April 18, 2024 03:25 PM UTC

Take Cover: Lauren Boebert's FART Has Been Unleashed

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• by: Colorado Pols

As Olivia Beavers reports for Politico, the U.S. House Freedom Caucus is deploying a novelly-named machination in their tail-wagging-the-dog arsenal as the intraparty standoff over House Speaker Mike Johnson’s uncertain future continues to escalate. Hold your noses:

Conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus are signing up to take shifts to monitor the chamber floor in order to prevent their own party leaders from making unilateral moves that could curb their power.

The Freedom Caucus’ Floor Action Response Team, shorthanded as “FART,” [Pols emphasis] aims to guard against an unannounced request to pass resolutions that would stealthily limit their leverage against leadership, according to two Republicans with direct knowledge, who were granted anonymity to speak candidly…

Release of the House Freedom Caucus’ FART–yes, that’s the name supporters came up with–comes as less chaos-minded Republicans propose a rule change that would require more than a single disgruntled member be required to file a motion to vacate. That’s the key concession demanded of ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy before the Freedom Caucus would commit to supporting him, and predictably resulted in McCarthy’s ouster just months later.

Although the FART is being smelt on the floor of the U.S. House for what appears to be the first time during the current conflict, as Freedom Caucus stalwart Rep. Lauren Boebert explained back in 2021, the ridiculous acronym you’re supposed to nonetheless be taking seriously is not itself new:

“We make things really smelly for them.”

All we can say is, it’s a statement truer than Boebert will probably ever realize.

Though not for the reason Boebert thinks. If the goal was to prove that the U.S. House is being held hostage by a small faction of laughably unserious people…mission accomplished.