Another day, another meltdown in the House of Representatives as the Good Ship GOP continues to crash on the shoals — then scuttles over the plains, then climbs the rocky range, then back down and across the desert — until it crashes back out on the next coast. What a long, strange trip this has been for Kevin McCarthy, who was just ousted as Speaker by a vote of 216-210. All eight GOP rebels teamed up with 208 Democrats and McCarthy is no more. At least for now. Things are so Bizarro world that anything can happen.

Now this is classic. Chip Roy calls Matt Gaetz a mother.

I know Abe Lincoln’s rolling in his grave now, so maybe he will rise from it and chase Gaetz through the weeds. I wouldn’t be surprised. I’ve pretty much decided that either I’ve gone barking mad after seven years of doing this blog or the country is and I’m sitting front row, center watching it all, or both. Either way, I’ll just crack open a cold one and watch the passing parade, screaming congress critters, rebels, liars, historical figures, whatever comes across my monitor is fine with me. Why just last night I saw a sketch of Jesus Christ sitting in a courtroom right next to Donald Trump. You think that ruffled my composure? Maybe once it would have, not now. Press Pass:

The Republican-led House of Representatives has not functioned very well—that’s been established. But when it has functioned, it has often been in moments when House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has ditched the Republican hardliners in the Freedom Caucus and their allies to work with moderates across the aisle. In that way, the chamber can still get things done, like avoiding costly government shutdowns or averting a default on the national debt.

The problem, as former top Paul Ryan aide Brendan Buck aptly put in June, is that “what the Freedom Caucus craves more than anything is relevance,” and when they are made to feel irrelevant through bipartisan cooperation, they throw tantrums to make themselves relevant again. Such has been the case not just during the 118th Congress, but increasingly over the past decade.

And this was foreseeable. Matt Gaetz hates McCarthy and was responsible in large part for it taking 15 rounds of voting for McCarthy to obtain the impossible dream of the Speakership.

The motion to vacate is a tool for removing the speaker; the Freedom Caucus required McCarthy to include it in the chamber’s rules package in exchange for their qualified support for his speakership at the beginning of the year. It allows any individual House member to introduce a privileged resolution that forces the chamber to vote on deposing the speaker. In the technical parlance of Congress, the designation of “privileged” means a motion must be voted on or tabled within two days of its introduction. Not everything qualifies as privileged, and for good reason: forcing votes is disruptive to normal business, which can make them attention grabbing and politically volatile, as with un-investigated impeachments.

Even Newt Gingrich told Gaetz that theater was one thing and this was something else altogether. That fell on deaf ears.

After Gaetz introduced the resolution and left, Democrats erupted in laughter on the House floor. Meanwhile, Gaetz was already strutting out on to the Capitol steps, where he basked in the attentions and literal spotlights of a crowd of reporters and cameras, telling them:

You all get all worked up that there’s gonna be some uncomfortable chaotic moment, that I’ll feel pressure from conservatives or Democrats or whomever. I feel the judgment of history. I feel the weight of that. I worry that when the history books are written about this country going down, that my name is gonna be on the board of directors here, and If this country’s going down, and if we’re losing the dollar, I am going down fighting. And I don’t care if that means fighting Republicans, Democrats, the Uniparty, the leadership, the PACs, the lobbyists. I’ve had it.

McCarthy, not for the first time but definitely for the last, misread the room and pushed for a vote. That was a mistake. First, the House rejected a motion to table 208–218, with 11 Republicans joining all Democrats. This immediately prompted a formal vote on the motion to vacate, preceded by an hour of floor speeches, including the batshit ones you saw clips of above.

“Chaos is Speaker McCarthy,” Gaetz railed on the floor. “Chaos is somebody we cannot trust with their word.”

Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), the McCarthy deputy running the time for the pro-McCarthy side, condemned the procedure as “a very sad day.”

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a previous Freedom Caucus leader who in recent years has molded and softened in his activism on the floor in order to carry it out from the position of Judiciary Committee chairman, credited McCarthy with enabling their oversight and pushback on the Biden administration, while condemning Gaetz’s resolution. “I think the speaker has kept his word,” he said. “I think we should keep him as speaker.”

Jordan’s desperate cry went unheeded, while Gaetz’ Bizarro world ploy kept going.

The reading clerk of the House carried out the voice vote one-by-one in alphabetical order. McCarthy lost 216–210, with the following 8 Republicans joining all Democrats in voting against McCarthy:

  • Andy Biggs
  • Ken Buck
  • Tim Burchett
  • Eli Crane
  • Matt Gaetz
  • Bob Good
  • Nancy Mace
  • Matt Rosendale

On the other side of the aisle, Democrats unified in opposition to McCarthy. Their decision not to bail him out follows years of what they see as repeated untrustworthy behavior from him, including but not limited to his efforts to minimize the January 6th attack and undermine the congressional investigation into it, according to sources.

Democrats also view the ordeal as one of McCarthy’s own making. They’re mostly correct about that: McCarthy granted the Freedom Caucus a (still undisclosed) set of concessions during his effort to become speaker back in January, and one of those concessions was to lower the threshold for a motion to vacate to just one member. This creates a huge opening to disrupt congressional businesses over grudges, whether they be political or personal.

With McCarthy’s removal, the fate of the House, the government funding that expires November 17, and much more is up in the air. Until a successor is elected, a speaker pro tempore will preside over the chamber, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.). McHenry was selected by McCarthy himself from a list he prepared, a protocol stemming from a post-9/11 rule

To ensure the continuity of government. McHenry immediately recessed with an angry slam of the gavel and the House is now at a standstill.

What we witnessed today was the first such attempt to remove a speaker in more than 100 years and the first successful one in American history.

Where do we go next? Damn good question. Here’s how unraveled this got today.

Maybe Santos was speaker. Or maybe he will be. Or maybe the two dimensions of political reality, the one where Hillary won and things were sane and this alternate universe where Spock wears a beard and Trump won, will continue to exist and we’ll monitor messages from each as we continue to straddle both worlds.

But there is a bottom line message for McCarthy here: Everything Trump touches dies and you should have stood your ground back when you opposed him on January 6. That was the right move to make. Selling your soul to Trump availed you nothing.

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4 COMMENTS

  2. If this dumbass didn’t try to get all MAGAt cute with all of the sham impeachment talk, he may have been able to pull in a few Dem votes by showing a willingness to compromise on the budget …….but the bogus impeachment was a deal breaker.

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  3. Going on TV on Sunday bashing and blaming the Ds for the shutdown WAS part of the bucketful of deal breakers. Those deal breakers all included lying and going back on promises HE had made.

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  4. I think it would’ve been highly ironic if the Dems had voted to save McCarthy. I mean, let’s face it, one of Gaetz’s complaints was that McCarthy was working with the Dems. Can you just imagine Gaetz’s outrage if McCarthy’s butt had been saved by the Dems? Even more, the fact Gaetz’s action would’ve failed (and possibly led to his own expulsion courtesy of an expedited ethics investigation) and left him seeing just how few people are willing to support him.

    Of course, the Dems–especially Rep Jeffries–should now go on their own offensive and “remind” the entire American public how Matt Gaetz NEEDED their support to get rid of McCarthy. And if the Dems don’t do that, they’ll have missed a great opportunity to defang Gaetz for good. (Maybe a Dem will run against Gaetz and use this vote in the ad: “Matt Gaetz got rid of a Speaker of the House over that Speaker’s working with Democrats and then he needed those very same Democrats to help him get rid of the Speaker. Maybe Matt doesn’t hate Democrats as much as he wants you to believe . . . . .”)

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