I don’t expect anyone, especially politicians, to be perfect. However, I do expect conservatives to lead and not look as crazy as Democrats in Congress. Too much to ask? Too bad.

I was shocked, to put it mildly, when Mace joined in with Rep. Matt Gaetz’s little group of Freedom Caucus agitators who chose to oust Speaker McCarthy with the help of all the House Democrats. The hypocrisy from Gaetz was bad enough – he criticized McCarthy for working with Democrats on budget matters and then he relied on Democrats to help him settle a personal grudge against McCarthy. You can’t make that stuff up.

Gaetz is angry that McCarthy didn’t help him out as he is being investigated by the Republican-controlled House Ethics Committee. The committee relaunched an investigation into Gaetz in July. The allegations being investigated include sexual misconduct, campaign finance violations, taking bribes, and using drugs. Those are strong allegations that call for investigation, regardless of the member of Congress involved. It’s understandable that Gaetz doesn’t want to be in that position.

I understand why some conservatives followed Gaetz’s lead. They are mostly back-benchers who don’t have legislative success but get publicity when they act out. Then they raise money from their supporters. Vote for me, I’m a fighter!

Mace, however, has been pretty active in participating in legislative action. She worked for Trump’s campaign in 2016. She ended her support of him after the January 6 riot on Capitol Hill and said his legacy had been wiped out. She did not vote to impeach Trump. Because she did criticize his actions on January 6, 2021, Trump endorsed her primary challenger in the 2022 primary. She won anyway. Recently, she has sounded as though she is warming up to the success Trump is having in primary polls.

As a member of the South Carolina state legislature, she fought for important issues and tallied up a record of successes. She advocated for the inclusion of exceptions or rape and incest in a six-week abortion ban. She revealed she was raped at the age of 16. She is pro-life but does believe in exceptions for rape and incest. A majority of Americans believe in those exceptions, too. She co-sponsored a bill to oppose offshore drilling off the coast of South Carolina. She opposed Trump’s plan to offer oil drilling leases off South Carolina beaches. She was rewarded with the Conservation Voters of South Carolina 100% Lifetime rating. And, she was given the South Carolina Club for Growth 2019 Tax Payer Hero Award. She is the first woman graduate of The Citadel. Her degree is in Business Administration. Governor McMaster signed her prison reform bill into law in 2020. That law ends the practice of shackling pregnant women in prison.

The point is she has a resume of accomplishments. She was a small business owner and she is a public servant. Her main focus now is women’s issues in order to help bring more women voters to the Republican Party. She had a good relationship with McCarthy before she voted him out of the position. Her reason for doing so included her claim that “McCarthy didn’t follow through on pushing her legislation to address the country’s rape-kit backlog, expand access to birth control, adopt a balanced budget amendment, and create an alert system that would notify people when here is a mass shooting.”

Those are all important issues but why now? Why did she think it was a smart move to join Gaetz’s group and oust McCarthy this close to the end of the year and when some critical actions need to be taken by the House? Here we are in October. Why couldn’t she see the logic in waiting until the January election for speaker and do her thing then?

She claims she’s trying to get more women to come back to voting for Republicans but she is repelling all voters by showing the House to be adrift during this time. There is a war in Israel now. The House will be called upon to provide assistance to Israel. The CR put into place to stop the government shutdown is for 45 days. There isn’t a lot of time to get budget issues resolved. The budget, unfortunately, has not been balanced for years. With only a very slim Republican majority in the House, McCarthy had to work with Democrats on some issues. To think otherwise is to be unserious.

After the vote to oust McCarthy, it was very disappointing to see fundraising emails going out from Mace. Even if it was not her driving force, it now certainly looks like she helped oust McCarthy in order to raise her profile and raise money for her campaign coffers. She basked in the attention she received in various interview opportunity she took advantage of after the vote.

The kicker happened on Tuesday when Mace showed up on Capitol Hill in a t-shirt with a large red ‘A’ on it. She said it was her Scarlet Letter.

SC Rep. Nancy Mace is wearing a t-shirt with the letter “A” on it.

When asked what it stands for, she said it’s her “Scarlet letter.” pic.twitter.com/YQjieZ6w8O

— Gary Grumbach (@GaryGrumbach) October 10, 2023

Did she know that A is for adultery? At least that is what is commonly thought of when a Scarlet A is referenced. We think of the historical fiction published in 1850. It may be that she gave herself a Scarlet A for the response she has received from critics over her vote against McCarthy. It was another attention-seeking move. If that was her intention, the ‘joke’ landed with a thud.

Because she committed adultery in 1642? I don’t get it

— 💉Josh Rubin, MD 🩺 (@DrSandman11) October 10, 2023

We’ve recently seen another of her ‘jokes’ land badly.

The woman that said she almost missed a prayer meeting because she was in bed with her boyfriend unironically wears a scarlet A…. 😐

— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) October 11, 2023

Some commenters referenced Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Well then pic.twitter.com/MrgafGWowI

— PhotographicFloridian (@JackLinFLL) October 11, 2023

Oh well. When attention is the most important goal, this is what happens. She seems ok with it because she keeps doing dumb moves. Maybe she thinks this is what her constituents want from her.

There is a story out today by the New York Times (I know) that her district is more red now than when she was elected.

When South Carolina’s First Congressional District evoked wide sand beaches, Spanish moss, oyster and cocktail bars and hot yoga, its Republican congresswoman, Nancy Mace, made her name appealing for moderation on abortion, climate change and marijuana legalization, while calling out the G.O.P.’s biggest bomb throwers as bigoted clowns.

Then in 2022 came the redrawing of district lines, as rural reaches like Cordesville, S.C., with their modest one-story brick homes and prefabricated double-wides, replaced the graceful mansions and Black neighborhoods of Charleston. So last week, when Ms. Mace shocked Washington and joined seven hard-core conservatives to oust Representative Kevin McCarthy from the speaker’s chair, her new constituents were not surprised.

“I’ve always heard the squeaky wheel gets the oil, and when you’re a female, you don’t get heard unless you’re loud,” said Janet Jurosko, a new constituent of Ms. Mace’s from Cordesville and the auditor of Berkeley County, S.C., which joined the First District in its totality last year. “I think she’s doing a good job — I really do.”

Ms. Mace still calls herself an iconoclast, but her transformation from denouncing the likes of Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, to joining him in the first overthrow of a sitting speaker underscores a truism: Voters lead their politicians; politicians don’t lead their voters.

That’s an interesting take. Maybe she helped to oust McCarthy to gain some MAGA cred. We’ll see if this pattern continues to develop. It could be a trifecta move for her – publicity, campaign donations, and inching into the most conservative group of Trump supporters in the House. We’ll see.