The South Dakota Freedom (aka Free-dumb) Caucus chaired by State Representative Phil Jensen sent out a press release today claiming that Phil himself was kicked out of the House Republican Caucus today:
Today, the South Dakota House Republican Caucus removed one of its own members, Representative Phil Jensen, following a complaint raised by Democrats during House floor debate on Senate Concurrent Resolution 604 (SCR 604).
and..
According to reports from numerous members, Representative Jensen was asked not to attend today’s caucus meeting and was formally removed from the House Republican Caucus due to his comments.
(I’m not going to post the rest of their silliness)
This comes after Phil’s removal from the House Education Committee several days ago, and his removal as vice-chair from the same committee last year after his attacks on the Huron School District.
Of course, Phil Jensen’s list of his instances of being a jackass is many, many-years long. Because, after dodging the draft, and asking that some doctors are able to be legally killed, talking about how you can tell someone’s race by the shape of their skulls, among other things, it’s just shocking that it took them this this long to do so.
This comes just a couple of years after Julie Frye-Mueller was notably absent from the Senate GOP Caucus over that whole breastfeeding harassment thing, and the Free-dumb caucusers complaining shortly thereafter about Tom Pischke being booted from the Senate GOP Caucus for demanding that his fellow Republican Senators be arrested.
Stay tuned. I’m sure there will be more whining that he’s out of the Republican caucus. Although, Phil still has his own caucus to hang out in.
It’s a good start.
Doeden-Dakota First Action supporters/legislators are being removed off the chessboard in defeat. Bad day for Dylan. “White Boy Summer” Manhart? https://www.reploganmanhart.com
We like to call him White Boy Bummer…
Phil didn’t see his shadow today did he?
Too little too late from the SDGOP.
A functioning party with self-respect would have kicked Ismay, Jensen, Jordan, Manhart, & Pischke to the curb long before they ever saw a general election. Furthermore Garcia, Schaefbauer, & Voita should be similarly expelled for their conduct this session and last.
This state has some serious budgetary problems to tackle and some of our districts are little more than sending spoiled children to Pierre. These aren’t serious people, and the issues are only going to compound until some actual adults grow the fortitude to put their foot down and stop enabling this crap.
If the SDGOP isn’t the group to right the ship it’s going to be for the SDDP to take, and things would have to be near godforsaken before a majority of South Dakotans would turn to that mess of a party. SDGOP seems willing to find out by continuing to crap the bed on economic development, fiscal responsibility, and quality of life.
Bad day for the Speaker who showed his lack of leadership.
To be fair, at least the SDDP has leadership in the Legislature. I can’t say our party does.
Right on the mark Anon 6:58pm!
And Auch for her meltdown after her fake meat bill.
Auch needs to spare us all the rehearsed drama, along with Hunt, and just say thank-you for her and her family’s huge government subsidies on our dime. Spare me with the picking winners and losers speeches. Crony capitalism is alive and well and it showed in her floor speech. Also, my gosh Hunt is an angry young person…….i bet she’s a blast at parties. Both will be just fine. Our teachers , on the other hand, will just be left out to dry. No subsidies for them.
I know a therapist these wing nuts can see to help them with their buried issues they’re taking out on the state.
What has Manhart done bad this session? I have noticed he has kept his head down at least online so far. After the Stuff this last Summer about the White boy Summer and the “Why can’t we have a white only country?” posts.
Anonymous at 6:58 where in South Dakota’s or the United States’ Constitutions is it written that a political party may prohibit somebody from running for office?
yes, the saner Republicans wish we could get rid of those clowns. But the law says they can register as Republicans, circulate petitions, get their names on the ballot and people can vote for them. The only thing we can do is recruit and fund candidates to run against them. Sane Republicans in the legislature have attempted to gerrymander them out of office, too. Being Republicans, we have not resorted to violence.
7:47:
Where does is say the party, a private organization, has to support any yahoo who claims membership? As a private organization and through freedom of association means that the party has every right to enforce and limit:
Caucusing.
Committee assignments.
Campaign resources.
Campaign materials.
Campaign coordination.
Leadership publicly and unequivocally telling members to distance from unseemly and unworthy candidates.
Quit your so-sorry-for-me handwringing and actually hold the party accountable to act on ALL the levers it has at its disposal instead of this sad-sack path of least resistance. That’s that kind of sorry accountability that got us into this mess in the first place.
The saner Republicans have opted to withhold money from the party and direct it to individual candidates. Our elections are decided in June, not November, and that is a huge problem.
As for what goes on in the legislature, leadership is chosen by the members, who got there, for the most part, by winning the Republican primary and coasting through the general. With voter turnout in the primaries only 17%, it’s easy for the clowns to win. Then they go to Pierre and choose their own ringmasters.
The Freedumb Caucuses seem intent on proving their purpose to all of us all through the pure entertainment value they bring.
grudznick abides. The voters should not.
Goodwin and Ladner from the District Numbered 30, the insanest of them all, need to be very, very worried right now. Well, Ms. Ladner should be. All of the Districted Numbered 30 knows Mr. Goodwin is just a follower.
What poor Leadership in both chambers and the state party for allowing the hallowed halls of the Capitol to turn into such a three-ring circus. A gargantuan waste of time and taxpayers’ dollars.
The far right has shown its true colors. Time is up. Vote them all out. It’s time to restore decorum and respect in Pierre, South Dakota deserves better!
Amen!
Anonymous 6:58 pm
You forgot Soye in this group.
I don’t know, I’d consider her in the same category as Carley, Hansen, Howard, Odenbach, Randolph & Sue Peterson. Ideological zealots incapable of seeing a bigger picture without themselves at the center and dismissive of any valid criticism that doesn’t align with their worldview. However, they can at least keep up a facade of decorum (Odenbach & Peterson less so than the others). Unfortunately these are the kinds of people who are now ingrained into the party for the foreseeable future.
Over/Under 2 days until Phil states that this is some sort of war he is fighting in. What do you have, folks?
It will be his Vietnam.
I see his seat mate, Dylan, changed his profile picture. Here sits Phil and Dylan. It’s obvious based on the photo that they have absolutely no sense of flag etiquette whatsoever based on the location of their American desk flags.. Frickin sad. My children learned flag etiquette in Public school.
Guys like Phil are why a lot of people have left the party rather than try and figure out what membership even means anymore. He’s no Republican that I’d ever recognize.
Lotta folks suffering paranoid schizophrenia and delusions of grandeur out in Pierre.
We have a nice little venue in Yankton where they can have a convention.