The House Democrats’ Next Potential Dilemma. To Bounce Or Not To Bounce Matt Gaetz?

Once the holiday break is over, keep an eye out for this one, because it could explode quickly, just like George Santos. And if it does, it will once again place Hakeem Jefferies and the Democrats in the position of power, but also on the horns of a dilemma.

I have written previously that while George Santos was the prime target, the moderate GOP base was white hot furious at Bratty Matty Gaetz, and wanted him gone too. They were furious at Gaetz for his blatant d*ck move in humiliating Cave-In McCarthy through 15 rounds of voting to become House Speaker, and even more furious with Gaetz for pulling an even bigger dick move in ousting him from the Speakership after making his job impossible, only to lead to a humiliating public three week debacle to find a replacement.

But even if the Freedom caucus are as dumb as a box of rocks, at least the moderates seem to have learned from their recent history. The first failed vote to oust Santos was basically a procedural test vote to see how the land lay. The second vote was a more serious move to oust him, and it failed again, for one simple reason.

Look, George Santos is a sad, pathetic 3rd rate grifter, and a total *sshole to boot. But expelling someone from congress is basically the political equivalent of the death penalty in a criminal trial. And you don’t execute somebody based on indictments. Many GOP members who hate Santos wanted due process in order to give him the Denver Boot.

And they got it. The House Ethics Committee final report on Santos was even more damning than the federal indictments. In fact that report will likely lead to more federal indictments. That final report was the cover everybody was looking for.

And guess who else is under an active House Ethics Committee investigation? None other than Bratty Matty Gaetz. In fact, the genesis of Gaetz’s almost diseased hatred for McCarthy is that McCarthy wouldn’t agree to using his leverage to quash the investigation against Gaetz in return for Gaetz handing him the Speakers gavel with a unanimous vote in round one. And guess what? Word is that the House Ethics Committee final report on Gaetz is due out sometime in January.

If it’s anywhere near as damning as the one against Santos, then the long knives are going to be out for Gaetz. And since the GOP moderate members are learning from their history lessons, they already know that they’re going to need the help of the Democrats if they want to pull this off.

And that places the Democrats in what could be a sticky strategic position. Not because of the power dynamic. From the day McCarthy was sworn in, the Democrats were secure in the knowledge that anything the GOP wanted to do had to go through them. The Democrats problem is what is in their own best interests?

Remember this. In order to expel a member, the rules require a 2/3 vote of the House, or 300 votes. If the Democrats had been united, the GOP moderates could likely have pulled together the 82 votes in the first ballot, almost certainly in the 2nd ballot to oust Santos.

The question for the Democrats politically was Why would they? While it was just a matter of indictments and allegations, Santos was a very comfortable anchor to have tied around the GOP House’s neck, especially the five moderate members in districts surrounding Santos’s, and thereby getting spattered with Santos’s sludge. It was only after the release of the House Ethics Committee final report, which provided due process in showing Santos clearly guilty that it made sense for the Democrats to join along and get this carbuncle off of the ass of the House’s reputation.

Now the vote for the ouster of McCarthy was entirely another kettle of fish. When Gaetz gleefully called for the floor vote to oust McCarthy, every Democrat fell in line to boot him. The GOP moderates lambasted the Democrats for ousting an effective Speaker just to score political points!

Ummm, question, dipsh*ts. Why wouldn’t they? After all, this is politics, not skittle bowl. The whole point is to make decisions and cast votes that work to your advantage, even when you’re in the minority. Not a single Democrat voted for McCarthy. And booting him gave the Democrats exactly what they wanted, a three week sh*tshow of GOP incompetence and dysfunction.

But with any attempt to oust Gaetz, these same GOP moderate whiner bags that blasted the Democrats for their perfidy in ousting McCarthy are going to be back on bended knee to ask for Democratic help to dump Gaetz. Only this time, there are conflicting issues that muddy the best Democratic strategy for dealing with Gaetz. Let’s take a look.

With Santos, the decision was a no brainer. Santos was a flash in the pan in a normally Democratic district where GOP gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin overperformed, and dragged Santos over the finish line on his coattails. The district is being re-redistricted by court order, and the Democrats are likely to take it in the Special election in February, and hold it next November. Booting Santos now gives the Democrats a chance to get one of their own in in February, and let him build his districtwide persona for next November.

But Gaetz doesn’t present that kind of possibility. Bratty Matty is from a reliably red district that has reelected him repeatedly. If the Democrats help boot Gaetz, they are highly unlikely to flip that seat in a March or April Special Election, and even less likely to flip or retain it next November. Therefore, why bother? Gaetz is almost as corrosive and hated of a figure as Santos, properly used other Florida incumbents in swing districts can have Gaetz used against them. Let sleeping dogs lie, he’s the GOP’s problem.

Except no. Because Gaetz, along with the despicable Gym Bag Jordan, are the founding partners of the Freedom caucus. But it’s Gaetz who is the actual brains and strategist behind the Freedom caucus. Jordan is just another performance artist in congress, he’s like Machine Gun Marjie and Pistol Packin’ Lauren, he’s never authored a bill in his tenure in congress. He’s in it for the money and media notoriety.

Gaetz on the other hand is different, and poses an ever present danger to democracy. For starters, Gaetz is already filthy rich by his family connection, he doesn’t need to grift. Also, Gaetz’s father was, and still is a former Florida state Senator and a major political powerhouse in Florida. Gaetz is a purely political creature, and his ideology is MAGA. Gaetz is Trump’s Gestapo in the House. He lays down the ideological MAGA law, and then uses his Trump muscle to ensure compliance. And that’s why there is no real possibility of compromise in the House.

Which is exactly why, if the opportunity presents itself, the Democrats should vote in lock step to expel Matt Gaetz. Because it doesn’t matter what GOPtard replaces Gaetz in the seat next year. The critical thing is that they won’t be Gaetz! They won’t be the trusted ideological MAGA messenger for Trump, and they won’t have the trust of Trump to use his political hammer to keep everybody else in line. Getting rid of Gaetz is like cutting off Medusa’s head, the snakes pose no threat.

And there is no one else to take Gaetz’s place. Jordan doesn’t give a sh*t about the MAGA ideology and he never has, he’s a performance artist. And so are Machine Gun Marjie, Pistol Packing Lauren, OberFuhrer Gosar, and all the rest of them. They’re all performance artists out on their own little grifts. There is nobody there who could separate the MAGA philosophy from the Milk Duds recipe. There is no one left in the Freedom caucus to effectively spread the good word, and nobody to be able to enforce compliance with it.

This may well be the moderate GOP’s last desperate attempt to retake control of the House GOP caucus. And if it is, it’s a goddamned good one, the they saved the best for last. Because if they’re able, with Democratic help to expel Gaetz, then the rest of the Freedom caucus resembles nothing more than the mall parking lot scene in Day of the Dead. Just a bunch of brain dead Trombies bouncing around off of each other in a parking lot. And it they then coordinate with Democrats to actually get some late sh*t done, they may just have enough to run on to save their seats in November. And make the MAGA philosophy look just like that dead muskrat on top of Traitor Tot’s pointy head to a country desperate to see their government work again. Don’t touch that dial.

I thank you for the privilege of your time.