The GOP Never Learns

Proving yet again that you cannot teach an old dog .... or, in this case, an old white male elephant .... new tricks, House Speaker, and avid crybaby, John Boehner has announced who will chair all of the major House committees in the next Congress. 

Oddly enough, they're all Republicans; more odd, though, is that they are all white men.

Yes, folks, the party that was soundly beaten in its bid for the White House because they chose to ignore Black, Latino, LGBT and women voters, and instead focus on people that look only like themselves, have made no effort to unite their party through diversity.

There isn't a single woman or minority included in the mix of 19 House committee chairs; the lone female committee chair that House Republicans currently have, Florida Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, is stepping down because her term is up. And even though there are two lower-tier House committees awaiting a chair assignment--the Ethics Committee and House Administration --neither committee has a single woman or minority member.

Go figure.

Democratic Senator from Washington, Patty Murray, made note of the non-change, non-progressive, non-inclusive, continuation of GOP policies in a Tweet: "Disappointed to see House committee chairmanships in the 113th Congress will not include a single woman. -PM."

While she isn’t the only Democrat taking note of the Business As Usual GOP, there isn't one Republican willing to discuss the issue.  A House Republican leadership aide declined to comment on the lack of diversity in the party's committee leadership, but did note that GOP leaders put four women in party leadership: Cathy McMorris Rodgers is the new House Republican Conference Chair: Lynn Jenkins of Kansas is conference vice chair; wingnut Virginia Foxx of North Carolina is conference secretary; and Ann Wagner of Missouri will represent freshman members in party leadership.

Of course, to be fair, House committee chairs are typically chosen based on their seniority on the committee, but that only serves to focus more attention on the fact that minorities and women have never been a part of the GOP machinery.

In the 113th Congress, Republicans will have 20 women on their side of the aisle, while the Democrats have more than three-times that amount; and there are less than ten House Republicans who are minorities. By contrast, the House Democratic Caucus will have a majority of women and minorities for the first time in history.

And still the GOP, despite having felt the sting of defeat last month for their non-diversity, non-inclusion, of women, minorities and LGBT voters, have decided to keep on keeping on with the way the party has look for decades and decades.

The more things change the more the GOP stays the same.

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