While Representative Matt Gaetz and the “hateful eight” have acted in a rather crude manner with no foresight in taking their grievances against leadership, they do have valid grievances. Republicans are very bad when it comes to keeping promises to voters.

Before the 2010 midterm elections, the Republican base was urged to come out in force and help the GOP take the House in order to repeal Obamacare, even though they damn well knew they couldn’t keep that promise.

The House Republicans’ “Pledge to America” vowed “to repeal and replace the government takeover of health care with common sense solutions focused on lowering costs and protecting American jobs.” The party won more than five dozen seats, the most in seven decades. There is no chance this pledge will be achieved.

While Republicans have a big majority in the House, Democratic control of the Senate and the presidential veto power make repeal or major change impossible.
— New York Times, 11/22/10

In 2014, Republican voters got more of the same as they were told giving the GOP a solid majority in the Senate would result in the repeal of Obamacare, even though they damn well knew they couldn’t keep that promise.

In addition to their oath to keep up their efforts to repeal Obamacare, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner said Wednesday the new Congress would authorize the Keystone pipeline and send a slew of House-passed jobs bills to the president next come January. That’s when Republicans will formally take control of the Senate, putting Republicans in charge of the entire legislative branch.
— Daily Mail, 11/6/14

Of course, Republicans didn’t have that vetoproof majority so Obamacare (again) stayed in place. But during the 2016 midterms, leadership assured voters that a Republican House, Senate AND president would mean the end to Obamacare. We just had to elect Donald Trump and it would get done….

Republicans narrowly failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act. But their newly passed tax legislation included a provision getting rid of Obamacare’s mandate requiring Americans to buy insurance, and President Donald Trump immediately declared victory in the partisan health care wars. “When the individual mandate is being repealed, that means Obamacare is being repealed,” he crowed at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday. “We have essentially repealed Obamacare.”
— Politico Magazine, 12/20/17

Seeing how Republicans on the Hill look at their base as suckers, why not play this hand one more time!

“If we can get the House back and keep our majority in the Senate, and President Trump wins reelection, I can promise you not only are we going to repeal Obamacare, we’re going to do it in a smart way where South Carolina will be the biggest winner,” Senator Lindsey Graham said in an interview with a South Carolina radio station.
— The Hill, 8/8/19

Obamacare is just one of many promises made-promises unkept by Republicans over the course of many years. There’s balanced budgets, lower taxes, and many more. Just because Republicans depend on short memories and assumed intellectual inferiority, doesn’t mean trust will continue to be in infinite supply. We all know there’s hope because Donald Trump made many pledges to Americans in 2015-16 and actually accomplished more despite the Category 5 political interference he faced his entire term from within the party, from Democrats, and their media. He left office with achievements for the American people than was, more often than not, labeled “historic”.

Some politicians can keep promises, while Republicans can definitively only point to one in recent memory.

Republicans don’t have a monopoly when it comes to blatantly breaking promises to the base. Malcolm X made it clear that any black person in 1964 that voted for Democrats was a “chump” and “traitor to your race”. Democrats continue to break promises and blacks continue to give them the supermajority of their votes.

Unlike President Donald Trump, Republicans appear more interested in keeping their personal perks of power that delivering on promises made to put them in their seats of power. Until we have term limits (a very unlikely self-inflicted wound), there’s no reason to believe any promise a politician makes before or after an election. We all known this yet we allow them to sucker us every two years.

And seeing how Newt Gingrich is going off halfcocked against Matt Gaetz, let’s not forget the 1994 “Contract with America” that helped Republicans take the House and Senate for the first time in 40 years.

How many of those promises were actually written into law…?

Some observers cite the Contract with America as having helped secure a decisive victory for the Republicans in the 1994 elections. Republicans were elected to a majority of both houses of Congress for the first time since 1953, and some parts of the Contract were enacted. Most elements did not pass Congress, while others were vetoed by, or substantially altered in negotiations with President Bill Clinton, who would sarcastically refer to it as the “Contract on America”
— Wikipedia

Yeah, the “Contract with America” helped Republicans and Gingrich to become speaker. Making promises they knew they could keep? Not so much.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 24% of Likely U.S. voters said removing McCarthy from his position as Speaker would be good for Congress, while 26% thought it would be bad for Congress. Forty-one percent (41%), however, said it would not make much difference.
— Rasmussen Reports, 10/4/23

While this doesn’t defend Matt Gaetz’ actions, it does make them understandable.

Do you think it was out of potential disappointment for not being able to represent their constituents, or do you think it was something a little more personal?

Some of these representatives make Hillary “cattle futures” Clinton look like the rank amateur she was, but it sure answers the questions of why our elected representatives (and their staffs) kick and claw to hold onto their seats. CBS’ 60 Minutes implied more Republicans were way more involved in this activity which experience tells us “insider trading” may have been more a Democrat caper than the partisan, protectionist media would let on.

After all, can’t have any Democrats bashing millionaires when many of them are and they really didn’t have to work very hard to earn those millions.

UPDATE:

Like John McCain, Senator Bob Corker (R) believed he could stay on the right side of the media opposing a Republican president. Also, like McCain, Corker became a target of scrutiny once he outlived his usefulness.

Tennessee Senator Bob Corker tested the limits of the moonlighting possibilities in the legislative branch, essentially becoming a full-time day-trader who did a little Senator-ing in his spare time. By 2014, when Corker sat on the Senate Banking Committee, a position that gave him regular access to prime information about the future direction of the markets, the Tennessee Senator still had his foot on the gas. He made 930 stock trades that year.

One financial analyst I know said Corker’s trading patterns looked more like the work of “an office of multiple analysts all grinding at least 60 hours a week” than like the work of “one guy moonlighting as a Senator.”

In the first nine months of 2007, Corker made an incredible 1,200 trades, over four per day, including 332 over a two-day period. Corker’s net worth has risen by millions since before being elected, to the point of being the fourth wealthiest man in the upper chamber, worth $69 million as of 2015.
— Rolling Stone, 12/22/18

Whoever tells you a politician on Capitol Hill is capable of policing his or herself must be a politician.

According to the federal law in the Handbook of Ethics for the Department of Justice and the federal law: “If you are an attorney with the Department, you are expected to comply not only with the rules in this booklet, but also with relevant professional codes of conduct.” These relevant rules include the following disciplinary rule: (a disciplinary rule is one requiring sanctions by the court through bar committees) DR 9-101 [1200.45] Avoiding Even the Appearance of Impropriety. A. … 3. A lawyer serving as a public officer or employee shall not: a. Participate in a matter in which the lawyer participated personally and substantially while in private practice or non-governmental employment, unless under applicable law no one is, or by lawful delegation may be, authorized to act in the lawyer’s stead in the matter.

Have you wondered why the DOJ has not prosecuted anyone for the derivative fraud or why the DOJ settlement is opposed by all 50 States with mortgage lenders? Look no further than the Attorney General and Lenny Breuer, who is head of the DOJ criminal prosecutions, and then connect with the ethic rules above. Note that, “while Holder and Breuer were partners at Covington, the firm’s clients included the four largest U.S. banks – Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo & Co – as well as at least one other bank that is among the 10 largest mortgage servicers. … Covington represented Freddie Mac, one of the nation’s biggest issuers of mortgage backed securities, in enforcement investigations by federal financial regulators. A particular concern by those pressing for an investigation is Covington’s involvement with Virginia-based MERS Corp, which runs a vast computerized registry of mortgages. …MERS, which stands for Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, has been at the center of complaints about false or erroneous mortgage documents. Court records show that Covington, in the late 1990s, provided legal opinion letters needed to create MERS on behalf of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and several other large banks. It was meant to speed up registration and transfers of mortgages. By 2010, MERS claimed to own about half of all mortgages in the U.S. — roughly 60 million loans. But evidence in numerous state and federal court cases around the country has shown that MERS authorized thousands of bank employees to sign their names as MERS officials. The banks allegedly drew up fake mortgage assignments, making it appear falsely that they had standing to file foreclosures, and then had their own employees sign the documents as MERS “vice presidents” or “assistant secretaries.”

Lenny Breuer admitted his errors in Fast and Furious without consequences. Darrell Issa, House Oversight Committee Chairman, had subpoenaed e-mails between Breuer and Holder in regard Fast and Furious, but there was no compliance. Then, there is Holder claiming no knowledge of the bribed DOJ prosecutors in the Virgin Islands. “The DOJ never acted on the sealed indictments, which were the consequence of a lengthy criminal scheme involving bank fraud and other financial crimes. … U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. John de Jongh, a Democrat, was personally on the receiving end of a portion”

Here’s what the FBI has to say about public corruption: Public corruption poses a fundamental threat to our national security and way of life. It impacts everything from how well our borders are secured and our neighborhoods protected…to verdicts handed down in courts…to the quality of our roads, schools, and other government services. And it takes a significant toll on our pocketbooks, wasting billions in tax dollars every year. The FBI is singularly situated to combat this corruption, with the skills and capabilities to run complex undercover operations and surveillance. Eric Holder is charge of the FBI.

Why should Republicans tolerate the corruption of Holder and Breuer? House Speaker, John Boehner, is protecting Holder and his gang and trying to make a deal with Holder to avoid a criminal contempt court action against Holder which Congress would easily win.   Is it because V. I. Governor de Jongh pulled the race card with,“It is a sad day in our nation when reckless allegations can be published without substance or verification as part of the smearing of our President or his Attorney General. This kind of broad brush stereotyping was shameful in the days of Jim Crow, and it is more so today?” So, Boehner won’t be called a racist and will be a nice guy? Boehner participates, along with Holder and Breuer, enabling total public corruption and the perversion of US Law and the US Department of Justice.   Leo Durocher of the Brooklyn Dodgers, expressed it best, “Nice guys finish last.”

Johnny Boehner, pudding and pie, tried to to kiss a Democrat and it made him cry. When the boys came out to play, Johnny Boehner ran away.