What is Rep. Ruben Gallego thinking? He's defended several Republicans lately

Now, you’ve gone and done it, Ruben Gallego. You’ve gone lower than low. Lower than even you, the mad bomber of the 3rd District, has gone before.

Don’t think we didn’t notice.

Every day you carpet bomb the right with your $@@!’s and your %\@!IO’s and your &^#!@$%1I$@#’’s.

Why?

Because you love it.

You love the combat.

You love the smell of napalm every time you lay down that red flame on the red seats in Congress.

You’ve called Donald Trump a dip---- and Ted Cruz a f---ing baby killer and you’ve set Washington decorum back as far as, well, 2016.

Gallego defended Rusty Bowers

We want to hate you with every fiber of our being.

And then you go lower.

You say nice things about conservatives. You even defend conservatives.

And thus staggered, we step back and wonder what sorcery is this? What diabolical plot is Gallego spinning now?

It started in June when Arizona Speaker of the House Rusty Bowers testified before the Jan. 6 Committee.Bowers testified that he had rebuffed Donald Trump and his consigliere, Rudolph Giuliani, when they tried to get Bowers’ help reversing the 2020 presidential election.

Bowers wouldn’t break his oath of office to serve those two, he told the committee.

Other Democrats praised Bowers. Of course. But not with anything near the poignancy of Gallego:

“Speaker Bowers and I will never agree on most politics, but I hope I can raise my son to have the same integrity as he does.”

He sprung to Debbie Lesko's defense

Then in July, a MAGA Republican in the Arizona delegation was in trouble.

Debbie Lesko, the representative of Arizona’s 8th Congressional District, fell into a ditch.

While speaking on the House floor against the “red flag” gun-control law, Lesko said, “I have five grandchildren. I would do anything − anything − to protect my five grandchildren. Including, as a last resort, shooting them, if I had to, to protect the lives of my grandchildren.”

Many things will earn you a double-take in modern Washington, but none so quickly as announcing you will shoot your five grandchildren. Even by congressional standards, that was peculiar.

Beltway journalist Sam Youngman thought so and tweeted out, “I am alive today because Debbie Lesko wasn’t my grandma.”

Democrat Ryan Shead wrote, “Allow me to introduce you to Congresswoman Debbie Lesko of Arizona, who is currently running for office unopposed in her district. She would like America to know she loves her grandchildren so much she would shoot them if necessary.”

Others snarked, “Why do you think she’s running unopposed?”

Lesko was embarrassed, and the pile-on was too much for Gallego.

“She clearly misspoke,” he responded. “There are lots of things I have disagreed with Debbie on in our 12 years working together, and I am not afraid to call them out, but here she clearly just misread the script.”

His defense was no small thing. How many Democrats would tempt the raised eyebrows of their fellow Democrats to throw a lifeline to a drowning Republican?

Gallego wasn’t done.

He stood up for Kimberly Yee

On Nov. 19, a fellow named Daniel McCarthy, a Republican who describes himself as “an Arizona businessman fighting Communist authoritarians” and who enjoyed 15 minutes of fame running for U.S. Senate in 2020, suggested that Republican State Treasurer Kimberly Yee is working in league with the Chinese Communists.

Apparently, since Yee is Asian American, McCarthy concluded that she invests the state’s money in Wall Street, which everyone knows is controlled by the People’s Republic of China.

That was too stupid for Gallego to bear, so he came again to the rescue.

“Daniel you are a (expletive) racist. … (You) should apologize to Kimberly Yee.”

What that tells me about Ruben Gallego

Now, I don’t know what Ruben Gallego is up to with these momentary forays defending conservatives, but it does tell me something important about him.

Politics are not his religion. He understands that politics are the workaday exertions of elected officials and others trying to solve many of society’s problems. Politics are rarely about good vs. evil, and the opposition is not the infidel.

Gallego’s politics have that old-school flavor of “Ralph the Wolf” vs. “Sam the Sheepdog,” the animated foes who try to kill each other until the work whistle blows and they clock out for the day.

That’s Ruben Gallego.

He’s not a fanatic.

Just a workin’ guy dropping bombs on Republicans, because that’s what Democrats do.

Now he’s gone and scrambled the entire routine by doing something kind for conservatives.

It was unexpected. It was decent.

And I hate him for it.

Phil Boas is an editorial columnist for The Arizona Republic. Email him at phil.boas@arizonarepublic.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Rep. Ruben Gallego carpet-bombs some Republicans, defends others