emergency relief bill that 75% of Americans support.