“When the law’s on your side, argue the law. When the facts are on your side, argue the facts. When neither are on your side, holler.” — legal adage
Kevin McCarthy is bound and determined to block Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Act, so he launched into a lengthy talk about any and everything from the floor of the House. He started talking at 8:40 p.m. and was still talking at 11:00 p.m. Nancy Pelosi’s office issued a statement referring to McCarthy’s comments as a “temper tantrum” and ripping the Republican leader for doing “everything he could do avoid talking about the deficit reducing, inflation crushing Build Back Better Act”.
“But he did make unhinged claims about what the American people want and need,” the Speaker’s office continued. She linked to polls showing wide spread support for various provisions of the bill.
Unhingery rules the night. Here’s a sampling.
I’m gonna put my phone away now, this might be disrespectful … no wait, f*ck it. pic.twitter.com/U80LqJMpUt
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) November 19, 2021
So the kids can't play outside on a cattle ranch in Bakersfield because why, now? Hoards of migrant aliens coming up from Mexico, or space aliens abducting them? Or both?
— Ursula Faw (@ursulafaw56) November 19, 2021
Two hours into Kevin McCarthy’s unhinged diatribe obstructing passage of the Build Back Better Act, Albert Einstein comes to mind: “If people only talked about what they understood, Earth would be a very quiet place.”
— Rep. Jamie Raskin (@RepRaskin) November 19, 2021
If you took the worst orator in the world
Gave him the worst speech in the world
And made him read it for the longest time in the world
That would be a lot like listening to Kevin McCarthy tonight.
Except, probably better.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) November 19, 2021
Kevin McCarthy has been ranting about #BuildBackBetter for over an hour. This is what he does when he has no agenda. Kevin and his conference haven't presented a single alternate idea to create jobs and cut costs for working families. Democrats deliver and Kevin talks.
— Rep. Val Demings (@RepValDemings) November 19, 2021
McCarthy is trying to do a Mr. Smith Goes To Washington filibuster, but he ain’t no Jimmy Stewart. Any more than Paul Gosar is Alexander Hamilton, an allusion Gosar made yesterday when he mentioned somebody had tried to censure Hamilton back in the day. Not for posting a threatening image of murdering a colleague they didn’t.
The San Joaquin Valley doesn’t have many cattle ranches in McCarthy’s district, or at all. It also isn’t lawless, and McCarthy knows that.