My guess is that he actually thought he could make it work. From the statements he’s made in the media lately, I think he’s just given up on that — he and the rest of his caucus have reached the « Fuck it » point.
A lot of the GOP Congress critters have been saying variants on « They keep moving the goalposts », « They won’t take ‘Yes’ for an answer » and « They want to burn the place down; I’m here to work for the people that elected me. » Maybe the rest of the caucus has just accepted that they can’t be held hostage by 15 or 20 extremists?
Also, he now can say to GOP supporters that he tried his best and there was no working with them.
McCarthy was obviously under the delusion that his concessions to gain the Speakership - which gave huge powers to the Freedom Caucus - would be sufficient. They have indeed taken advantage: see the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. Chairman. Jim Jordan and the Oversight Committee’s inquiry into impeachment. Chairman James Comer. Two ridiculous political propaganda showpieces chaired by two the most vicious and stupid thugs in Congress.
McCarthy probably thought that would divert all their attention, and that he could handle the rest especially after getting the debt limit ceiling passed despite them. In hindsight that belief is ludicrous. Additionally, McCarthy demonstrated over and over that he didn’t have the spine necessary for control.
Maybe - maybe - he’s desperate enough now to take charge. Bringing the vote for a new Speaker to the floor requires a couple of procedural hoops that he should be able to raise out of reach. The House has more than 100 of what they call moderates, way outnumbering the Freedom Caucus. Maybe - maybe - he’ll find a way to bind them into a counterforce.
Can we cheer for the lesser of two evils? Tune in tomorrow, all times, all channels.
This is put much better than my flawed attempt at explaining the promise made. Gaetz and company are looking at it from the point of view that if ANY Democrats vote yes then Kevin is breaking his promise. The truth is, though, if 5 Republicans vote no and the motion still passes then it in actuality did only pass due to the Democrats’ support.
Right. They run on a platform of “Government doesn’t work”, and then do everything in their power to sabotage effective governance (allegedly in the name of “fiscal responsibility” or “eliminating needlessly beaurocratic regulation”) in order to prove to their voters that government indeed doesn’t work.
Why anyone would vote for them is beyond me. It’d be like hiring a nudist to be your tailor, or a putting Genghis Khan in charge of Housing and Urban Development. Or making Dan Carlin the Pope. You can’t put someone who is fundamentally opposed to what an organization is in charge of that organization and expect things to work out.
He did appoint three members recommended by the Freedom Caucus – Chip Roy, Thomas Massie and Ralph Norman – to the Rules Committee. Those three, combined with all of the Democrats on the committee, is enough to block a rule. I will say that while those three are very right wing and not above hostage taking to achieve their goals, they are generally not part of the nihilist clown show of Gaetz, MTG, Rosendale, etc.
Changing the membership of the Rules Committee would require the full House to adopt a resolution, which raises the same issues as the motion to vacate – with dozens of Republicans likely to oppose, it will take Democrat votes to get it done. Why should they go along with it?
LOL, that’s right, she was. For calling Lauren Boebert a little bitch. Classic Marjorie.
Doesn’t really change much. “Freedom Caucus” is being used as a shorthand in these conversations for the group of right-wing Members who are implacably opposed to McCarthy but there are Freedom Caucus members who are more willing to work with McCarthy as well as non-Freedom Caucus Republican who have been part of his opposition.
Actually appeasement works a remarkable percentage of the time. It’s overwhelmingly effective, at least in smaller things. Only at the ultimately huge scale does it tend to fail.
This will go nowhere, but it’s a sign that his camera-hogging is getting on peoples’ nerves.
At this point, the long term plan for the R should be to admit the schism, agree they are two parties now and kick the minority far right Trumpers to their own special powerless party. Then begin the long process of rebuilding by convincing voters they have regained their sanity.
It will take a few election cycles, and then Trumpism will fade into obscurity (eventually) as they realize they have no power and no hope of ever getting it. The politician clowns and grifters and morons will move on to other more traditional grifter roles like talk radio or televangelist
Here’s a phrase from out of the past: Marjorie Taylor Greene is demanding that McCarthy uphold the “Hastert Rule” and prevent any Ukraine aid bill from being brought to the floor of the House unless a majority of Republicans support it.
Implication of my link seems to be that Democrats will be even more divided on McCarthy continuing as speaker than the Republicans. This is in contrast to the last speaker crisis, when the Democrats united behind Jeffries.
My idea is that Democrats should take the position that in a House this closely divided, the speaker should be a non-partisan figure — maybe the current House parliamentarian. It would at least look better to vote for the parliamentarian than hopelessly voting for Jeffries, as they did last time. Theoretically, only a few Republicans would have to be peeled off for it to work. However, nobody else seems to be for this. It actually seems more likely the Democrats will prop up McCarthy.
