{"id":14543,"date":"2023-10-03T19:42:51","date_gmt":"2023-10-03T23:42:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/?p=14543"},"modified":"2023-10-03T21:45:15","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T01:45:15","slug":"so-hows-that-mccarthy-as-speaker-thing-working-out-for-ya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/so-hows-that-mccarthy-as-speaker-thing-working-out-for-ya\/","title":{"rendered":"So how’s that Speaker Kevin McCarthy thing working out for ya, anyway?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oh, just about exactly<\/em> like a lot of us predicted it would. Thankfully, though, Matt Gaetz just won a small victory\u2014not just for himself, but for us all.<\/p>\n

\n

Kevin McCarthy ousted as House speaker, thrusting Congress into chaos<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Well good, I\u2019m glad to see it. As much chaos as CongressCreatchters (appropriated from the great Ernest T Bass, look it up<\/a>) have wreaked on America That Was, they deserve to share in the experience.<\/p>\n

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Kevin McCarthy made the wrong kind of history Tuesday \u2014 becoming the first speaker of the House of Representatives to be ousted by a floor vote driven by members of his own party.<\/p>\n

Eight Republicans \u2014 Andy Biggs of Arizona, Ken Buck of Colorado, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Eli Crane of Arizona, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Bob Good of Virginia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, and Matt Rosendale of Montana \u2014 banded together with a united Democrat conference to declare the office of speaker vacant by a vote of 216-210, removing McCarthy (R-Calif.) from power and plunging the chamber into uncertainty as it faces a grinding process to pick his replacement.<\/p>\n

McCarthy, who made no comment to reporters as he left the House chamber following the vote, was booted from his job three days shy of the nine-month anniversary of his election as speaker on the 15th ballot this past January.<\/p>\n

Now, lawmakers face a rerun of that marathon process, with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) considered the favorites to put themselves forward for the job \u2014 assuming McCarthy doesn\u2019t want to try again.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Having proved out as just the kind of treacherous two-headed serpent we knew him to be, I can\u2019t really see McCarthy trying again, and if he does I can\u2019t see him regaining the position. But perhaps that\u2019s naive<\/em> of me; a few dirty, quiet deals, a little back-room conspiracizing, and some assiduous scratching of the right backs and hey presto! We\u2019re saddled with Speaker McCarthy again.<\/p>\n

\n

Gaetz had dangled the prospect of a revolt against McCarthy almost from the moment the Californian took the gavel.<\/p>\n

The 41-year-old finally went ahead with the motion to vacate Monday night, after a weekend of stewing over the now-former speaker\u2019s decision to call up a stopgap spending bill to avoid a partial government shutdown \u2014 and rely on Democratic votes to get the measure through<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m confident I\u2019ll hold on,\u201d McCarthy told reporters Tuesday morning, but his political demise became a matter of time when a motion to block Gaetz\u2019s effort failed 218-208. Reps. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), Cory Mills (R-Fla.) and Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) voted against the motion to table, but to keep McCarthy in place.<\/p>\n

With only 426 House members casting votes, however, McCarthy needed 214 supporters to keep his speakership.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need a speaker who will fight for something, anything besides staying or becoming speaker,<\/strong>\u201d declared (Virginia Rep Bob) Good, who assailed McCarthy for both the debt limit deal he reached with the Biden administration earlier this year and the maneuvering to avoid a shutdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need a speaker \u2014 ideally somebody who doesn\u2019t want to be speaker and hasn\u2019t pursued that at all costs for his entire adult life<\/strong> \u2014 who will meet the moment, and do everything possible to fight for the country.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Boy, did you ever say a mouthful there, sir. Bold mine, and quite heartening. Always nice to see a DC denizen who seems to really get it, y\u2019know? As I said, it\u2019s but one small victory, and certainly won\u2019t solve everything for us. But in times like these, you takes your victories where you finds em, be they large or small. Those small victories should properly be thought of as stepping stones to more significant wins. Stack up a big enough pile of those, and you\u2019re on your way to more serious and impactful wins\u2014that\u2019s taking the long view, one of the primary reasons the Left has been consistently our asses for so damned long.<\/p>\n

This is a process<\/em>, not an event<\/em>, as I\u2019m so fond of saying. Kudos to Matt Gaetz for outlasting and outmaneuvering the shifty, scheming Vichy GOPe shitweasels<\/a>, and slam-dunking this one on them in the end. Many happy returns, Rep Gaetz. Bravo, and encore<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Update!<\/strong><\/em> Multifarious backup for my \u201ctreacherous two-headed serpent<\/a>\u201d slam against FORMER (a-HENH!<\/em>) Speaker McCarthy.<\/p>\n

\n

Eight Republican representatives, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), on Tuesday successfully carried a motion to vacate, meaning Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is no longer speaker of the House. Several of the representatives have spoken out to explain why they ousted McCarthy.<\/p>\n

There was a running theme in the comments criticizing McCarthy, who cut deals on spending with Democrats despite the fact that America cannot afford continued high spending, for his financial irresponsibility.<\/p>\n

Gaetz posted multiple videos of himself on X (Twitter), including a fiery denunciation of the corruption of our government. \u201cI\u2019ll make this argument at any desk in this building. I\u2019ll make it on every street corner in this country, that Washington must change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) tweeted his opinion before the vote happened. \u201cSpeaker McCarthy has failed to demonstrate himself as an effective leader who will change the status quo,\u201d he said. \u201cHe has gone against many of the promises he made in January and can no longer be trusted at the helm.\u201d Biggs also posted a clip of himself on Steve Bannon\u2019s \u201cWar Room,\u201d highlighting McCarthy\u2019s uninspiring record.<\/p>\n

Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ) posted after the vote that he wants to ensure \u201cWe the People\u201d aren\u2019t \u201csteamrolled by the status quo.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

More at the link. I\u2019ll leave you with Catherine Salgado\u2019s summation:<\/p>\n

\n

Finally, I\u2019d like to add my own personal opinion. \u201cInfighting is bad for the GOP,\u201d we are told, but spineless politicians who consistently cave to the Democrats are helping destroy our nation. The U.S. debt is \u201cunsustainable,\u201d according to experts, and yet McCarthy even reportedly made a deal with Joe Biden for Ukraine funding we can\u2019t afford! We need people in charge who work for American citizens, not people who assist our disastrous careen toward national bankruptcy and collapse. Republicans lose partly because we have a defeatist mentality; we assume we\u2019re going to lose before we even start fighting, and we choose to act based on how we think Democrats will respond. That\u2019s unacceptable. Thank God the Founders didn\u2019t think the same way. The Democrats sure as heck don\u2019t, which is probably how they took over all our institutions and normalized ideologies that a few decades ago were considered blatant insanity.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I must beg to differ, Cath: Republicans \u201close\u201d mainly because that\u2019s their assigned role<\/em> in this elaborate kabuki production currently misnomered as *gag choke puke spit*<\/em> \u201cdemocracy.\u201d Although your point about the debilitating plague of \u201cdefeatist\u201d malaise<\/em>\u00a0afflicting the hoodwinked Republican Party rank and file is certainly well-taken. The sad fact is that, for far too many years now, conservatives have been content to play defense only, when every winning coach would tell you that the time-tested path to victory is\u00a0offense<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In military terms, although it\u2019s eminently possible to forestall defeat via<\/em> a tenacious, determined defense of a position or region, wars aren\u2019t usually won that way. In warfare, the initiative is everything; forever responding to enemy actions is folly, a sure-fire recipe for defeat. Forcing the enemy to respond to you<\/em>\u2014bringing him to battle on ground of your choosing, not his; forcing his soldiers to cower in hastily-dug foxholes and improvised entrenchments under an aggressive artillery barrage; neutering his own artillery with counterbattery fire; leaving his aircraft aflame in their revetments, the pilots and ground crews fleeing for their lives to the shelters, instead of taking to the air to attack your<\/em> planes and airfields\u2014is always the way to go, if you can manage it.<\/p>\n

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Error happened.<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oh, just about exactly like a lot of us predicted it would. Thankfully, though, Matt Gaetz just won a small victory\u2014not just for himself, but for us all. Kevin McCarthy ousted as House speaker, thrusting Congress into chaos Well good, I\u2019m glad to see it….<\/p>\n

Would you like to know more? So how’s that Speaker Kevin McCarthy thing working out for ya, anyway?<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,20,31,33,45,51,62,64,79,84,125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alt-american","category-brilliant","category-counterrevolution","category-culture-of-corruption","category-domestic-disputes","category-ftgop","category-hubris-and-nemesis","category-in-it-to-win-it","category-muahahahaha","category-passthepopcorn","category-or-losing","wpcat-5-id","wpcat-20-id","wpcat-31-id","wpcat-33-id","wpcat-45-id","wpcat-51-id","wpcat-62-id","wpcat-64-id","wpcat-79-id","wpcat-84-id","wpcat-125-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14543"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14548,"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14543\/revisions\/14548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}