THE TERRORISTS ARE NOT ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BORDER:

A handful of Republicans this week have not only stood up against the effort to install hard-right Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) as speaker; they've also stood up in a pretty striking way to the pressure tactics and attempted intimidation that came with it.

Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) offered a full-throated rebuke of these tactics shortly after Jordan failed on the second ballot Wednesday. (Jordan's opposition grew from 20 Republicans to 22 Republicans -- well more than the four GOP defections he can afford.)

Womack cited how his staff had been "cussed out, they've been threatened. It's been non-stop. Most of them are out-of-state calls."

"It's a matter of how you treat people," Womack said, as The Washington Post's Jacqueline Alemany reported. "And frankly, based on what I've been through and what my staff has been through, it's obvious what the strategy is: attack, attack, attack."

Womack added that Jordan's "tactics" had badly backfired.

Another holdout, Rep. Kay Granger (R-Tex.), posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, "Intimidation and threats will not change my position."

A third, Rep. Jen A. Kiggans (R-Va.), echoed that same message on X: "I was a helicopter pilot in the United States Navy ... threats and intimidation tactics will not change my principles and values."

A fourth, Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez (R-Fla.), said he brought this up directly with Jordan. "I told him, 'I don't really take well to threats,'" Gimenez told NBC News.

And a fifth, Rep. John Rutherford (R-Fla.), more explicitly laid the blame at Jordan's feet.

"He's absolutely responsible for it," Rutherford told Alemany. "And look, it doesn't work. ... Nobody likes to have their arm twisted."

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