Did Canning McCarthy Do Us Any Good?
As the old saying goes, don’t sacrifice what is good in the quest for perfection. That might apply to the current situation at the Capitol, at least if you believe that Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s brief tenure as Speaker of the House did any good for the American people.
When the Democrats control Congress, Republicans reminisce sourly about the days when the GOP had both the House and Senate—and at times the White House—and still “got nothing done.” On Tuesday, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, seven other Republicans and every single one of the 208 Democrats who voted officially pulled the plug on McCarthy so that, just maybe, memories of the 118th Congress won’t be as regrettable.
The past nine months of Republican “leadership” in the House of Representatives looked much like the earlier years since 1994 when the GOP had the majority. So-called conservatives haven’t conserved all that much, instead allowing a little more of the Constitution to erode each term in return for big corporate donations and two more guaranteed years to raise still more money.
McCarthy’s floppiest flop came last winter, when he promised to release surveillance footage from the Jan. 6th “insurrection.” In March, he finally announced that the release of 40,000 hours of footage would be gradual. Instead of putting the People’s House surveillance videos on the People’s House website for the people to see, he planned to dole it out slowly to media companies—the same swamp creatures fighting tooth and nail to cover up or lie about the whole event.
Tucker Carlson finally ran with the footage during his primetime show on Fox. The Murdoches company fired Carlson a month later.
The 15 ballots it took McCarthy to win the gavel last winter rubbed many Americans the wrong way. What Reps. Paul Gosar and Byron Donalds and the rest of the GOP hold-outs showed the nation was not an obstinacy toward a perfectly deserving leader.
It showed McCarthy’s desperation to be the frontman, manifested physically by the sweat on his brow and his lurches toward dissenters like Gaetz, and his concessions that were eventually used to oust him.
The California congressman, with the help of his colleagues in the GOPe media, labeled himself a unifier of the party. No one besides McCarthy needed a Speaker McCarthy that badly. Once enough holdouts caved in January, it was back to the same old song and dance.
Yes, eight Republicans had to reach across the aisle and team up with the 208 Democrats to ultimately give McCarthy the pink slip. But it does not mean their motives were identical. For instance, Rep. Ken Buck is auditioning for a job at CNN ripping his fellow Republicans. This vote certainly established his bona fides with state-run media.
Rep. Nancy Mace is such a ditz – in January she called Gaetz a “fraud” — that she may someday end up kibitzing with Whoopi and Joy on “The View.” She recently told a GOP women’s prayer group about how much she enjoyed morning sex with her current boyfriend.
After surviving a grand-jury probe in Florida, Gaetz himself has admitted that his fondest dream is to become “the Republican AOC.”
Bottom line: none of the eight Republicans who joined all 208 Democrats to oust their fellow Republicans are going into any political halls of fame.
On the other hand, McCarthy was little more than another remote-controlled Republican apparatchik. So it can be argued that a move by legislators even as cynical and appalling as Gaetz et al. functioned as overdue political pruning.
Despite the state of “chaos” pushed by state-run media, the Constitution as written in 1787 has allowed Speaker pro tempore Rep. Patrick McHenry to step in and kick Nancy Pelosi out of the coveted “Speaker emeritus” private office.
Here is what Republicans will do next. They will elect a new Speaker, probably Wednesday. Perhaps they can decide on someone who won’t require 15 votes to install. And, because it’s not that hard, that someone will have more of a spine than McCarthy.
Leadership Reps. Jim Jordan and Rep. Steve Scalise have already made their pitches to be nominated as the next Speaker. President Trump endorsed Jordan Thursday night. And if neither of them tickles the fancy of the 218-member GOP caucus, remember that the Speaker of the House need not be a member of Congress. Why not hold open auditions?
A member of Congress is supposed to be a voice for the American citizens it represents—not for the party, not for the Biden crime family, and certainly not for the oligarchs of a foreign country which has been credibly accused of paying $10 million in bribes to the current president and his drug-addict bagman son.
Kevin McCarthy was another mediocre House Speaker. Until we find his replacement, someone fit to provide Americans transparency, prosecute Biden crime, and cut aid to Ukraine, it’s okay that we say bye-bye, Kevin.
