Another week, another toxic burst of crazy from a congressional Republican. This time, it's Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., whose childish spat with Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., culminated with Boebert out-and-out calling Omar a terrorist sympathizer. That slander, based on nothing but the fact that Omar is Muslim, wouldn't be significantly less monstrous if Boebert had publicly called a Black fellow member of Congress a racial slur — and yet, once again, Republican leadership is sitting on its hands.

How did the GOP, once considered the party of personal responsibility, become a party in which elected members of Congress routinely act in ways that would get most children suspended from school? And yet their leaders do nothing about it.

It wasn't always like this. Remember Rep. Steve King? The longtime Iowa Republican congressman's habit of playing footsie with the worst elements of the far right finally caught up to him in 2018, when the National Republican Congressional Committee withdrew funding for his reelection campaign. King won reelection anyway, then mused to The New York Times: "White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?"

Even if King didn't get it, his party still did. King's fellow House Republicans stripped him of his committee assignments, setting him up for a successful primary challenge in 2020 and ending his congressional career. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., then as now the House minority leader, said King's comments were "not the party of Lincoln" and "definitely not American."

"All people are created equal in America," McCarthy said then, "and we want to take a very strong stance about that."

When did that McCarthy become the one we see today? In February, McCarthy stood by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., after her violent past statements were unearthed. House Democrats and a few Republicans stripped Greene of her committee assignments after McCarthy refused to act. Ditto for Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., censured for posting a digitally altered cartoon video that shows him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

Because their conduct involved tacit calls for violence, both Greene's and Gosar's actions were arguably more deserving of consequences than even King's racist musings. Yet today's McCarthy says if his party regains the majority, Greene and Gosar not only will get back onto their committees but will receive potentially "better" ones.

Now comes Boebert: "I will continue to fearlessly put America first, never sympathizing with terrorists," she ranted in a recent video message regarding Omar. "Unfortunately, Ilhan can't say the same thing." This is the very definition of conduct unbecoming of a member of Congress. It cries out for strong rebuke from Boebert's party leaders.

That's not happening because McCarthy knows if Republicans retake the House, he'll need support from the ever-more-emboldened lunatic fringe of his party to become speaker. Thus, the Boeberts and other hatemongers fear no pushback from their party's so-called leaders. And why would they?

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