Virginia State Sen Suing Colleagues Because Everybody Thinks She's An Asshole
Republican state Sen. Amanda Chase from Virginia is what the media calls a “firebrand." Seriously, several stories about Chase have used the term, which is another way of saying she's a “crazy bigot." This week, she filed a federal lawsuit after her colleagues finally had enough of her minor-league Marjorie Taylor Greene antics and voted to censure her.
The lawsuit claims that Chase was unfairly "singled out and selectively penalized for taking unpopular political positions." These positions include calling for martial law to overthrow the 2020 presidential election, repeating the one-term loser's baseless claims of election fraud, and smearing the Democratic Party of Virginia as "racist to its core." She also doxxed her colleagues and a reporter on social media and grossly suggested that a Capitol Police officer gave her a hard time because he resented her “white privilege."
Chase argues that Virginia's Senate violated her First Amendment rights to be an asshole when its members collectively stated how much they think she sucks. She seriously believes her civil rights have been egregiously violated.
This all came to a head not long after Chase spoke at the insurrectionist in chief's January 6 sedition rally in Washington DC. She wasn't part of the violent mob that stormed the Capitol, leading to the deaths of five people, but she sympathized with them.
During post-siege remarks on the Senate floor last month, Chase defended Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran and domestic terrorist whom Capitol Police fatally shot.
We remember Ashli, and the three who died of medical emergencies and the Capitol Police officer who died during the chaos at the Capitol.
It wasn't simply “chaos." 9/11 was chaotic but that was on purpose. Babbitt was one of hundreds or thousands of people who willingly participated in a premeditated attack on the Capitol.
These were not rioters and looters.
That's one way of saying they were white.
These were patriots who love their country and do not want to see our great republic turned into a socialist country.
No, patriots respect democracy and don't try to overturn elections on behalf of a reality TV star. The only positive here is that Chase no longer blamed Antifa for the siege. She'd also stated in a Facebook videothe night of the Capitol attack that “when you back good people, law-abiding citizens, into the corner, they will push back."
So, after this hot mess, Democratic Sen. John Bell held private meetings with Chase because I guess he's a glutton for punishment. They'd apparently agreed that Bell wouldn't pursue a censure resolution against her if she wrote I won't praise terrorists 100 billion times publicly apologized and condemned, without qualification, the violent insurrection at the Capitol. Bell probably thought this was all fairly easy peasy, but Chase delivered instead a rambling floor speech that satisfied no one.
If I have offended any of you in this room, because I am very passionate about the Constitution, I apologize. I would like to put this behind us and move forward in a constructive positive manner.
She works too hard! She loves the Constitution too much! Where have we heard that tune before?
The apology bombed, despite all the workshopping with Bell, and Chase was censured but good for “conduct unbecoming of a senator" or a mammal. She responded with a full-blown villainous breakdown.
You have the audacity to stand on the floor of this Senate and condemn me? How dare you! Don't you think the timing of today's censure is lost on me when two other Republican candidates announced that they are running for governor yesterday and today.
That's right. Chase is running for governor in 2021. As she boasted to CNN, she'd represent that party's pro-sedition wing.
Many of the grassroots have said to me, "You're just like Trump, and we like President Trump."
Virginia has shifted reliably blue but we shouldn't take anything for granted. Meanwhile, we'll wait for Chase's “woe-is-me" lawsuit to get laughed out of court.
Follow Stephen Robinson on Twitter.
Do your Amazon shopping through this link, because reasons.
Yr Wonkette is 100 percent ad free and supported entirely by reader donations. Please click the clickie, if you are able!
Stephen Robinson is a writer and social kibbitzer based in Portland, Oregon. He writes make believe for Cafe Nordo, an immersive theatre space in Seattle. Once, he wrote a novel called “Mahogany Slade,” which you should read or at least buy. He's also on the board of the Portland Playhouse theatre. His son describes him as a “play typer guy."
