Sometimes in life things are simple and black and white — rarely,, but sometimes. The Wednesday meeting scheduled in the House of Representatives is one of those times, because it will determine the direction of House leadership, meaning a vote on whether the inmates are taking over the asylum for good or whether some shard of dignity and conservatism still stands in the Republican party. Right now there are compelling arguments on both sides of the fence as to which faction will prevail on Wednesday. Daily Beast:
On Wednesday, House Republicans will gather for their first-all member meeting of the new legislative session. Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)—who said after the Capitol riot that Trump bore some responsibility for it—backtracked, and returned fully to the MAGA fold by visiting the ex-president at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday. There, he proclaimed Trump his top ally in winning back the House majority in 2022.
It’s likely, then, that the first topic of the House GOP confab will be Cheney—an “airing of grievances,” as one aide put it—and a debate over whether she should remain in her post as third-ranking member of the House GOP leadership after her vote to impeach Trump.
And don’t forget Jim Jordan is circulating a petition to get rid of Cheney.
“I don’t think any outside observers are taking us seriously as a governing party moving forward,” lamented one House Republican aide, one of four who spoke anonymously to The Daily Beast to describe dynamics candidly. “We’re going to have a ‘conversation’ about Marjorie Taylor Greene, and then vote to remove the top female leader of the party?”
Meanwhile, the ringleaders of the effort to oust Cheney—namely Jordan, along with House Freedom Caucus chairman Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ)—are the same characters who made previous party leaders’ lives miserable, including Cheney’s, as Jordan tried to oust her already last year.
“It’s not a new hobby for Jim Jordan and his friends to try to stir up shit within leadership with the threat of bouncing somebody,” said Brendan Buck, a former top aide to former Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), a leader who was hardly well-liked by the party’s far-right flank. “We’ve heard this kind of thing before.”
Many in the conference feel that these instigators want to fight just for fighting’s sake, less interested in actually removing Cheney than in earning chits with the MAGA base as Trump’s truest remaining defenders in a squishy GOP. “It’s a show for people who want it to be a show,” said one GOP aide.
And of course the point of the show is very clear: Liz Cheney had the hubris to denounce Donald Trump’s fomenting of an insurrection and to vote for his second impeachment. Ergo, she is persona non grata in the pro-Trump camp. Which brings us to the operant question here: Where does Kevin McCarthy stand — besides between a rock and a hard place? He can’t appease Trump forever and defy the hard core Republican community. It’s going to come down to a choice at some point. McCarthy wants to take the easy route, which is to support Trump as opposed to the hard route of rebuilding the GOP. Wednesday’s meeting could be decisive along these lines.
Many observers believe that there are plenty of GOP lawmakers who will agitate for a vote in order to look sufficiently pro-Trump, but will back down and support Cheney when the time comes. “I do think there is a chance she could be ousted, but I think her position is stronger than most people assume,” said former Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL), a Trump-critical Republican who was defeated in 2018.
It’s still pushmi pullyou time at the GOP. They want to stay with Trump because they want to keep the base happy, they can’t stay with Trump because the hard core Trumpers are batshit like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert. What do do, what to do?
Guess we’ll find out in a few days.
Betting against the spawn of Dick Cheney is a sucker bet. What these fools need to worry about is what steps she’ll take to get them out of her hair.
Hunting trip, perhaps?
‘May you live in interesting times.’
Ancient Chinese curse, seemingly superbly appropriate for the extremely divided, chaotically disorganized, Republican party.
As I recall McCarthy was in a high level leadership post when the free-dumb caucus went after Boehner and he was for sure up there when Boehner’s replacement Eric Cantor lost & took a shot at the Majority Leader job but bowed out in favor Ryan. Probably because he knew he didn’t have the votes but I can’t help but wonder if he was stabbing both Boehner and Ryan in the back! If so I imagine the pair of them are taking a measure of satisfaction in seeing McCarthy now in the same squeeze ole Gym Jordan and his pals put them in to. Bookies are probably taking odds on how many days McCarthy has left in his post!
Backstabbers. Hmmm, gee, thank goodness they are taking care of Lady Liberty, the US Constitution, … okay, that was a bad snark. Of course you can’t trust backstabbers. No deals done with them are any good. I miss Mr I pass tobacco money in House Boehner. He had principles, just ones that I mostly don’t share but at least understand. But he had them. Heck even Obama had him in his farewell video. Poor guy had a bunch of clowns and … backstabbers for support.
The hypocrisy knows no bounds with this bunch. How dare Cheney honor her oath to the Constitution they all swore rite???
These assclowns like Greene, Gaetz and Jordan do this for attention…..they are too stupid to legislate so agitating is how they stay in the news.
Then we have that RepubWNJ leader in Arizona Kelli Ward rejecting calls for an “audit” of the recent election she won to remain chair stating, “We don’t have the structure to be able to do an audit.” after screaming for an audit of Biden’s victory in the state.
*shakes head*
Sounds like the Trump method of politicking and being in office.
Maybe if she is ousted, Liz will become a Democrat like Steve Schmidt. Who knows? With the inmates running the RepublICANT Asylum, and the clowns tumbling all over each other, anything can happen.
Never EVER imagined I’d cheer for a closet fascist like anyone named Cheney but I’d just love to see her hold onto her power, then turn all guns on the pond-life scum of Jordan & Gaetz plus their protegees Greene & Boebert. Nothing better than watching neo-Nazis wrestle in the mud.