Conservative Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s knack for slowing down House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s agenda and war with anti-Trump Republicans has certainly caught the attention of her constituents back home.
So much so that one of them suggested a new title for her during a town hall meeting in her northern Georgia district this week.
After an hourlong speech addressing key issues, including forcing 531 recorded House floor votes that could have sailed through with anonymous voice votes, her staff handed her questions written by the Paulding County audience.
The last one said simply, “Speaker Greene?”
After reading it, she laughed and said, “That would be fun. Ooh, I would have a good time.”
And as the crowd applauded, she also said, “Boy, those people would work. They would really hate it. Honestly, they would.”
An audience member offered that as speaker, Greene presumably would ban fines for violating mask requirements put in place by Pelosi, which she regularly ignored. Her bill is over $100,000.
“I would not have to pay mask fines. That’s right,” said Greene, who suggested that Pelosi is ready to bring back the mask mandate if the virus worsens again.
There is little chance Greene would be elected House speaker even if the GOP takes control in the midterm elections. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has already staked his claim to that job.
But Greene told the crowd that she has played a key House floor role since she was booted from membership on House committees by Democrats upset with some of her statements and positions.
In acting as the floor transparency officer, Greene has moved to block voice voting, requiring members to reveal where they stand on all legislation. She calls herself the “chairwoman of the committee on the whole” when the House is in session.
In demanding time-consuming floor votes, Greene told the crowd that it angered Democrats by slowing their agenda, even forcing some items off the schedule because of a lack of time for a long vote.
And, she added, it has also irked some Republicans who didn’t want their votes revealed. “You would have thought Republicans would have been like, ‘Go get them, Marjorie. They kicked you off committees. You get in there,’” she said.
“Unfortunately, most of the Republicans were upset with me. Do you want to know why?” she asked. “It was because I was putting them all on record. You see, when Congress votes by voice, no one knows if we’re voting yes or no.”
She added, “I had quite a few Republicans get on to me and say, ‘We need you to stop what you’re doing. We don’t like it. We don’t want to be put on record.’”
