National Lampoon’s Vacating
Kevin McCarthy has officially been booted from the gavel pit. It took multiple days and 15 rounds of voting for McCarthy to get the gig in the first place, so maybe it’s not surprising that his hammer time only lasted 270 days. Following a motion sickness-inducing motion to vacate by the creep Matt Gaetz and a failure to secure enough votes to survive, Kevin McCarthy maintained his tradition of not telling the truth as he summarized his epically brief run: “I wouldn’t change a thing.” (Even the accountants who signed Trump’s property valuations don’t believe that.) In retrospect, maybe Kevin McCarthy should have skipped the trip to Mar-a-Lago and gone to see the Beetlejuice musical instead.
+ “His political assassins, led by Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, toppled their leader with no plan for what comes next – leaving a hugely important wing of the US government paralyzed for at least a week.” McCarthy became the latest victim of Trump’s extreme GOP revolution. (He sold his soul for Trump, but when it came time to repay the loyalty, Trump was like, “Meh.”)
+ Ronald Brownstein in The Atlantic: The Only Sin That Republicans Can’t Forgive. “The fall of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy today demonstrated again that the one sin that cannot be forgiven in the modern Republican Party is being seen as failing to fight the Democratic agenda by any means necessary.” (Ironically, the extremists needed Dem votes to oust their Speaker. There are always exceptions to the rule when there are no rules.)
+ “Where we are is a country with a solid anti-Trump majority confronting a pro-Trump minority that believes it has a right to rule without concession or compromise.” David Frum in The Atlantic: GOP Fantasy Collides With Reality.
+ Interim Job: While Kevin McCarthy was particularly deserving of a downfall, his demise (and the further demise of democratic norms and stability) is nothing to celebrate. America is being damaged and what comes next could be worse. Consider that the first thing interim Speaker Patrick McHenry did was to kick Nancy Pelosi (who is in SF for Dianne Feinstein’s memorial) and Steny Hoyer out of their offices. And then there’s this headline, that should send chills down the spine of every jacket-wearing American: Jim Jordan Running To Be Next House Speaker.
