What the hell is Markwayne Mullin thinking?

Then again, if only he were the only loony tunes elected Republican in our state

Markwayne Mullin debates T.W. Shannon in August of 2022, both hoping to become the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by longtime incumbent Jim Inhofe. This is also the picture that accompanied the tweet of Teamsters leader Sean O’Brien, which Mullin read from before challenging O’Brien to fisticuffs on Tuesday during a senate committee hearing.

Almost never do I not know where to begin and when those rare moments occur, it’s almost always for the same reason.

The thing I’m trying to begin writing about is just so absurdly dumb and stupid I resent having to give real thought to how to begin.

So I resist.

I resist having to come up with something smart, clever, or thoughtful to get the writing going because the subject is not worth the inconvienience.

Perhaps the next two words will help to understand what I’m trying to explain:

Markwayne Mullin.

See what I mean?

Am I supposed to make fun of his first name? I mean, it’s a riot — “I like Mark, you like Wayne. Hey, why don’t we just call him … — and still, to make a joke of it, apropos of nothing, what’s that have to do with anything?

Right?

Anyway, before we rehash the drama in which the man with two first names scrunched together starred, why don’t we first take a look at a bit of what’s been written in its aftermath. You know, just to absorb something we’d never have to absorb even 10 years ago, before the lion’s share of Oklahoma Republicans completely lost their minds.

Jana Hayes, in an Oklahoman story that appeared in print on Thursday, led her piece with this:

U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Oklahoma, said he believed Oklahomans “would be pretty upset” at him if he hadn’t threatened a union leader with a fight during a Senate hearing.

Sudiksha Kochi, a D.C. reporter for USA Today, began her story about the incident, published Wednesday afternoon, like this:

WASHINGTON — Sen. Markwayne Mullin said it’s an Oklahoma thing.

The Sooner State Republican nearly came to blows with union boss Sean O’Brien, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, during a Senate committee hearing Tuesday.

Meanwhile, in an analysis piece running on CNN.com, written by Zachary B. Wolf, the third paragraph reads like this:

In an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on Wednesday, Mullin, a former professional MMA fighter, said a return to physical violence could help cure what he derided as a culture of “keyboard warriors” who “go out there and run their mouth all the time, and then they don’t ever have to face consequences.”

Yes, believe it or not, though I can’t find video, it appears Mullin really was an MMA fighter.

Also, yes, we elect the worst people.

What happened?

You can watch it here, while I explain it here.

In that Senate committee hearing, Mullin told O’Brien, a witness, that he’d tweeted at him five times, before quoting the last of those tweets.

This is what that tweet said:

“Greedy CEO who pretends like he’s self made. In reality, just a clown & fraud. Always has been, always will be. Quit the tough guy act in these senate hearings. You know where to find me. Anyplace, Anytime cowboy. #LittleManSyndrome

Yes, that’s some strong rhetoric.

In O’Brien’s defense, it was Mullin who first came after O’Brien in a previous committee hearing. Anyway, after reading the tweet, this happened:

Mullin: Sir, this is a time, this is a place. You want to run your mouth, we can be two consenting adults, we can finish it here.

O’Brien: OK, that’s fine, perfect.

Mullin: You want to do it now?

O’Brien: I’d love to do it right now.

Mullin: Well stand your butt up then.

O’Brien: You stand your butt up.
(at which point Mullin stood up and, it appeared, began to remove his wedding band)

Committee chairman Bernie Sanders: No, hold it, hold it. Stop it. Sit down. Sit down. You’re a United States Senator.

What a disaster.

Markwayne Mullin was told to sit down by 82-year-old Bernie Sanders and did.

Very off-brand for Mullin.

Maybe he’ll be primaried.

I promise you, somewhere, two Republicans are having that conversation.

It’s what that party, its base, at least, has come to.

So what are we to say about Mullin?

It’s ridiculous. It’s childish. It’s embarrassing?

It’s boorish, bad example setting, taking Congress back a century or two?

Yet, what’s the point when all that’s self-evident, yet Mullin remains proud of it and, good chance, so do a majority of his voters, who happen to be our neighbors.

What’s the point in shaming the shameless?

Perhaps you just have to hand the floor back to the embarrassment.

“People ask me too, ‘Is this becoming of a U.S. senator?’ Mullin told Newsmax. “I was like, ‘I’m a guy from Oklahoma first.’ In Oklahoma, you don’t run your mouth like that and if you do run your mouth like that, you’re expected to be called out on it.”

Except that Mullin runs his mouth all the time and he’s wrong all the time, a cartoon character in a party that elects cartoon characters, rewards cartoon characters, turns its politicians into want-to-be cartoon characters, because that’s where the money and the clicks are.

“You got to remember that President Andrew Jackson challenged nine guys to a duel and won nine times,” Mullin said. “At [the] White House one time, a guy was mouthing him at the end of the table. Jackson jumped, literally ran across the table and knocked the guy out … And, so, at the end of the day, there is precedence for it if that’s what someone wants to do.”

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Sure, there’s precedence to inviting and inciting violence into the U.S. Senate because Andrew Jackson injured or killed nine men with a gun and, one time, if we’re to believe Mullin knows his history, assaulted a tablemate because he didn’t like what that person was saying and what’s more American than that?

Is that the senator from Oklahoma’s position?

Or maybe it’s no biggie.

Markwayne Mullin isn’t so crazy.

Instead, like Supreme Court justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, he’s just an old-fashioned originalist, that’s all. Though, not being a judge, he’s limited to inciting violence in the U.S. Senate to demonstrate his originalism.

Why didn’t he tell us sooner?

Jesus.

But hey, at least he’s not the governor, coming out for cockfighting.

Or the state superintendent, trying to blow up the the U.S. and Oklahoma constitutions, trying to crush religious liberty in the name of saving it, here, there and everywhere.

We sure know how to pick ’em.

God help us.

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