Patricia Murphy: Can Marjorie Taylor Greene go mainstream?

Much of what Musk is tearing down was built up over years by Congress and, in theory, only Congress has the authority to reverse the course. But every day, without details or transparency, another department or program originally created by Congress is on the DOGE chopping block.

Whether any of this is legal or constitutional is now being hotly debated. But while it’s been going on, Greene has simultaneously launched the new House DOGE subcommittee, a parallel effort to Musk’s. Greene’s panel also happens to be the only cost-cutting mechanism in Washington operating in public view.

Greene gaveled in her first DOGE subcommittee hearing Wednesday with a warning that the forum was “not a time for political theater and partisan attacks.” The irony of the statement, coming from the congresswoman who displayed nude photos of Hunter Biden at a House Oversight Committee hearing last year, was not lost on the audience.

But Greene then proceeded to hold a hearing on government fraud, waste and abuse that was, in fact, almost entirely free of political stunts or drama. Greene kept the traditional five-minute clock, called on witnesses for their testimony and even referred to her colleagues as “ladies” and ”gentlemen.”

Instead, it was often Democrats trying to land political punches.

Rep. Robert Garcia, D-California, recalled Greene’s nude photo show of Biden and displayed his own giant photo of Musk, clad in a tuxedo, calling him “President Elon Musk.” U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, the Texas Democrat who scrapped with Greene in a hearing last year by calling her a “bleach blonde, bad built, butch body,” declared Wednesday, “It is time for us to do our jobs and rein in this rogue actor known as Elon Musk.”

One hearing witness, Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette of the Project on Government Oversight, even pointed to Trump’s firing of a dozen inspectors general as proof that DOGE is not a serious effort.

“It seems to me that if an administration were serious about wanting to root out waste, fraud and abuse, they would support and resource whistleblowers and inspectors general, they would not demonize them, and they would certainly not fire them en masse in an unlawful midnight purge,” he said.

Greene took her shots too. She described Congress’ chronic habit of deficit spending as putting Americans in “debt slavery,” At one point, she characterized federal employees as “beyond the point of forgiveness.”

But with her hearing, and the three more planned, Greene is using the tools of the legislative branch to raise and debate issues that Musk and Trump have mostly addressed with executive orders and social media rants. Whether or not Democrats agree with her, she also provided them public forum for legislative input that Trump and Musk have ignored so far.

“The American people are watching,” Greene said Wednesday. “The legislative branch can’t sit on the sidelines.”

If you haven’t been watching Greene throughout her time in Congress, it’s a lot to adjust to this more sedate, extremely un-“MTG” persona. But it’s just a lesser viewed part of who she’s been since she arrived in Washington.

It may also signal a new chapter for Greene, moving on from sidelined MAGA agitator to congressional player and even a potential statewide candidate.

During an interview with the AJC last week, Greene said she’s considering running for Senate or governor in Georgia in 2026.

“Of course I’m considering all possibilities,” she said. “No decisions have been made, but I would be telling a lie if I didn’t say I wasn’t considering it.”

A statewide run for Greene would have been hard to imagine even two years ago when she shouted down President Joe Biden during his State of the Union address with “Liar!,” or two years before that when she blazed onto the congressional scene slinging insults at Democrats and the press alike.

But time, and a Trump victory, have brought Greene into the new GOP mainstream, where a run for Senate or governor in a state that Trump just won doesn’t seem so far-fetched after all.

The first step to Greene being taken seriously outside of MAGA world in the future is taking her current job seriously now. On Wednesday, that’s just what she did.