“It took this long, now we learned how to govern.”
Said Kevin McCarthy, in a preview of bountiful absurdities to come. If the last several days on Capitol Hill were an example of how House Republicans intend to govern, it’s going to be a very long two years. Indeed, “govern” was a misnomer of the worst kind. This week’s sordid saga prevented the House from governing. Literally.
It was Saturday in Washington by the time Congress finished writing the latest chapter in the increasingly disheartening tale of America’s unprecedented experiment in democratic self-governance. McCarthy, genuinely unembarrassed after what, for most politicians, would’ve been a career-ending run of defeats, secured the House gavel after a 15th ballot, when a quartet of remaining holdouts voted “present.”
Lauren Boebert, the Colorado firebrand whose reputation already precedes her despite being just 36 years old, voted “present” in the 14th round, as did Matt Gaetz. Because Arizona’s Eli Crane and Montana’s Matt Rosendale both declined to support McCarthy in that round, he need a “yes” from the incorrigible Gaetz. When he didn’t get it, he walked over to both Gaetz and Boebert. For once, McCarthy wasn’t smiling. After a fruitless exchange, McCarthy wandered out of Gaetz’s toxic circumference. But Alabama’s Mike Rogers, having apparently seen enough, made his way to the row where Gaetz was seated. “Matt, you’re finished,” he reportedly told Gaetz. After taking a step towards the flamboyant Floridian, Rogers had to be physically restrained.
Most of McCarthy’s headway was made on Friday afternoon, when he managed to flip a number of holdouts after agreeing to what observers described as a dangerous list of demands. He agreed, for example, to lower the threshold for a “vacate the chair” motion to just one lawmaker, potentially opening the door to rolling chaos. He resisted the idea initially, having seen for himself the measure leveraged to push out a GOP House Speaker in 2015.
Scott Perry, who allegedly promoted a Justice Department coup in a bid to invalidate Georgia’s Electoral College results two years ago, described the single-lawmaker threshold as a nod to “accountability.” According to evidence presented by the January 6 committee, Perry also supported investigations into claims that the CIA, in concert with an Italian defense contractor, used military satellites to alter the vote count in favor of Joe Biden, a theory one Justice Department official described as “pure insanity.” Perry is the sort of person to whom the House Speaker is now “accountable.”
McCarthy also dangled committee assignments, handed the far-right contingent outsized sway over what legislation reaches the floor and preemptively jeopardized the fate of government spending bills by subjecting them to impetuous debate. “We’re seeing [an] incredibly shrinking speakership,” Nancy Pelosi said, calling the McCarthy tragicomedy a “most unfortunate” event for Congress. Republican Ryan Zinke said, of the spectacle, “From the outside, it looks like chaos. From the inside, it is.”
Even Marjorie Taylor Greene, regarded by many as a singular example of how far afield America really is, expressed something like regret to voters. “I find it embarrassing,” she said. “I’m really ready to get to work.” Of course, for Greene, “work” likely means dubious investigations into Democrats. And the visceral images of Gaetz and Greene laughing together after Gaetz nominated Donald Trump for Speaker on Thursday undermined her pretensions to seriousness. Nevertheless, there was something darkly earnest about her frustration — like Jon Polito’s Johnny Caspar lamenting the injustice inherent in the paradox of an unreliable fixed fight. (At one point during the marathon, Greene showed her cellphone to Rosendale. “DT” was calling.)
This week, Republicans learned that McCarthy’s legendary malleability was actually a euphemistic cover for an almost incomprehensible shamelessness, confounding even to politicians whose job description requires auctioning their soul to the highest bidder as a matter of course and survival. McCarthy’s prostration at the feet of Trumpism minus Trump was a feat of self-abasement with almost no modern historical precedent.
Gaetz’s description of McCarthy as someone who’d habitually “sold shares of himself” was apt and exceptionally ironic. Gaetz, for all the showmanship, was in fact just bargaining for a large share of McCarthy on the cheap. Voting “present” was enough to secure an ownership stake in someone who Gaetz correctly identified as a man willing to follow vanity even if it led him off the edge of a cliff.
In the end, McCarthy sold out Republicans, the House, the speakership, the country and, ultimately, himself, to an irascible, irrational and, in many respects, inchoate, collection of miscreants and reprobates. Among them: Alleged co-conspirators in Trump’s efforts to retroactively rig the Electoral College and a lawmaker (Ralph Norman) who, just 72 hours prior to Biden’s swearing in, pleaded with Mark Meadows for Trump to impede the peaceful transfer of power by declaring martial law.
Among incumbent, original objectors to McCarthy’s speakership, 14 of 15 voted to overturn the 2020 election results. They were: Andy Biggs, Dan Bishop, Boebert, Michael Cloud, Andrew Clyde, Byron Donalds, Gaetz, Bob Good, Paul Gosar, Andy Harris, Mary Miller, Norman, Perry and Rosendale. All voted to sustain at least one objection to states’ election results even after witnessing the riot on January 6, 2021. Voting with them on that day: Kevin McCarthy.
HL Menkenesque kind of outcome. I don’t expect the gop to keep the house in 2024, and their majority is likely to shrink by one seat soon when a congressman gets deported to face charges in Brazil.
The unthinkable has happened. This tiny group of people have the ability to ruin this country. Hey H. how do you think the markets will take this?
Markets won’t care. Not one in 1,000 strategists or analysts has done any serious reading on the history of societal breakdown, political decay and so on, let alone traders.
And honestly, if you look out across Twitter, you can see Democratic economists and progressives posting memes and joking and so on because — you know — even the least well-off among those folks are doing fine, living in the suburbs, etc.
People don’t get it. Congress doesn’t get it either. This situation is perilously close to an anarchic tipping point, but nobody’s going to care until it literally reaches the suburbs — until it’s knocking on their front doors. Because why would they? At the end of the day, all of those people (analysts, strategists, traders, economists, politicians, TV anchors) go home to nice houses in nice neighborhoods and they basically turn off reality like it’s a TV show.
So, sure, you’ll see kinks in the bill curve eventually if a chaotic Congress ends up threatening to upend debt ceiling discussions, but other than that, nobody will care until it’s real to them. And the simple fact is this: By the time it’s real to anyone making $100,000/year or more, it’ll be far too late.
That’s not a doomsday prediction. I doubt seriously that if push came to absolute shove, the Fed and Treasury would let 15 people in Congress blow up the entire global financial system, etc. And I don’t care what anyone at the Pentagon says publicly, I guarantee you that if there’s a “next time” for the Capitol riot, there will be actual, real, active-duty US soldiers up there protecting the place.
My point is just that, sadly, nobody who comments on this actually cares, which is what’s causing the problem in the first place. You have — whatever it is — 70% of society out there living paycheck-to-paycheck or (much) worse, and that’s real life for them, and then you have the other 30% debating that same real life without actually living it. It’s almost like economists, politicians, pundits, analysts etc. are sports commentators narrating a game they’re not actually playing in.
I do think there is a large subset of people who would simply view this comedy as divided/deadlocked government, which to them is a great thing. It limits the ability to respond to emergencies or deal with short term deadlines but also makes it extremely difficult to pass anything stupid or unnecessary unless it’s related to a specific national emergency or need.
And I would argue its not really anarchy, its become comedy
Like a bread and circuses kind of comedy.
Maybe we’ll at least get a new Coen brothers movie out of it. The Miller”s Crossing reference is spot on.
Miller’s Crossing is, in my opinion, the greatest film of all time.
Agreed! I don’t know why it doesn’t get more love, although I do retain a soft spot for Blood Simple since I saw it first, before the Coen brothers were even a thing, and have always liked M. Emmet Walsh.
Heck, how will the USD take it???
Maybe the next two years will be what it takes for a lot of Republican voters to get fed up with the party. I imagine Mitch just cringing as each round of voting displayed the chaos which is the new norm for the House GOP.
I seriously doubt McCarthy will be speaker 1/1/24…
At some point 20 or 30 Republicans can make a deal with the Democrats to form the middle of the road Congress. If it is some form of chaos in August, perhaps then.
The idea of crossover moderate republicans joining democrats is a fascinating one. However, recall that Democrats are united now because they are in the minority. If enough republicans did join the democrats, the liberal/progressive democrats may take that as a sign that they can split from the coalition.
Perhaps there will be from all of this a new political party of moderates, with the left and right splintering off. This would be a wonderful outcome for the country and the markets.
Well said, H!
They irony is with McCarthy being elected speaker, he’s ushering in McCarthyism 2.0. That is ceaseless life destroying investigations in the name of patriotism. Not that he will be leading these investigations, but he better be willing to allow them if he wants to keep his job.
Indeed, sufficient smoke to convince there could be a fire … but, where? … Let’s check several states’ legislatures … Maybe its there and maybe its somewhere else, but it would be wise to continue looking, would it not?