Congress Always Sucks, But The Histrionics Are About To Explode

The Democrat theater kid Ayanna Pressley was questioning Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent this week when his answers made her so angry that she absolutely exploded into a spontaneous fury. Also, she kept looking down as she spiraled into an uncontrolled rage, because her staff had provided her with the spontaneous outrage in writing. She had to look at the piece of paper to see why she was so furious.

It has always been my position that most members of Congress make their living by mindlessly reciting some version of it says on this piece of paper that I am very angry, but some are more clumsy about it than others. Cory Booker is a twofer: He’s up for re-election this year, in what’s probably a safe seat, but he’s also looking down the road to the presidential primary season that opens three seconds after the midterms end. Yes, Cory Booker thinks he has a shot at the presidency. No, it’s not rude to laugh out loud at the thought.

And so, needing to raise his profile and generate some dramatic clips, Cory Booker is once again becoming righteously and uncontrollably indignant every time he sees the red light on the camera. Among normal humans, the reaction is inevitable: This week, we are all Chuck Grassley in our souls.

This is a travesty of a mockery of a sham, Mister Chairman! You’re about to see these histrionics with the predictability of sunrise, so consider taking social media breaks throughout the week. If you have a nearby lake or river of some kind, plan to sit next to it on evenings and weekends until early November has passed. The volume dial is about to be set to eleven, and scenery is going to be chewed. Whenever Booker is thinking about running for something, he makes his eyes bulge out to show how passionate he is. You can be forgiven for noticing that it just makes him look like Marty Feldman.

Related, AI undoubtedly poses real threats to us all, and getting to the bottom of the way those threats will develop will be a heavy cultural burden. It’ll take debate, learning, and thought, none of which are even slightly possible if Mazie Hirono and Ilhan Omar rush to take action at the clown show. The Rhode Island Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse questioned a Supreme Court nominee extensively and with urgent seriousness over the fart jokes in his high school yearbook. Elected toddlers like this have as much chance of successfully regulating AI in a hurry as an unassisted squirrel has of performing a high-quality MRI on your injured shoulder.

Congress is going to make noise, now, with growing urgency and vigor, until the voters and the harvested ballots have spoken. The tone will sound very important, but the substance won’t be. None of it is going to mean anything. Treat the spectacle with the seriousness it deserves.

Chris Bray is a senior correspondent at The Federalist and a former infantry sergeant in the U.S. Army. He has a history PhD from the University of California Los Angeles, not that it did him any good. He also posts on Substack, at “Tell Me How This Ends,” here.