I understand the general, “I’m not going to vote for a Republican”, but I don’t follow why the Democrats would vote against McCarthy and throw things into dissarray.
Do they think with McCarthy out, that they can get another Republican in that is more sympathetic to the working with the Democrats? I would worry that the next speaker would be worse then McCarthy.
Who are the Republicans going to put up as a replacement…seems like it could be someone who is further right and less likely to work with the Democrats.
Well, there was a perfectly good bipartisan Senate bill to stop the shutdown, which would have had all the Dem votes, and possible a handful of GOP votes to pass, but he refused to let it be voted on. Note that is was a bipartisan bill.
I think the Dems want to watch the Republican Party implode with 13 months until the election and is willing to have a government impasse until a new Speaker is elected no matter how long it takes. Just watch until the Pub meltdown occurs.
I think the real question is what the Democrats would have gained by supporting him. McCarthy has never been particularly moderate or open to bipartisan efforts. There’s no reason to assume he’d be any better as Speaker than his eventual replacement.
There was no course of action that avoided things being thrown into disarray of one sort or another. This one at least makes it clear that the disarray is all the Republicans’ fault.
You’ll recall back in January every Democrat voted for their leader, Hakim Jeffries, for Speaker on all 15 ballots. Back then some moderate Democrats suggested they might be willing to help elect a compromise candidate, but Republicans would have to approach them. No Republican did, however.
Having tried once to help the Republicans save themselves from themselves, and having been rebuffed, why should they try again.
McCarthy refused to ask the Democrats for help, instead calling them names and blaming the almost-shutdown on them.
Helping McCarthy would make any further dysfunction on the House partially the responsibility/ fault of the Democrats for helping him stay in power.
They were given no incentive to vote for McCarthy.
McCarthy is a liar and a totally ineffective leader who has done nothing but try to appease the worst of the Republican conference in a fruitless ploy to obtain and maintain his gavel. Who wants more of that?
Voting for him would have been against the normal functioning of the Democratic Caucus, and they had zero reason to buck tradition to save his sorry ass.
There is very little chance of getting anyone worse than McCarthy end of day. Or end of next week. Whatever.
It will not be a howling monkey caucus member.
And there would be little reason to trust any promises McCarthy made even if he made them.
OTOH … a week of Republican dysfunction on display? Might end up with a few but enough relatively adult GOP members to do a deal with the D side. For the cookies.
I’m curious why, this one time, McCarthy bucked his party and kept the government running? He knew it would likely lead to this happening. I wonder if he was just sick of it all? He’s got his name in the history books. It’s a thankless job for him and nothing but a headache. Do one halfway decent thing and head for the door.
I didn’t think this was a potential outcome when (i think) you brought it up at the start of theterm, but now I think it actually might be in the cards.
Plus if you’re the dems and some non freedom caucus faction of the gop needs you, there’s no need to play by their rules. It’s always good when you can choose your negotiating partner and the gop just on their own opened the door for thecdems to at least attempt that.
I don’t know what Jeffries is thinking but, personally, I’d be thinking along the lines that when someone’s on a path of self destruction, there comes a point where it’s best to let them hit bottom. Until that point, they’re just not going to learn nor mend their ways.
The best thing for Democrats is that the Republicans in the House choose someone even worse than McCarthy. The more extreme that choice is, the better the chance that a few traitors break free to prevent the place that they live in from falling apart.
Gaetz is currently acting as the most successful agent of the Democratic agenda, ever.
this…the only reason the dems don’t let the MAGAS shut down the government is it would affect the social programs like social security the federal portions of food and cash aid and things like that but I can see them letting ti happen as a wake-up call at some point
But this is just ammo for the next house elections… and if the GOP implodes well even better
If you listened to McCarthy’s press conference tonight, you would have heard him blame the Democrats for everything. Everything. The Hindenburg fire. Losing the Alamo. The fall of Rome. The subjunctive tense. His language wasn’t much different from Gaetz’s.
He could have made a deal with Dems, promising them the moon and the stars, but nobody would trust him for a moment. He hated the Dems. They’re the adults in the room and he just says that for tv cameras.
I know she is a polarizing political figure but, love her or hate her, she has become a sharp politician and learned the ropes in congress quickly. Impressive.