And So Dies The Freedom Caucus. Hopefully Slowly And Painfully

I’m not sure exactly when the top of Mt. Saint MAGA is going to blow off, but when it does, it’s going to be magnificent to watch. And you can tell simply because the early steam vents blowing open are stunning.

Well, true to form, Gym Bag Jordan stepped back into the ring for the final round, and a TKO. This time he lost by 27 votes, losing five more former supporters. Jordan immediately grabbed his security blanket, a closed door caucus meeting. where he vented his overflowing spleen before firing the kill shot into his own heart. He held one more secret ballot, with the question Do you want Jim Jordan to continue to run for Speaker? The final tally? YES 80   NO 116. Jordan then pulled the plug for good.

While at the moment the GOP House caucus is working about as well as a motherboard put together by a four year old, here’s the current plan as I last heard it. Over the weekend the caucus is holding what casting directors would refer to as a cattle call, where anybody and everybody can put their name in the hat. On Monday they’ll hold a closed door candidate open forum to let each candidate lay out their vision, and then yet another secret ballot, hoping to find a consensus candidate for a Tuesday floor vote. That’s the plan. Right. And I plan on marrying a girl wearing ruby slippers, and good luck with that one too.

The Freedom caucus is withering on the vine, and they know it. By opening up the candidacy list to the entire GOP conference, the Freedom caucus is admitting that it has nobody it trusts that it can autocratically ram through to 217 votes, and for the first time they’re on defense. They’re trying to marshal their strength to mitigate the damage, and leave them with some form of control still intact.

And it’s not working well. In yesterday’s closed door meeting it was reported, and later conformed that while former Squeaker Cave-In McCarthy was speaking, Gaetz stood up to interrupt. Sit down and shut up! McCarthy screamed at him, and the next thing you know half the caucus was screaming at Gaetz, and it was reported that one member even appeared to lunge at Gaetz, maybe to knock him on his ass? Helpful Hint. When a Gestapo private screams at Heinrich Himmler, and the other privates all join in, you’re now a general without an army anymore.

The longer this has gone on, the more pathetic the performance of Bratty Matty Gaetz has gotten. Early on in the process, especially in the fallout of the McCarthy ouster, Gaetz tried to stay in the background and let the Jordan nomination debacle take the heat. But as the attacks have gotten more personal and frequent, he’s in front of the cameras again, with his signature sneer and sarcasm, but now it rings hollow. Gaetz is scared sh*tless and you can see it in hisw eyes.

But today’s performance was spectacularly imbecilic, even for Bratty Matty. After Jordan’s final crash and burn, Gaetz went to the stairs of the Capitol where he angrily lambasted the traitors. Gaetz angrily told the media that it was ridiculous when a handful of 20 or so holdouts were capable of denying the will of 90% of the caucus! Conveniently ignoring the fct that it was Gaetz and 19 other blockheads who put the other 200 members of the caucus through 17 miserable rounds of balloting to elect McCarthy in January. And only Gaetz and seven other boneheads that toppled McCarthy from the Speakership. Man! Talk about being two-faced.

This is going to be a mosh pit special going forward, and will end in disaster for Gaetz and Jordan, but there are two critical things to take note of. First, The last I checked this afternoon of the 10 members nominating themselves for Speaker, none of them are card carrying far right MAGAt’s. Which means that the moderates are leaning towards candidates that would be more palatable for Democratic support for a caretaker Speaker for the next 14 months. Which leaves the Freedom caucus pissing everybody else off by making it impossible for anybody to get 217 under a purity test, demanding that the nominee be someone who can get 217 votes solely from the GOP caucus. Which won’t work.

So far I haven’t heard anybody else in the media making this point, which means you might be hearing it here firwt. The most critical element of this whole kerfuffle, as far as I’m concerned is that last secret ballot today on Jordan’s continued candidacy, and here’s why it’s so important.

Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has made it crystal clear that the Democrats will not carry the water for the GOP to solve their Speakership problems. This is the same demand the Democrats laid down for both the Debt Ceiling vote as well as the continuing resolution on the budget. A combined GOP vote of 116 votes for a moderate Speaker candidate would satisfy the Democrats demand that the GOP provide at least half of the vote. For the first time, there is concrete proof that with the right candidate, the numbers for a bipartisan Speaker match up.

This is going to go down to the wire for the same reason everything involving the GOP House does. The GOP is too damn dirt stupid to get off of its fat ass and do anything until the ceiling falls in. But this time I finally get the feeling that it will be the Freedom caucus that will be the only ones left in the rubble.