Kevin McCarthy has reached his goal of the Speakership of the House, but getting something and keeping something are two different propositions entirely. The irony of My Kevin’s (as Trump calls him) position is that the action that got him the Speakership is now the same action that will lose him the Speakership, if he does it again. And that is being on the Trump bandwagon.
McCarthy dutifully pilgrimaged to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring, after his momentary lapse in worship when he told members of the House that Trump was responsible for the January 6 riot. Red and pink Starbursts in hand, McCarthy courted Trump and Pope Donald gave his blessing and his benediction.
Now the same Donald is running for president for the third time and he’s expecting McCarthy’s endorsement and McCarthy isn’t giving it. Just remember, Kevin, when Trump goes down in flames, he doesn’t intend to go alone. But you probably already know that. Politico:
While scores of McCarthy’s members have already backed Trump, plenty of other Republicans are steering clear of the polarizing former president in the GOP primary. That camp includes virtually every swing-seat lawmaker, many of whom fear that embracing Trump could spell their electoral doom next fall — as well as allies of Trump’s rivals, from Ron DeSantis to Doug Burgum.
So as much as McCarthy might risk alienating Trump by staying on the sidelines, the California Republican also provides the most political cover he can to his vulnerable members. The pressure on the speaker to choose sides will only grow throughout the summer, though, as Trump locks down support across the House GOP and questions intensify about why McCarthy isn’t fully embracing the man who helped deliver him the speakership.
Another House conservative, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said that a Trump endorsement might only make matters worse for McCarthy and his “incredibly split” conference.
“The reality is, if we get Trump, there’s probably a good possibility that we don’t keep the House” next fall, said this conservative, who has not endorsed in the primary. “McCarthy knows that. He knows that if Trump’s on top of the ticket, that we probably lose New York and California. … If we lose the House, there’s no way McCarthy stays as minority leader. He’s gone.”
That’s the bottom line. McCarthy can do the arithmetic as well as anybody else. The House is now in GOP hands by the slimmest of margins. George Santos is almost certainly going to be gone and Lauren Boebert faces the same challenger, who only lost by a little over 500 votes, and he’s amassing an impressive war chest against her. So she may be toast.
There are also a number of Republicans who voted against student debt cancellation and they are now vulnerable. So the slim House majority could vanish and McCarthy along with it.
McCarthy may be the Speaker now but being an ongoing power in the House, on these facts, is pretty much of a mirage.
Whether to go down in flames with Trump or possibly live to survive in a post-Trump world are his choices. It will be interesting to see what he does with this Catch-22. He’s screwed either way.
It couldn’t happen to a nicer lickspittle.
The man has had the strangest “ascent” in politics that I’ve ever seen. What was it, 15 rounds of voting before he got elected? And they can pull him off the podium anytime they want to? I can’t see the likes of Nancy Pelosi, Tip O’Neil, Chuck Schumer, Harry Reid, anybody who has ever been either a House Speaker or a Senate Majority Leader putting up with that level of bullsh*t — or even close to it. The people I just named understood the basic concept of a unified caucus and McCarthy is running a zoo.
McCarthy sold his soul to become a less-than-one term Speaker of the House. Qevin forgot the Third Rule: Never spend more for an acquisition than you have to.
I don’t even know if he can get re-elected in Bakersfield. There is a high crime rate there and a lot of McCarthy’s constituents are less than thrilled with him, shall we say?
Maybe he should go back into the sandwich shoppe business and call it Qevin’s. That would be Qomical. :))
Trump’s insurmountable guilt against evidence in so many ways at once, is going to make his physical and mental survival a miracle in any event …
Being the president after so many before and now comments and and actions that threaten our security and these United States, I’m wondering how the GOP can post Trump as a viable candidate at all … Searching the rules of presidential qualifications, I only find, at this moment, he IS a citizen, but acts like he has dual citizenship in Russia, he more than qualifies as old enough, even though he continues to act like a three year old screaming and stomping his feet, until staff, still moping up his last mess, tell him he IS the greatest and everyone else is pushing hoaxes and false claims …
I’ve NEVER seen such a large group of vocal and wrong Congress people riding a condemned roller coaster through the posted signs warning about a 20 foot missing section of track ahead … There is NO WAY our Nation can tolerate this imbecile in the White House again …
The GOP IS heading into the PERFECT STORM, a huge load of fresh fish on board and the only way out is straight down …
We are living through an incredible era in American history. The willful blindness of the Republican party is breathtaking. And this move to “expunge” Trump’s impeachments blows my mind. History is history. He was impeached. Twice. What do they think they’re going to do, rewrite reality?
This is some toxic and scary stuff going on. It’s like Alice in Wonderland, “the words mean what you want them to mean.” With the GOP “history is what you wished it was.”
What’s always amazing to me is to what lengths these people will go in order to hold onto power. They say/do anything they think will get them the golden ring, twisting themselves into pretzels, lying, selling out their souls, their morals, ethics. Can you imagine living like that? The stress, the fear, the paranoia? Life is too damned short to wear tight shoes.
Um, Ursula, about this:
“Now the same Donald is running for his third term and he’s expecting McCarthy’s endorsement and McCarthy isn’t giving it.”
Trump is NOT running for his third term–he only served ONE term (and, as the French would say, “Quel désastre!”). He’s making a third run for the White House (his first landed him there and his second got his @$$ dumped out of there–no matter what he’s claimed for the past 2 1/2 years). And, according to the Constitution (which could not possibly be amended in time to let him do otherwise*), he couldn’t run for a third term even if he wanted to. It took almost 4 full years for the 22nd Amendment (which limited Presidents to 2 full terms in office) to make it from Congressional approval to getting the requisite 3/4 of the states to ratify. Since it takes a 2/3 majority vote in each House of Congress to put forth an amendment, it’ll be next to impossible for the 22nd to actually be repealed.
*For Trump to have even considered a third term, he would’ve had to pressure his Congressional lackeys into proposing a repeal of the 22nd Amendment in 2017 and then hope it got its 2/3 vote in both houses of Congress AND managed to sweep through 38 state legislatures in absolute record time. The 22nd was originally proposed after the GOP took both the House and Senate in 1946 and decided to make sure there’d never be another FDR and enough Democrats in both houses of Congress supported the idea of presidential term limits (there were, after all, a number of Democrats who didn’t really support FDR’s 3rd run in 1940) to ensure the necessary 2/3 vote–but that was in that faraway, mythical era of “bipartisanship”. The state ratification, however, got somewhat hung up; half the necessary 36 states ratified the amendment within just 2 months but state legislatures operate under some arcane rules and schedules so it ended up taking nearly 3 more full years to get another 18 states to ratify.
“he couldn’t run for a third term even if he wanted to”
That’s just it, Trump and his minions at the 2020 Republican “Convention” were chanting “TWELVE more years.” He thinks he entitled to be El President por Vita, and he’ll declare himself as such if elected again.
Repealing the XXII Amendment isn’t the only way to have a “third term”. There’s always just overthrowing the government and the whole Constitution at once, and Dipshit has already tried that once, January 6, 2021.
He’s running for the third time. I’ll change it. In all truth, it’s surprising I don’t make more stupid errors like this one.
An utter disgrace and undeserving of the name Kevin. 😁
Damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t. A real dim bulb has to make a decision. lol
Karma’s a real bitch Kevie.