Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) staked much of her transformation from a far-right outcast on the margins of the Republican Party into a top dealmaker on her close alliance with former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) — and with his ouster she's been left "flailing," an analyst claims.
The outspoken conservative was one of his most ardent advocates during the chaotic fight to elect him as speaker and, in return, she had her committee assignments restored. She stuck with him until the end, when he was ousted from his role by a renegade band of Freedom Caucus extremists.
But now her longtime benefactor is out of power, Greene finds herself back in obscurity, wrote Hayes Brown for MSNBC — and worse, she is on the outs with much of the Republican Party.
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"Since McCarthy’s downfall, Greene has been on a bit of a tear, flailing about and lashing out at other Republicans as she tries to regain her standing as an avatar of the MAGA movement," wrote Brown.
"The Washington Post on Monday framed Greene’s behavior as her being back to her old self, but the truth is a bit more unfortunate for her. As she nears the halfway point of her sophomore term, Greene is more isolated than ever — and an attempt to win back her former status seems unlikely to work twice."
Greene, who became initially infamous for endorsing conspiracy theories about the QAnon movement and Jewish space lasers, was already losing allies even before McCarthy was kicked out of his post. Over the summer, the Freedom Caucus, irritated by Greene's closeness to McCarthy and her ugly public feud with Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), expelled her from the group.
"This transactional politicking — a staple of McCarthy’s career — left her more anti-establishment colleagues uncomfortable. And in classic teen movie style, once the weirdo from the fringe had found herself at the popular kids’ table, she started to view herself as no longer needing her old friends," wrote Brown.
He suggested that she thought she could keep McCarthy in power by acting as a "shield" for him against the far-right flank, only to be thwarted because she had picked so many fights with the right flank her defenses of McCarthy carried no meaning.
"The business agreement that McCarthy and Greene forged was one in which both stood to gain," concluded Brown. Unfortunately for Greene, however, newly minted far-right House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) "doesn’t need Greene hanging around to give him cred among the MAGA weirdos — he has already brought his own." And at the end of the day, "Without that leverage, and with so many bridges burned, Greene is more marginalized than ever."
