Via the Post, I’ve been wondering how these people might generate more bad press for themselves after ditching their jobs, abandoning relatives who were grieving the death of loved ones, flying maskless to Washington, failing to convince Joe Manchin to end the filibuster, and then igniting a new COVID outbreak in Congress.

Now we have our answer.

It’s harder to convince people that you’re acting selflessly to protect democracy when you’re cutting literal campaign commercials and tweeting out fundraising links from your hotel room.

I’m a Democrat. I’m a Texan. I’m running for Congress in one of the most competitive districts in the country. And I need your help to flip this seat. Please watch, retweet, and follow this account to join our campaign pic.twitter.com/Zg5AGB7qdj

— Michelle Beckley (@BeckleyforTX) July 20, 2021

Michelle Beckley is a brave woman for hopping on a private jet, subsisting on room service, and grandstanding for an adoring media in a hopeless attempt to block Texas’s new voting law. Just ask Michelle Beckley:

My name is Michelle Beckley. I’m one of the brave Texas Democrats who came to D.C. to fight for voting rights in my state. Now, I’m fighting to flip a seat held by an anti-democracy Republican.

I have 28,500. Can you help us get to 50,000 followers?

— Michelle Beckley (@BeckleyforTX) July 21, 2021

Beth Van Duyne, Beckley’s would-be opponent, represents a swing district outside Dallas. It was one of the few in the country last fall that broke for Biden in the presidential race but went Republican in the House race. (Van Duyne won by a little more than a point.) Beckley’s challenge next year will be a gut check about how well the fleebaggers’ stunt played with Texas voters. The seat is gettable for Democrats but they’ll have a heavier lift in a Republican-friendly midterm than they had last year. Will pro-Biden swing voters reward Beckley for her impromptu vacation or will they punish her by sticking with Van Duyne?

I know how I’d bet.

And I’d be willing to bet more if the ‘rona they brought with them to Capitol Hill ends up infecting a bunch of geriatric members of Congress. House Dems are already anxious about it:

.@LeaderHoyer says "we're going to have to talk about whether going back to [mask mandates on Capitol Hill] work," when asked about recent breakthrough COVID-19 cases.

Adds that Attending Physician Monahan "is in touch with the CDC" and "has not suggested" going back to masking.

— Ben Siegel (@bensiegel) July 20, 2021

Yesterday we were told that one White House official and one Pelosi staffer have tested positive but Axios reports that the outbreak is bigger than that:

Shortly after Axios scooped that a White House official and a staff member for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) both tested positive for the virus, the phones for Axios reporters blew up with congressional aides saying the problem is even more widespread on the Hill.

The Office of the Attending Physician indicated as much, sending a letter to members Tuesday afternoon confirming “several vaccinated congressional staff members and one member of Congress have acquired infection in this circumstance.”…

After weeks of not seeing a mask, multiple people in the halls of Congress have masked up again.

Axios’ Sarah Mucha also saw the longest line in recent memory at the Capitol COVID testing site.

Steve Scalise was sufficiently worried that he finally got vaccinated this past weekend after months of holding out. The vice president had to be tested this weekend because she met with the fleebaggers last week. Needless to say, if Delta were to make its way somehow to our extremely old commander-in-chief, that would be very much Not Good. He’s vaccinated so the odds would be strongly in his favor, but if anyone’s going to have a breakthrough infection that turns serious, it’s a 78-year-old.

Exit question: How many breakthrough infections have there been in the White House? Will we be informed of all of them or is Team Joe sharing the info with the public on a need-to-know basis, i.e. if someone develops symptoms severe enough that they can’t do their job? The administration has an enormous political incentive right now to cover up infections inside the building for fear that publicizing them will convince vaccine skeptics that the shots don’t work after all, even if all of the infected end up having mild symptoms or none at all. Hopefully they’ll be transparent. I’m not optimistic.

Psaki is admitting there are additional COVID infections in the White House but provides no other info.

Just imagine what would happen if this was a Republican administration pic.twitter.com/IZf5zX2EnX

— Chris Martin (@chrisjdmartin) July 20, 2021