Kevin McCarthy Wants Payback From Those Who Took His Gavel

House GOP infighting continues and another clash is now out in the open. Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy sold his soul, his pride and/or dignity and maybe did things I don’t want to think about (no Brain Bleach on hand) to get the Speaker’s gavel. You remember the sustained ritual humiliation the craziest of the Freedom Caucus put him through just to get that gavel. Matt Gaetz led all that, and also the humiliation of McCarthy when his “Precious”, that Speaker’s gavel was taken away. Gaetz rounded up some other GOPers to oust McCarthy as Speaker and now ole Kevin seems to have regrown part of his spine. He’s out to take away eight of his former colleague’s SEATS.

That’s right folks. According to uInterview News McCarthy is out for revenge against eight current House GOPers. Gaetz of course is at the top of his list, but without help getting him out will be a tall task. Remember, this all came about because Gaetz was pissed that McCarthy wouldn’t break the rules (and law?) to intervene in a House Ethics Committee investigation into his (Gaetz’s) sexual misdeeds and possible crimes.  Govt. funding, as in the deal McCarthy cut to get all that off the table so his caucus could concentrate on other issues that might help the GOP was just an excuse.

The point is that we kept hearing that the report might drop at anytime and it was going to be bad for Gaetz. Maybe enough so that DOJ would get serious about dealing with him, or even worse (if you’re Gaetz) cause him to lose a primary. (It’s a totally safe GOP district) So Bratty Matty rounded up some pals, knowing Democrats would almost certainly vote in lockstep for Hakeem Jeffries and McCarthy was GONE. His precious gavel was his to wield no more. A lot of House Republicans were worried and for more than one reason.

It turns out all their fears were justified. The process of finding and voting in a new Speaker was a drawn out sh*t show. Worse, even had he remained in the House much of McCarthy’s prior prodigious fundraising be reduced as he’d just be one of the gang. Worse they feared (again correctly) McCarthy might say to hell with it and resign his seat. And a fundraising problem would become a OMG we’re screwed disaster. Which it has.

An already almost useless House became even more so, and about the only thing they got right was expelling George Santos. That didn’t stop the disfunction OR the dissatisfaction with a lot of old timers. There’s been plenty of infighting already with a couple dozen members either in “Biden districts” or in districts where strong Democratic turnout could get them voted out and Trump’s forced them into tough votes that have further endangered them. They need money and RNC support and with McCarthy gone it’s not going to be coming.

The handwriting has been going up on the wall that come next January Republicans will again be the minority Party, at least in the House. It was apparent even before it became official that Trump would take over the RNC. Without McCarthy out there doing House specific fundraising all of them were on their own. As a result additional resignations have ensued and now the GOP majority is as thin as tissue paper. It might even be lost for good!

Now, McCarthy could just sit out there at home in California and enjoy the show.  If he felt scorned, just watching his former gang flail about helplessly would have provided a chance to just relax and feel smug. But now we know “Craven Kevin” isn’t so craven after all. He’s out for PAYBACK:

McCarthy is out for revenge against the group that he has dubbed the “Crazy Eight” or “Gaetz Eight” and its leader, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida), who introduced the motion to have the speaker vacated.

The former House speaker left Congress two months later. This ended up shrinking his party’s majority in the chamber.

McCarthy’s ally, Brian Walsh, is working to round up primary challengers to the “Gaetz Eight.”

As I’ve said getting Gaetz out, at least via the electoral process (whether primary or general election) would be a probably too heavy lift. However, McCarthy has major fundraising skills and connections. With some deep pocket donors who themselves are sick of the crazy in the GOP. With Trump sucking up all the small dollar donations from average conservatives, and pretty much blowing off assistance to down ballot candidates like with polling, GOTV and administration McCarthy has perhaps more clout than some who went against him realized. It seems he’s identified three primary targets, at least to start with:

The ousted speaker is prepared to mobilize his still-sizable donor network to arrange primary challenges. He is focusing on three representatives specifically. His allies believe that Reps. Nancy Mace (R-South Carolina), Bob Good (R-Virginia) and Eli Crane (R-Arizona) are currently the most vulnerable targets and are hoping to recruit other Republican candidates in their districts.

Although not listed above Tim Burchett is singing the blues. Like Mace he was in McCarthy’s camp and someone the former Speaker had counted on. Mistakenly as it turned out. So in addition to helping engineer Mace’s former chief of staff into challenging her, he’s going to be pitching in with the efforts of a GOP group with some heft to take out Burchett as well. Burchett has admitted to CNN’s Manu Raju that donations have been way off:

“Some very wealthy folks, and they’ve been very kind to me in the past” have stopped contributing, the Tennessee Representative stated. “And I hope that we can mend the fences.”

Burchett you might recall has other problems. He’s being sued for falsely accusing man as being the shooter in the Kansas City mass shooting at the Chief’s victory celebration. Now this. Getting back to Gaetz, McCarthy can’t do much to keep him from being re-elected. However, he’s also quite clear there needs to be consequences for all eight of those who got him booted from the Speakership. Gaetz in particular. He made a rather pointed reference to that ethics investigation. No doubt because all indications were the report would be devastating for Gaetz and the conference would have no choice but to expel him. Kicking Santos out first seemed to forestall that, and the GOP majority narrowing even more might seem to insulate him even more.

Still, there’s that possibility dangling out there that one of two things will happen. More GOPers will decide to resign early and there would be a sudden GOP majority. The other is even wilder sounding but actually more plausible. MTG makes her motion to Vacate the Chair a privileged one that forces a vote on keeping Johnson. Hard as it is to believe there are a number of GOPers who apparently see little chance of remaining in the majority anyway and would cross over and vote for Jeffries! Just to have some normalcy and in those swing districts give them a fighting chance by displaying some actual bipartisanship.

If either of THOSE things were to happen that changes things. That ethics report that was “almost ready” for release when McCarthy got booted has been… well you have to ask how many times do the need to check and double check that all the “i”s have been dotted and “t”s crossed? I think it’s safe to say the GOPers are making sure the thing stays bottled up. For now and for the obvious reason. However, if Jeffries suddenly becomes Speaker then that’s it. The report will drop and my oh my what fun we’ll witness. Frankly I think McCarthy is HOPING for it but he’s being coy for now:

McCarthy said that, in the end, it is up to the House GOP members to decide if Gaetz should be expelled but added that he feels the conference cannot “heal: if no one is held accountable for removing him.

It’s clear that by going public McCarthy is more than a jilted lover. Like I said he’s out to cause trouble over having been jilted. Dare we hope he decides to just go ahead and engineer an early end to the House’s GOP majority?  A lot of them are privately and quietly counting on him to help with fundraising. If he says something along the lines of sorry but you didn’t help me keep those crazies in line when I needed you so you’re on your own. Maybe the Party getting humiliated will do everyone some good. And come next year when Trump is beaten and the Democrats are back in control of everything the rebuilding can start.

Hell, it might be the one chance McCarthy has to leave a legacy other than having been the most feckless and humiliated Speaker in history.  Well, that’s some serious speculation on my part. For now however there are eight people, at least four or five of which McCarthy is out for and which he can cut off at the knees. And he intends to do just that.

Let the circular firing squad continue.