There is going to be so much gaslighting in the next two years, you are going to swear that you’re in Victorian England. The image you see above is Mike Rogers, (on the right, the guy on the left is a character in Goodfellas) being restrained from physically attacking Matt Gaetz. An Associated Press photographer, Andy Harnik, was there to capture this sweet moment of bonhomie and comradery, Republican style. Rogers was provoked by a comment Matt Gaetz made about fundraising, which you’ll read about below.
And Kevin McCarthy is shining this incident on. Yes, Kevin is in the catbird seat now. he’s smiling. He doesn’t have a care in the world. The only problem is that he doesn’t know he’s Tweety and Sylvester is crouching in his own conference, Several of them, as a matter of fact. But let Kevin have his day in the sun. As weird as this has all begun, it surely cannot end well. New York Times:
The dramatic moment was captured on C-SPAN’s video cameras, which, lacking the typical restraints placed upon them in a House with a speaker, were free to show whatever moments from the floor its operators deemed newsworthy.
Mr. Gaetz had emerged as the most outspoken critic of Mr. McCarthy, lambasting him in increasingly vitriolic and personal terms. He had mocked how Mr. McCarthy has “sold shares of himself” for power and called the Californian the “LeBron James of special interest fund-raising.”
Let me just interject this here. For once I agree with Matt Gaetz. Read this article by Steve Schmidt. It describes McCarthy and his buddy Jeff Miller. Miller is McCarthy’s boyhood friend and a K Street lobbyist. Here are a few excerpts.
Axios reported that a threat was made to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce by Kevin McCarthy — and almost certainly delivered through Jeff Miller. The once gregarious Miller has become flush with the feelings of power that come from being the largest fundraiser and bundler in America for both Donald Trump and the Republican Congress. It is common knowledge in Washington, DC, that lobbyist Jeff Miller routinely calls elected representatives and issues diktats and threats against them, while directing their votes.
This is how the game is played. It is exactly the basis for the threat demanding the Chamber of Commerce CEO be fired lest the American business community be retaliated against by the putative Speaker and his lobbyist enforcer who they must pay enormous retainers to in order to gain the favor and attention necessary to avoid being harmed by government.
The corruption is spectacular. This is precisely the Tom Delay and Jack Abramoff model of abusing power updated to fit the ambitions of the two provincial hustlers from Bakersfield. They couldn’t wait for the votes to be counted before baring their fangs, intentions and malice as a preface to their abuse of political power and high office.
Schmidt concludes that lobbyist Miller and his “provincial hustler” boyhood friend, McCarthy, are corrupt as hell. There is no question but that the Speaker of the House is one of the biggest alligators in the Washington swamp. What a shame he’s got so many people wanting to make him into shoes and purses.
McCarthy is going to be to the erosion of this particular institution like carbolic acid is to an esophagus. I don’t know how deep the corruption goes, but I’m sure we’ll find out.
Gaetz didn’t take pieces from McCarthy to buy his (and others in his gang) vote/permission to be Speaker – he made McCarthy carves out huge chunks of himself. Money isn’t the only thing of value McCarthy had to trade and Gaetz knew it. Poor Irony which conservatives killed long ago simply can’t rest in peace. Once again Irony has been dug up from the grave so Republicans could shit all over it yet again!
I am reminded of one fave Twilight Zone episodes, “Of Late, I Think Of Cliffordville”. When a vicious tycoon brings up the standard devil’s bargain price of the soul, his infernal travel agent Ms. Devlin pulls out his file. She informs him that his past actions have, on a piecemeal basis, already given them his soul. THAT’S McCarthy right now.
Gaitz was only mad because these funds were used against his faction of the insurectionist traitors.
And not always consistently. You dig around and I’ll bet that Gaetz was getting his fair share of those funds (even as others in “his faction” were getting shafted by the donors).
Gaetz is just as much a part of the “swamp” that he loves to deride as McCarthy or any of the other GOPers that were in Congress during Trump’s residency. And the Congresscritters elected along with Trump in 2016? When they voted to confirm Trump’s various Cabinet members and judicial candidates, they joined the “swamp” as well.
Drumpf, Gaetz, and all the rest of the MAGAts that keep rabbiting about “drain the swamp” are on beyond swampy themselves. More like an open cesspool.
“The only problem is that he doesn’t know he’s Tweety and Sylvester is crouching in his own conference,”
Bad analogy there, Ursula. VERY bad analogy. Or you haven’t watched a Tweety and Sylvester cartoon in a long while. Tweety ALWAYS won out. No matter what Sylvester did, Tweety always came out the winner.
McCarthy could only hope to be Tweety. Tweety NEVER had to make a deal with others to win; he did have a hell of a lot of good luck (especially if Granny was involved) but never made deals with someone else to beat Sylvester. (There were a few cartoons where The Dog* made the story a three-way battle but it’s not like Tweety specifically went to The Dog and said something like “If you’ll deal with the puddytat, here’s what I’ll do for you.)
*”The Dog” was called “Butch” in some cartoons and “Spike” in others and occasionally varied slightly in appearance from one cartoon to another. Usually his appearances in a Tweety/Sylvester cartoon were basically the “hapless bystander” whose involvement came about because a T&S fight crossed his path.
My analogy would be McCarthy thinking he’s the Road Runner when he’s actually Wile E. Coyote.
Wait till the bill from “Acme” for all those “how to get so-and-so to vote for me’ kits comes due!
Republicans take care of the rich and Democrats take care of the poor, that’s the way it’s always been .