According to a new piece from Alternet former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy clearly won’t be showing any Christmas “Goodwill among men” this holiday season when it comes to FL Congress Critter Matt Gaetz:
“You have [Rep. Matt] Gaetz, who belongs in jail, and you have serious members,” McCarthy said.
Ouch. Not that the state of Florida has been blessing us with a bevy of good, honorable Representatives but when you’ve got McCarthy saying something like that, that Gaetz stands out (clearly) as the worst of the lot it’s worth noting. As we shall see Bratty Matty is already tossing his own bombs back but let’s backtrack for a moment.
Today was debate on expelling George Santos from the House. Tomorrow the vote will take place and one way or the other the issue of the expulsion of George Santos will take a back seat to other House goings on. As I’ve written recently the release of the Ethics Committee report on Santos and this week’s events shoved another Ethics Report that has been looming and could contain bombshells well away from the spotlight.
Matt Gaetz has few if any friends in the House. He has a handful (almost literally) of allies but I doubt any of them consider him a friend. And not a one of them would trust him around a teenage friend or relative! He’s long been the House’s version of Ted Cruz – the most HATED person. More than anyone it was Gaetz who put the House GOP through a humiliating spectacle back in January and slashed the tires of the new Republican majority. Their margin was thin enough they could barely afford a semi-flat tire and like I said Gaetz did a number on all four of the GOP Klown Kar tires.
Gaetz spent the time afterwards making sure former Speaker McCarthy and everyone else know McCarthy’s job and the House’s ability to do damned near anything was at his discretion. And he (Gaetz) spent a long, long time being pissed at McCarthy for not abandoning all rules, protocol and precedent and shutting down an Ethic Inquiry into HIM. If you want to know why Gaetz didn’t pull the trigger on a Motion to Vacate the Chair (take away McCarthy’s Speakership) back in June after the deal the latter struck on the debt ceiling there are two reasons. Gaetz knew there were others who like him believed that THIS time a govt. shutdown would politically damage Democrats instead of the GOP. Wishful thinking of course but reason doesn’t factor in. The important point is that there would (Gaetz, and others) thought they’d have much more leverage to force major concessions from Democrats to avert a shutdown at the end of the fiscal year (Sept. 30) Plus, McCarthy spent the summer finding ways to break his word on the debt ceiling deal.
However, the main reason Gaetz held off on forcing McCarthy’s ouster was he was furioiusly working to get McCarthy to shut down that Ethic Committee investigation. DOJ had evidence but declined to prosecute him on charges of sex with minors as their best witness shied away from exposing herself to what we all know MAGA can throw at someone. An Ethics Committee report might revive all that. So Gaetz reasoning was that if he could short-circuit the Ethics Committee he’d be home free.
By September word was that the Ethics Committee was getting close to wrapping things up and Gaetz wouldn’t be happy with what they’d have to say. There was enough out there that as it became clear Gaetz wanted to force a shutdown and would move against McCarthy if it didn’t happen that members (some) were letting it be known they hoped the Ethics report would be as damning as the rumors suggested. Because it would give them political cover to Expel GAETZ! In the first week of October when Gaetz went ahead and made his move a few even went on the record. They wanted him gone and the fact it took three weeks of additional humiliation for the House GOP to finally fill the Speaker’s position so they could get back to work (What work you ask? That a whole different matter) reports indicated there was a palatable eagerness for that Ethics Report to nail Gaetz to the wall so they could dump him. (His district is safely red and would quickly get filled with a MAGA type) Then all this Santos stuff came up.
Still, going back to the beginning of this there is enough bad blood between Gaetz and McCarthy since January to fill an oil supertanker. I saw yesterday that with the Dec. 8 filing deadline looming McCarthy is going to go home for a week to lick his wounded nuts and talks with family and presumably top advisors on whether he’ll remain in Congress. However, it’s quite clear now if it wasn’t before that McCarthy has ONE goal, ONE piece of unfinished business he wants to get done if as is likely he leaves Congress. (Whether resigning or simply not running for re-election)
Get Matt Gaetz expelled!
As I said Gaetz might be talking tough but he’s got to be worried. I know it’s tempting to think of him as a dumbass and in many ways he is. However, he’s spent a long time purposely antagonizing people including his fellow GOPers. And by crippling McCarthy’s authority from the time he got the Gavel Republican’s (the House) ability to get at least some of the changes they wanted was crippled as well. With McCarthy, instead of trying a “hey, I shouldn’t have made the Speaker selection as big a sh*t show as I did and I DO have priorities but I want to try and help you too” approach Gaetz did the opposite. He took every opportunity to rub McCarthy’s nose in in Freedom Caucus turds. Publicly. Lord knows how bad it was in private!
McCarthy believe it or not has lots of allies in the House. People that are pissed about what happened to him and properly lay it all a Gaetz feet. McCarthy doesn’t just want Gaetz gone from the House, he want him kicked out. To suffer a humiliation even greater than he (McCarthy) has suffered. And if it kick starts a criminal prosecution of Gaetz that would be the cherry on top.
So after this week the Santos show will be over. Only the reviews will be left. That means the spotlight can shift back to Gaetz and McCarthy isn’t even waiting until the weekend! Keep your popcorn cabinet stocked because you’re going to be going through a lot of it.
I’m waiting for the MSM comments on ‘Republicans in disarray’.
when the doj started investigating Goetz everyone focused on the sex aspects. but some of his associates were charged with various financial type crimes. Goetz hired some top tier lawyers all of whom were experts in financial crimes. none had any expertise in sex crimes. it will be interesting to see if the ethics committee looked into anything like that.
For once I agree with Craven Kevin.
DOJ could have subpoenaed the girl and forced her to testify but that would have been cruel. I wouldn’t want to be the minor who brought down Bratty Matty. I lived in the area from 1984 to 19,89. I went back to become a paralegal.at Pensacola Junior College (to go with my two grad degrees). I doubt much has changed. The area,seems to be firmly fixed in 1950 in so.E kind of time warp. Unpleaxantville,if you will The red neck is strong there. I could easily see a gang of Grumpier gang raping her or beating her within an inch of her life. She would have to.move put of the Panhandle or out of state to live her life in peacr. Rechecked never forget a,slight.
I doubt that a bunch of old white men are going to vote to oust Matt for doing what they wished THEY had been able to do.
“Sex with a minor? Where do we sign up?”
Denis, I think that your dictation or typing assistant gave you the wrong word in this essay. You wrote, “They wanted him gone and the fact it took three weeks of additional humiliation for the House GOP to finally fill the Speaker’s position so they could get back to work (What work you ask? That a whole different matter) reports indicated there was a palatable eagerness for that Ethics Report to nail Gaetz to the wall so they could dump him.”
You referred to a “palatable eagerness.” The word “palatable” means “acceptable to the mind.” It may be true that an unfavorable Ethics Report on Gaetz would be acceptable to various House members, but I suspect that you meant “palpable eagerness.” The word “palpable” means “clear to the mind” ( also: obvious, evident, plain). I really think that you meant that the eagerness for an unfavorable Ethics Report was evident to an outsider rather than that it was acceptable to the members.
The two words have similar sounds, so a dictation device might confuse them. If I am wrong and you did mean “palatable,” please correct me. Thank you, Denis.