Good God this is stupid… Jackass Steve Scalise didn’t even remember the full line, saying “For God’s sake – you can’t get pasta at Olive Garden without a picture ID! Why not be able to show a picture ID to vote?” when he forgot the “pasta pass” part of that. That’s the key here, in which the establishment requires those who have paid for their unlimited pasta pass promotional membership whatever to present a photo ID to servers in order to be served unlimited portions of pasta, not just to “get pasta.” They wouldn’t fucking card you to simply purchase pasta off the menu but again, this was most likely a case of Scalise simply forgetting the crucial “pasta pass” condition to the ID requirement rather than “truthful hyperbole” like claiming photo ID is required to buy cereal.

Still, even given that this is just so goddamned stupid it’s almost nauseating. First off, despite having an Italian-American surname Scalise seems about as paisano as Whoopi Goldberg is Jewish and as such obviously isn’t averse to legitimizing the faux-Tuscan strip-mall chain. Have some goddamned pride in your heritage, you wanker. Other than that wrinkle it is pretty on-brand that this new talking point is something regular MAGAmericans can relate to since to them Olive Garden is the fancier option than Papa John’s when it comes to “Italian cuisine.” The place you go for your anniversary when Applebee’s and Chili’s are for birthdays or just when you’re tired of pretending to like venison from the deer you shot. Plus you only wanted the antlers for your truck grille anyway.

That the GOP’s sound bite writers’ room got right. Relatability. No doubt a welcome switch from having to rear-guard Trump being gifted a $400 million 747 from the Qatari royal family. And the timeliness given the frenzy among Garden fans clamoring for a limited supply of 10,000 passes:

What you need to know before the Pasta Pass sale starts tomorrow, July 16 at 2 p.m. EST! ⏰ pic.twitter.com/INCEaE4tiU

— Olive Garden (@olivegarden) July 15, 2026

And the clarification to one fan:

No. The Never-Ending Pasta Pass is only for use by the Passholder whose name is printed on the Pass. Passes are personalized and non-transferable. Passholders must present a valid photo I.D. along with the Pass at the time of ordering.

— Olive Garden (@olivegarden) July 16, 2026

Undoubtedly there’s a significant enough subset of holders who have identical twins or other siblings, cousins, etc indistinguishable from each other by quick glance of a driver’s license who are getting more value from the pass than other solo holders. That’s just the way the rigatoni is sauced sometimes. But for the other 9,500 or so it just makes sense as a pretty low-friction way to contain it to only the pass holders rather than their friends and family – especially given that Olive Garden serves alcohol and already knows how to handle carding customers.

Now if anyone can make a similarly brief and straightforward case for requiring voter ID, then let’s hear it. “Olive Garden requires photo ID for their pasta pass, therefore we need voter ID nationwide,” is not that case. If anything it’s actually kind of counterproductive because it’s stupid.

Not as stupid and counterproductive as depressing your own voter base’s turnout by preemptively trying to delegitimize an adverse outcome. Seriously, all this SAVE Act and “Dems are going to cheat” bullshit does not make it any more likely that they will be successfully able to legally overturn enough losses and thus somehow scrape back a lost majority in one or both chambers of Congress. Republicans really would be much better off if they dropped it and instead focused their time and energy on their other tiresome pitches, like the “communism” shit.

Yes, that is a real Axios headline, lol.

Anyway, as has been stated many, many, many times here, there is no real substantive argument for or against requiring voter ID at polling places on election day. There’s a utilitarian argument for Dems to oppose it and it’s very simple: Republicans can have nationwide voter ID when they’re willing to trade it for other reforms, starting with a ban on political gerrymandering. In fact Dems might be willing to accept that alone, irrespective whether Olive Garden requires ID for pasta passes.