Democrats are sick of bailing the GOP out of their own messes, and boy, are Republicans whining about it
Anyone who has paid even the slightest attention to the events leading up to the historic ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as speaker of the House knows exactly who is to blame here: McCarthy and his fellow Republicans. For years, they’ve rolled out the welcome mat to Donald Trump and his wrecking crew of MAGA camera hogs, foolishly believing that they could harness the chaotic villainy without getting burned in the process. They refused to listen to former Trump “fixer” Michael Cohen when he warned Republicans in 2019 that those who “follow Mr. Trump as I did, blindly, are going to suffer the same consequences that I’m suffering.”
Granted, McCarthy didn’t get hauled off to prison like Cohen. But he still faced a tasty comeuppance this week when the sadistic bullies he empowered in his caucus, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, vacated his seat for no other reason than the sheer satisfaction of taking out their leader. Now shellshocked Republicans know who they want to blame for everything that has happened, and — surprise! — it’s not themselves. Oh no, they’re mad at Democrats for refusing to swoop in and save McCarthy from his fate.
Hilariously, nobody can explain why it would be in Democrat interests to save McCarthy. He could have negotiated with them, but he refused to do so.
He was already reneging on the agreement he made with Biden. He unilaterally started pointless impeachment hearings on Biden, instead.
McCarthy reportedly told his own caucus that if he remained Speaker, he’d go against the Democrats even more.
All the Republicans have to do is to elect a new Speaker. Every single Congress has been able to elect a Speaker so far.
Oh and by the way, it seems that Trump cannot be elected Speaker due to some rules of the House that Republicans put in place about electing someone with felony indictments.
Oh and by the way, it seems that Trump cannot be elected Speaker due to some rules of the House that Republicans put in place about electing someone with felony indictments.
Not saying that’s untrue, but source? I’d like to look it over for myself.
Edit: Found this.
Yes, the GOP has Rule 26(a) and the Democrats have Rule 4, both of which say the speaker can’t hold the seat while under indictment. However, these rules aren’t legally binding and aren’t always followed.
Despite my pointing out the rule, I do actually agree with your research.
If you saw parts of the Impeachment investigation clown show that the House GOP put on, you’ll see the GOP repeatedly flouting the rules, and Democrats calling them out for it. For example, IIRC Jamie Raskin pointed out that it goes against House rules to impugn the president’s character, for example, they were calling him a liar, on the floor of the House, except in an impeachment inquiry. And that they weren’t allowed to have an actual impeachment inquiry without a vote. These are both House rules. He was overruled by the chair with an explanation along the lines of “This meeting is to investigate Biden, so those comments can be allowed.” Which obviously goes against the rules of the House.
My real, true hope for the rule is that it gives everybody an excuse to do what they want to do, anyways. I think very few people actually want Trump to be Speaker. I think even Trump doesn’t really actually want the job. It’s similar to the Presidency. He probably wants to be chosen, but in reality, he doesn’t want to do the work. And he’s happiest if he doesn’t get the job, and can whine and complain that the system has been rigged against him.
The position of Speaker is all procedure. You have to attend these long boring meetings. You have to know the rules. You have to read the rules and procedures aloud from a book in front of you. Let’s not forget that Trump is functionally illiterate. If he tried to actually perform that role, it might be massively embarrassing for him. He also wouldn’t have time to perform the role. So if he was elected Speaker, I think he would basically hold the role in absentia.
So I agree it’s possible that Trump is the next Speaker, but my hope is that the rule gives everybody a reason not to choose Trump.
Conspiracy theorists will claim that it was all determined long ago and they started indicting Trump to prevent him from becoming Speaker.
This is what happens when self-entitled children get elected to office and why I hate half of my fellow citizens with such vitriol.
They shit on the floor, smeared paint on the walls and then burned down the entire house.
Their take on it?
“I can’t believe you let me do that. Whats wrong with you?!?!?!”
There’s a junior Congressman from NC, Jeff Jackson (D) who offers really candid views of the House floor. He sent out a newsletter after the vote which provided some insight on what Dems were thinking about the vote.
The Speaker knew he was going to lose those folks, but he was hoping to peel off a few votes from the minority party.
Some folks in the minority were expecting him to reach out and say, “Hey, let’s make a deal. I’ll offer you this, and I want your vote.”
But instead, he went on TV the day before and basically said, “Here is my offer to the other party: Nothing.”
The minority party heard that from him and said, “Well, ok then, best of luck.”
That said, I’m not sure the Speaker could offer anything to the minority party. If he did, and his party found out, they’d be furious, and then he wouldn’t need six votes anymore - he would need 20 or 30 or 50.
…
My sense is that if he had felt it were at all possible for him to stay in power by working with the minority party, he absolutely would have done it - he just knew it wasn’t.
Reading that summary just tells me that everything is for sale in congress. Votes. Elected officials. Bills. Citizens. Everyone is constantly trying to get leverage to get what they want, and the country is caught in between them.
I mean yeah, that’s kinda the whole point of how a representative democracy is supposed to work, minus outside lobbying.
The whole crusade folks went on against pork barrel legislation basically just trashed a full half of the tools politicians can use to negotiate a consensus. Probably not a coincidence that infrastructure integrity has taken a nosedive ever since it became taboo to ask for bridge repairs to sign on for a bill.
Really? They’re supposed to sell each other and/or us out to get wha they want?
The process I described is literally the complete opposite of that. It’s frustrating when it obstructs needed legislation but if it means the average rep and/or senator is more able to be negotiated into supporting a given measure then what the fuck ever!
I’d encourage you to check out some of the other content Jeff Jackson has put out. I originally followed him on reddit, but it looks like he also uploads to Youtube. He obviously has a progressive bias, but to hear him say it, most Congress reps (both sides) will wind up the media until the doors close, then their rhetoric tones down and they get to work. The far right are the exception in that they are NOT there to be productive, and the shouting and clickbait are as deep as they go.
The GOP is a political mafia whose donors believed they had whipped the Democrats into servitude. Good for democracy… down with the Grand Old Pedophiles
Jeff is awesome. I hope he sticks around for a while.
My sense is that if he had felt it were at all possible for him to stay in power by working with the minority party, he absolutely would have done it - he just knew it wasn’t.
aye, i think he saw the wind was blowing against him either way, so he decided to get up and lambaste the Dems on the way out
I know this should provoke… I don’t know… sadness? Resignation? Concern? Righteous indignation?
But I literally cannot stop laughing. Everything is the Democrats’ fault, including Republicans’ own egos. Oh the schadenfreude!
“Now look what you’ve made me do!”
It’s like a weight lifter who only works their biceps. They have one trick, and they’re discovering the limitations therein.
They got voted out by their own party and still went for that bicep curl of “blame Democrats;” It just exposes their withering weakness when it comes to actually trying to negotiate in good-faith.
Now this is a meme worth reviving!
I think the straw that absolutely broke the camels back – preventing Dems from even thinking of voting Present or of simply voting to table the bill – was McCarthy’s shit-slinging over the weekend about Democrats delaying the CR. He’s repeatedly said “they didn’t want the bill, they tried to stop it” etc etc when all they wanted was some fucking time to read goddamn bill so they knew what they were voting on.
Yeah, it get that politics is politics, and to work together you need to sometimes separate a little bit what is said in an interview and what you can hash out on legislation on a personal level.
But damn did McCarthy go all out calling out the Democrats that weekend after ambushing them with a 70 page bill and an hour to read it. If he hoped to get Democrats support he should have put forward a better bill or kept his mouth shut over weekend.
Not only that, but he promised earlier in the year that any bill would have 72 hours for people to read through before a vote happened. So that’s another promise he blew off.
“Look what you made me do” is the language of abusers.
McCarthy lied, so his Speakership died.
Simple as.
Reminds me of the JASTA mess from a few years back when Obama vetoed JASTA, explained why he vetoed it, then it got passed over his veto then they realized, “Oh wait this could be bad for us.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justice_Against_Sponsors_of_Terrorism_Act
https://www.cnn.com/2016/09/29/politics/obama-911-veto-congressional-concerns/index.html
You left out the most relevant part where they them blamed Obamq
This is what happens when you have a party with no apparent goals or platform beyond opposing the other sides goals. Infighting!
they very clearly have a set of goals and a platform, and that platform is pander to the hyper-weathy donors who drive their politics.
and thanks to Citizens United (or the NRA) many of those are foreign
Save a idiot that wanted to overturn the election? Yeah, fuck off.
What is always surprising to me, but shouldn’t be, is that the GOP consistently displays behavior of toddlers that most parents would not tolerate in their kids. Then they turn a blind eye when our elected officials behave that way. It’s strange and sad.
If you look at it from another angle, that of using any tactic necessary to destabilize the work of government and to bring it to a publicly screeching halt as unpredictably, insanely, and often as possible, AND you look at it from the POV of who would benefit from seeing that happen, it makes a lot more sense.
But the strange thing here is not that the GOP outed its own speaker (they did it to Boehner in 2015) nor that they made a clown show of it, nor even that McCarthy seemed to go out of his way to renege on enough deals to make it happen.
To me, the truly strange thing is that part of McCarthy’s election, one of the things he agreed to in order to be elected as speaker, was the specific change in the rules that allowed him to be ousted with Just One Vote.
House rules change every session; in and of itself a rule change is to be expected. But not this one.
Yet this particular rule change was demanded of McCarthy before he could get enough votes to be elected, AND he agreed to it . . . AND lately, seemed to want to ensure it would work. He went to Nancy Pelosi privately asking her advice before blasting her in the press; he did everything in his power to ensure he got NO Dem assistance in keeping his seat when it would have been nothing for him to at least keep from shitting on them publicly, and he made sure to piss off even his own side throughout.
Another thing. Speakers come and go, and many Speakers leave and become Speaker again, like Sam Rayburn and Tip O’Neill. But with the Pelosi/Hoyer office evictions it’s like McCarthy is not only burning his election down now, but making absolutely sure no one will ever suggest him for Speaker again.
All this is is to say that whoever/whatever was behind that highly irregular change in the rules regarding ousting the Speaker was planning this from the beginning of the session, and when the time came, McCarthy wanted out badly enough to force it to happen, and in such a way that he will never be Speaker again.
And now there are just 44 more days before the next shutdown, with aid to Ukraine up in the air, and a next-to-useless pro tempore speaker who really can’t do shit in terms of directing his party or getting legislation to the floor: for most intents and purposes, the US House of Representatives right now is leaderless.
EDITED to add links
He gave up the speakership when he gave in to the rule that any random child rapist could put forth a motion to vacate. We all know which child rapist it was gonna be, and that child rapist didn’t disappoint.
Just once I’d love in passing on the floor of the House from a Dem, “blah blah blah, for example child raper Matt Goetz, blah blah” with a casual hand gesture in that monster’s direction
Not just Republicans. But also “centrists”.
Who on the house floor actually occupies this position. It’s only rhetoric used in debate netween regular people.
It’s fake, all part of their plan to get Gym Jordan in as speaker
Nothing like Jordan seeking the spotlight to give journos a reason to look into why his nickname is “Gym”.
This couldn’t possibly backfire, could it?
That should be quite the circus.
