Republican Representative Won’t Seek Re-Election, Points To “Toxic Dynamics Inside Our Own Party”
[guest post by Dana]
This is certainly a loss for the GOP :
Rep. Anthony Gonzalez — one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 riot on the Capitol — will not seek re-election to his northern Ohio seat in 2022.
“Since entering politics, I have always said that I will do this job for as long as the voters will have me and it still works for my family,” Gonzalez said in a statement he tweeted late Thursday. “As Elizabeth and I consider the realities of continuing in public service while juggling the increasing responsibilities of being parents to our two beautiful children, it is clear that the best path for our family is to not seek re-election next fall.”
He added that, while his family was at the heart of his decision, “it is also true that the current state of our politics, especially many of the toxic dynamics inside our own party, is a significant factor in my decision.”
See my full statement below regarding my decision not to seek re-election. pic.twitter.com/vsggxjD1FI
— Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (@RepAGonzalez) September 17, 2021
More:
Calling former President Donald J. Trump “a cancer for the country,” Representative Anthony Gonzalez, Republican of Ohio, said in an interview on Thursday that he would not run for re-election in 2022, ceding his seat after just two terms in Congress rather than compete against a Trump-backed primary opponent…
The congressman, who has two young children, emphasized that he was leaving in large part because of family considerations and the difficulties that come with living between two cities. But he made clear that the strain had only grown worse since his impeachment vote, after which he was deluged with threats and feared for the safety of his wife and children.
Mr. Gonzalez said that quality-of-life issues had been paramount in his decision. He recounted an “eye-opening” moment this year: when he and his family were greeted at the Cleveland airport by two uniformed police officers, part of extra security precautions taken after the impeachment vote.
“That’s one of those moments where you say, ‘Is this really what I want for my family when they travel, to have my wife and kids escorted through the airport?’” he said…
Mr. Gonzalez was emphatic that the threats were not why he was leaving — the commute was more trying, he said — but in a matter-of-fact fashion, he recounted people online saying things like, “We’re coming to your house.”
As for Gonzalez’s primary challenger Max Miller, there can be no doubt about his loyalties:
There is no greater fighter that this country has ever had, and I have never had a greater role model than President Donald J. Trump, period. Bar none”
And how did the head of the Reptrumplican Party react to Gonzalez’s announcement? Exactly how you would expect:
RINO Congressman Anthony Gonzalez, who has poorly represented his district in the Great State of Ohio, has decided to quit after enduring a tremendous loss of popularity, of which he had little, since his ill-informed and otherwise very stupid impeachment vote against the sitting President of the United States, me.
Trump on the 10 House Republicans who voted for his impeachment: pic.twitter.com/DDZh0hJRS8
— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) September 17, 2021
Again, it’ glaringly obvious that Trump’s actions have absolutely nothing to do with the betterment of our nation, adherence to the Constitution, good governance, integrity, or even making America great again. This is nothing more than a self-serving narcissist desperately and deviously looking for payback after a bitter – yet legitimate – loss that he still can’t accept. He cares not one whit about you or me or the nation at large. He cares only about his bruised ego. This is, of course, nothing new. He remains a sore loser, and the Republican Party remains locked in his grip. Consider that he has now endorsed primary challengers to some of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach him.
–Dana
How many more will step down and/or be defeated in the primaries? This is the GOP’s loss.
Dana (174549) — 9/17/2021 @ 11:24 amQuitters never win; winners never quit.
Glorious.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 9/17/2021 @ 11:27 amIt’s a shame that Rep. Gonzalez is stepping down, and certainly the dysfunction in the new Cult of Personality GOP has a great deal to do with it, but honestly, why would anyone with young children want to be a member of Congress? If the choice is between relocating your family to Washington DC or commuting back and forth and thus not being around all that much, that sounds like a no-win situation to me. Rep. Gonzalez is a young man — he turns 37 tomorrow — so he has plenty of years after his children are grown to become involved in the Washington s***show.
JVW (ee64e4) — 9/17/2021 @ 11:45 amSorry, Gonzalez, that train has already sailed…
Colonel Haiku (fcab4b) — 9/17/2021 @ 11:54 amDCSCA (f4c5e5) — 9/17/2021 @ 11:27 am
Once you can balance a tack-hammer on your head, you can head off your enemy with a balanced attack.
felipe (484255) — 9/17/2021 @ 11:58 amOT- OMG: breaking- Pentagon to confirm U.S. drone strike, ordered by Biden, in Kabul killed 10 innocent civilians; no ISIS-K hit- no dicsiplinary actions to be taken.
More blood on that dumb-assed brain-damaged, idiotic Mick’s hands.
“Beauuu-no,” eh, Joe?! If you can’t blow them up w/a multi-million-drone strike, let’em drop from the wheel wells of Beau-ing C-17s, eh, Joey?
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 9/17/2021 @ 12:02 pm@5. Once you can balance a tack-hammer on your head, you can head off your enemy with a balanced attack.
Shorter: Reaganoptics.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 9/17/2021 @ 12:03 pm@6. Postscript. CENTCOM General McKenzie says ‘Sorry.” The DoD is assessing payment of reparations.
Way to go, Joe.
Idiot.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 9/17/2021 @ 12:20 pmFog of war. An estimated 387,000 Iraqi, Afghan and Pakistani civilians were killed over the last 20 years, no doubt a gross underestimate.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 9/17/2021 @ 12:31 pmDana – Perhaps you can encourage some of the regular commenters here to write new words for this song, redirected at Donald Trump: “How can we miss you, when you won’t go away?”
I think Haiku could do it. I doubt that DCSCA could, but would be happy to be proved wrong. (It doesn’t even know that Biden is just 5/8 “Mick”, to use the same crude slur it keeps using. Trump, on the other hand, is, like me, half “Kraut”.)
Incidentally, I think this is the nation’s loss, not just the GOP’s loss, that these decent, and talented, House members are leaving. Both parties have lost good people in recent years, and we are all worse off for that.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 9/17/2021 @ 12:34 pmAnother data point that the GOP is Trump’s party.
Which is too bad. The Dem’s are horrible. It’s hard to be so bad that democrats are worth voting for but the GOP is still trying.
Time123 (9f42ee) — 9/17/2021 @ 1:06 pmBeing America is never having to say you’re sorry.
Rip Murdock (0aa613) — 9/17/2021 @ 1:07 pmthe people who wouldn’t have voted for gonzalez ten months ago feel really bad for him
JF (e1156d) — 9/17/2021 @ 1:17 pm@10. ‘Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m gone.”– NBC News correspondent Edwin Newman hosting SNL upon his retirement in the early 80s. =mike-drop=
Can’t be topped.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 9/17/2021 @ 1:22 pmSorry, but Representative Anthony Gonzalez is an idiot. Why vote for an impeachment that you know is going to fail, and that wouldn’t even be held until after President Trump was out of office? It will be a good thing when he is replaced in Congress by an actual Republican.
The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (fed7b0) — 9/17/2021 @ 1:45 pm@15 too bad actual Republican is now defined as supporting Trumps election lie and supporting the assault on the capital
Time123 (acc2eb) — 9/17/2021 @ 2:23 pmAnyone whose ever had the temerity to call themselves a “libertarian” should be supporting armed assaults on the capital and the widespread mocking of any shady election practices for far less than what they did to Trump
Regis Rothbard (1ec91d) — 9/17/2021 @ 2:28 pmBad news for politics in the United States.
The Congressman basically says he didn;tsign up for the avuse and attacks he is going through. He got out of the kitchen.
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 9/17/2021 @ 2:38 pm@17:
You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it’s evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don’t you know that you can count me out
…
You say you’ll change the constitution
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 9/17/2021 @ 2:43 pmWell, you know
We’d all love to change your head
You tell me it’s the institution
Well, you know
You better free your mind instead
But if you go carrying pictures of Murray Rothbard
You ain’t going to make it with anyone anyhow
Sorry, Gonzalez, that train has already sunk
FIFY (mixed metaphor in original)
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 9/17/2021 @ 2:44 pmI believe I will live to see the end of the Republican Party. I hope that something better will come up in its place, and before the Trumpists bring communism to our shores.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 9/17/2021 @ 2:45 pmBy this definition then, an *actual* Republican is one who is willing to look the other way and ignore a sitting U.S. president who fomented an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and more. Rule of Law and conscience matters not. This makes me even more convinced that leaving the Republican Party was one of the best decisions I’ve made.
Dana (174549) — 9/17/2021 @ 3:17 pmGood. We need representatives that actually represent the people of the United States.
And he leaves after 2 terms and not 3 so he won’t be sucking at the government teet for the rest of his life.
NJRob (3b2331) — 9/17/2021 @ 3:18 pm#9 One of the most interesting things about the civilian loss in Iraq is that Barack Obama predicted that much of it might happen — if we elected him, and followed his proposed policies.
In his first run for the presidency, he admitted that a genocide — and he used that word — might result if we elected him and followed his policy of withdrawal from Iraq. (He did think it unlikely, or at least claimed that he did.)
And then he chose Susan Rice for a prominent advisor. She was then best known for her ability to play basketball — and her work in covering up the Rwandan genocide — in order to protect Bill Clinton’s political viability.
When Joe Biden picked her for his administration, I was somewhat relieved to see that she would have a domestic policy position.
If either Obama or Rice have ever felt the least bit of guilt for the Christian and Yazidi genocide that followed Obama’s withdrawal from Iraq, I missed it.
(As far as I know, Rice is still a fine basketball player — for her age.)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 9/17/2021 @ 3:22 pmIf either Obama or Rice have ever felt the least bit of guilt for the Christian and Yazidi genocide that followed Obama’s withdrawal from Iraq, I missed it.
The US is not responsible for either, we should not be responsible for all the horrors of war perpetuated by others. The reason we feel we are responsible is how the US reacted to the Holocaust prior to the US entry into World War II. Once we entered, we did everything necessary to end it on our terms (including war crimes such as the bombing purely civilian targets unrelated to the war effort), unlike any other war since.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 9/17/2021 @ 4:11 pm@22, yup. Some as So full of frustration, resentment and self pity there’s no more room left for love of country.
Time123 (acc2eb) — 9/17/2021 @ 4:15 pmGonzalez has been redistricted. His district, a Republican hold, will not exist in the next Congress.
nk (1d9030) — 9/17/2021 @ 4:27 pmDedistricted?
nk (1d9030) — 9/17/2021 @ 4:41 pm#25 Rip – In Seattle the reduction in the police force, and the restrictions put on their actions, has resulted in higher crime rates in some areas. Now, the Seattle government is not directly responsible for those crimes — the criminals are. But they have enabled those crimes.
Similarly, Obama and Rice enabled the genocide in Iraq.
(I’m not sure what you are trying to say about bombing civilian targets. Perhaps you mean that the US tries not do that anymore. But others, especially our enemies, have fewer scruples, and often target civilians.)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 9/17/2021 @ 4:47 pm37 years of hacking the public should get you the boot. Term limits for these chablis rinos.
mg (8cbc69) — 9/17/2021 @ 4:52 pm37 is Gonzalez’s age, mg. As in “How many fingers old are you?” Not his tenure. He is now in his second term.
And his real problem is that he will not have a district to run for reelection in. He will have to poach another Republican’s. Likely an incumbent’s. A much tougher proposition. And like Kinzinger, he knew this when he voted for impeachment. That was his liberation. “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” — Janis Joplin
nk (1d9030) — 9/17/2021 @ 5:40 pmDavid French’s typically incisive take.
lurker (59504c) — 9/17/2021 @ 5:46 pm21, one hopes that train does the Cassandra Crossing maneuver (oops, another reminder of OJ outliving NMD)
urbanleftbehind (ff337e) — 9/17/2021 @ 5:57 pmGonzalez stepping down doesn’t do one thing to help the GOP gain seats in the House.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 9/17/2021 @ 5:58 pmThis is only happened because a petty ex-president held a grudge against Gonzalez because Trump’s tender ego was bruised over an impeachment vote.
This is not a mature GOP, not when it elevates an unfit unhinged Trump over party.
oh my, quite a misread, nk.I Apologize. Should have quit chopping wood hours earlier.
mg (8cbc69) — 9/17/2021 @ 6:12 pmThe much better looking Dana wrote:
This assumes facts not in evidence, that President Trump “fomented” an insurrection. The Democrats tried a post-presidency impeachment on this; he was acquitted. The Department of Justice has not issued any indictment of the former President for this.
So, you are urinated off over what amounts to a college keg party getting rowdy? All but one of the thus far convicted have been convicted of simple trespassing, a misdemeanor. One would think that, if the “rule of law” matters to you, you would be just as angry that the feds have been holding people without bail on these charges, that you would be angry that the “Black Lives Matter” rioters who burned and looted their way all through the summer of 2020 have barely been pursued.
The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (fed7b0) — 9/17/2021 @ 6:12 pmGonzalez will have nothing to step down from, Paul. His district has been eliminated. This is the last term not just for him but also for his district. https://www.statenews.org/government-politics/2021-04-26/ohio-loses-one-of-16-congressional-seats-in-new-census-count What he is doing is deciding not to step over and run in one of the remaining districts.
nk (1d9030) — 9/17/2021 @ 6:14 pmI’m guessing Lorain, the Aurora/Elgin/Waukegan of Cleveland, got corraled into one of the Bone Thugs n Harmony Cleveland seats.
urbanleftbehind (ff337e) — 9/17/2021 @ 6:23 pmGot some example of bail denied wrongfully or in a way inconsistent with common practice?
I’m all on board for bail reform. But it’s a general problem and not something specific to these losers.
Time123 (acc2eb) — 9/17/2021 @ 6:24 pmYou have got to be kidding.
Dana (174549) — 9/17/2021 @ 6:24 pmNo, he’s sincere.
Time123 (acc2eb) — 9/17/2021 @ 6:27 pmCrap. I was on a roll.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 9/17/2021 @ 6:57 pmOne would think that, if the “rule of law” matters to you, you would be just as angry that the feds have been holding people without bail on these charges
Source
Rip Murdock (cef237) — 9/17/2021 @ 7:04 pmBill BaileyJoe BidenWon’t you go home, Joe Biden, won’t you go home
Trunalimunumaprzure
You really f*cked up, Joey, you killed ‘em dead
He’s old and there
ain’t no cure
Last November that damn election
Colonel Haiku (fcab4b) — 9/17/2021 @ 7:07 pmThey turned you out….with nothin’ but a top n’ tails
U.S. knows who to blame, now… ain’t it a shame
Joe Biden won’t you please go home
Apologies to Julia Ward Howe…
Biden Hymn To The Public
Mine eyes have seen the horror of the coming of the hordes;
They are trampling ‘cross the border as the Rio Grande they ford;
They are Covid laced, unstoppable by rifle, fist, or sword;
The virus marches on!
Glory! Glory! Joseph Biden!
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 9/17/2021 @ 7:29 pmGlory! Glory! Folks be dyin’!
Glory! Glory! Joe you’re lyin’!
The virus marches on!
Apparently you’re defining “the people of the United States” to mean not just “the people who agree with me,” but “the people who worship Donald Trump so deeply that they wanted him to override the will of a large majority of the voters in order to maintain power.”
It’s unlikely that the way Gonzalez voted on issues factors in at all. What really matters in a personality cult is unconditional personal allegiance.
Jim Jordan and Kevin McCarthy have been in Congress for seven terms. Louis Gohmert for eight. Steve King and Devin Nunes for nine. Others longer than that. I guess that’s different, though.
Radegunda (569d33) — 9/17/2021 @ 9:52 pmWho cares? Don’t let the door hit you on the way out! Wealthy free trade economic libertarians and their paid running dogs and lackeys can no longer control the other 85% of republicans who are populists.
asset (d14445) — 9/18/2021 @ 1:19 am46- Every republican you listed needs to go away.
mg (8cbc69) — 9/18/2021 @ 3:41 amSecond stringers. Hasbeens, wouldbes, and neverweres.
I think that once we admit to ourselves that Bill Clinton was the last good President we had, things will become a little bit clearer.
nk (1d9030) — 9/18/2021 @ 5:59 amHe never turned his knee pads in!
Colonel Haiku (fcab4b) — 9/18/2021 @ 6:52 am