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JANUARY 10, 2023

Meyerson on TAP

The Firing Party

Literally firing 'the libs' is now the strategy and obsession of
DeSantis and the Republican House, whether or not it's legal.

It was

**The Apprentice** that first brought Donald Trump to the attention of a
broader public than the benighted readers of the

**New York Post**. And it was his signature line on that
series-"You're fired!"-that established his image as a no-nonsense
businessman, though it would be hard to find another businessman who
peddled as much nonsense as Trump.

Even as the media is now filled with stories of Trump's weakening hold
over the Republican Party, though, his signature line appears to have
become a battle cry for the entire GOP. They may not be able to
legislate, but their desire to fire knows no bounds.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is clearly seeking to supplant Trump as the
party's leader, and one way he's doing that is to fire public
officials when he believes it will help his rise. Last summer, he fired
Hillsborough County (i.e., Tampa) State Attorney Andrew Warren, after
Warren said he wouldn't enforce the state's ban on abortions.
Whether DeSantis had the legal right to fire Warren is now before the
courts, since Warren was elected to his position by Hillsborough County
voters and, like every Florida county's DA, wasn't a gubernatorial
appointee but a local elected official. Undaunted, DeSantis has gone on
to appoint local school board members to what are normally elected
positions and then have them fire district superintendents who've run
afoul of the governor's limited vision of pedagogy.

Yesterday, DeSantis was joined in his firing frenzy by the newly
installed Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. The
House rules they adopted yesterday included an oddity known as the
Holman Rule, which empowers Congress to add to appropriations bills
amendments to fire, demote, reassign, or cut the pay of individual
federal employees. The rule first surfaced in the late 19th century as
part of the battle between advocates of party patronage and advocates of
civil service within the federal government. It then was rescinded for
the better part of a century until the MAGA Republicans resurrected it
in 2017. It was not renewed during the past four years of Democratic
control of the House, but it made a comeback yesterday in Matt Gaetz's
House, where Republicans now may single out the commie, satanic
pederasts of the Biden administration not just for slander but for
firing as well.

How Congress's sudden power to fire executive branch officials
comports with the Constitution's separation of powers, I have no idea.

As Adam Serwer of

**The Atlantic** (and a former

**Prospect** writing fellow) famously noted in writing of such Trump
administration policies as taking small children away from their parents
at the border, "the cruelty is the point." It was the frisson of seeing
cruelty in action that first drew future MAGA-oids to Trump during his
firing flings on

**The Apprentice**. Today, in their desire to stick it to the
libs-which is both a strategy and an obsession-the Republicans have
concluded that their political appeal to their base depends on their
enabling their audience to experience schadenfreude-excitement and
gratification at the harm inflicted on their enemies. DeSantis
understands that's the core of his appeal, and House Republicans, with
their upcoming "oversight" and now their Holman Rule, see it as the way
to keep their base fervid, loyal, and entertained.

~ HAROLD MEYERSON

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Regulators Prevented a Crypto-Fueled Economic Downturn
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As Congress discusses crypto regulation, it's important to note that
the most important regulation has already been done. BY DAVID DAYEN

McCarthy vs. Moderate House Republicans
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The schisms will only widen as McCarthy tries to carry out his deal with
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Learning the Right Lessons From Recent Inflation
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Why macroeconomic overheating was not the problem and austerity is the
wrong cure. BY JOSH BIVENS

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