March 02, 2021 01:05 PM UTC

Boebert Draws GOP Fire After "Playing Hooky" To Attend CPAC

• 3 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

The Hill: 

Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) on Monday criticized lawmakers for using the proxy voting system implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic to skip floor votes for reasons unrelated to their health, including fellow House Republicans who attended the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Friday…

[I]n January, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) gave Republicans the green light to use proxy voting given security concerns in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol by a mob of former President Trump’s supporters who tried to stop Congress from certifying the presidential election results.

Since then, dozens of Republicans have been voting by proxy in recent weeks.

The 13 Republicans scheduled to speak at CPAC who voted by proxy on Friday were Reps. Gaetz, Lauren Boebert (Colo.), [Pols emphasis] Ted Budd (N.C.), Jim Banks (Ind.), Madison Cawthorn (N.C.), Mark Green (Tenn.), Paul Gosar (Ariz.), Darrell Issa (Calif.), Ronny Jackson (Texas), Mike Kelly (Pa.), Ralph Norman (S.C.), Devin Nunes (Calif.) and Greg Steube (Fla.).

Here’s Rep. Lauren Boebert’s signed request Friday to the Clerk of the U.S. House to vote by proxy, which with all the facts in view doesn’t seem honest to sign one’s name to:

As a lightning-rod COVID-19 “freedom fighter” who never met a public health order she couldn’t defy, it takes some amount of effrontery just to invoke the “public health emergency” as a reason Boebert would be prevented from doing anything. But as we all know, this lie about being concerned by the pandemic is just a pretext for the real reason Boebert wasn’t present in Congress over the weekend–her speaking engagement at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando.

And as none other than Colorado-based Donald Trump attorney-turned leading Republican moral authority Jenna Ellis (take it up with Jesus if you don’t like it) lectured her fellow conservatives (also from CPAC) this weekend, lying is never, ever okay:

For those of you wondering, Rep [Madison] Cawthorne signed a written letter saying he was “unable” to vote in person “due to the pandemic,” when really he was speaking at CPAC. So this is a lie. Republicans also signed on to a lawsuit last year claiming that voting by proxy is unconstitutional.

We cannot back bad behavior just because it’s a Republican, otherwise we lose our integrity. I will speak truth, period.

Republicans should not be hypocrites any more than Democrats…

It’s disturbing that people are more upset at me for saying it is wrong for their favorite celebrity politicians to lie than they are at Congress members for actually lying.

No, lying is not ever a petty thing.

No, it’s not okay to “do it because the Democrats do it too.”

No, it’s not “being a RINO” to say lying is wrong, regardless of who is doing it.

This is right vs wrong. Period.

Re-examine your priorities. If you value Party over Truth and Christ, your priorities are wrong.

Considering everything Ellis says here applies as much to Colorado’s Lauren Boebert as Madison Cawthorn or the other congressional CPAC “ditch day” revelers, we’re watching for the apology or the exchange of fire between two high-octane conservative social media flamethrowers that logically comes next! Stay tuned.