With the state of play in the House at risk for the 4th straight day in a row, I think it’s time to highlight the major player in this fight, and expose some of what they want, and why they can’t get it.
As you all already know, it’s the 20 member or so Freedom Caucus that is causing all of this trouble. They are the smallest caucus in the GOP House, but they’re by nature nihilists, and with a margin this big they have the power to hold up a Speaker from being named. Who the hell are the Freedom Caucus?
Basically the Freedom Caucus is a rebranding of a group that rode into power in the 2010 election as The Tea Party. Let’s be clear, there is no Tea Party. The Tea Party was an astroturf movement set up by the Koch Suckers to fight possible new regulations from then President Obama that could dent the Koch brothers bottom line. The Tea Party Caucus had no agenda, no platform, and no policies. Their sole purpose was to fuck up the gears of the House to keep from costing the Koch’s any money.
And that’s exactly what they are today. Their basic goal is to return power to the people, which basically means to neuter the US congress of having any control to function as a legislative unit. In the style of two shirts Steve Bannon, their mantra is burn baby, burn when it comes to the US government.
Which brings us to today. What the Freedom Caucus believes is that the actual power of the House resides in the members. It is up to the members in the majority to set the rules and procedures, and basically turn the office of the Speaker of the House to nothing more than a ceremonial position, kind of like the British monarchy, or the Vice President counting the electoral votes.
And that’s what they’re doing right now in their ongoing negotiations with wimp ass McCarthy. They want to name faithful toadies to the Rules Committee, so that they can personally control what bills come to the floor. They want to make changes to the rules that could derail the kind of 11th hour deal that McConnell cut with the Democrats for the $1.3 trillion Omnibus Bill, and rammed it to the House to pass. And they want to pass a rule that any one member of congress can call for basically a Vote of no confidence to trigger a floor vote to remove the Speaker.
Here’s a practical example of how this shit works. One of the things that the GOP dominated House is going to have to deal with in September is extending the debt limit. Which is something that every member of the nihilistic Freedom Caucus is sworn to oppose to the death. Let’s say that the Senate passes a debt ceiling increase deal. McCarthy knows that he can’t run the global economy into the ditch, and so he calls the bill to the floor for a vote. All it takes is one Teabagger to call for a vote of no confidence to grind the whole thing to a halt. There will be plenty more than 6 moderate GOP members to join the united Democrats to defend McCarthy on the vote, and to pass the bill, but if the Senate waits too long to get the bill to the House, we could blow through the debt ceiling while all of the House procedural bullshit plays out.
The Freedom Caucus is trying to turn the position of Speaker of the House into a ceremonial job. And because Kreepy Kevin McCarthy is so craven and cowardly for that gavel, it’s beginning to look like he might actually deal with the Freedom caucus rather than forming a coalition deal with the Democrats. And if he does, and it works, then Kevin McCarthy will go down in history as the Doormat Speaker of the House. Whatever you do, don’t touch that dial.
If the old guard repubs have any sense, they will find a moderate that the dems can agree to and take control of the situation.
That would be a good idea, but I don’t know if it will happen. Mona Charen, who’s a political writer currently at the Bulwark doesn’t think so. She said, this ‘“is not between the extremists and the establishment. It’s between two camps of extremists.” The grownups are gone: excommunicated or self-exiled. What’s left is MTG and George Santos vs. Matt Gaetz and Paul Gosar — nothing but deplorables as far as the eye can see. And whatever happens now, the extremists/grifters/crazies/nihilists on both teams are going to feel emboldened and empowered. And, no, there won’t be a deal with the Dems.’”
I honestly don’t know what’s going to happen. I thought that before now that McCarthy would have stood aside and Steve Scalise or Fred Upton or somebody else would be running. Now I don’t know what is going on.
The newly-elected purple district Republicans will be the ones to watch from here on. Near as I can tell, most don’t belong to either camp, have no real authority and will probably break first if this goes on long enough. McCarthy is a terrible negotiator with sucky vote counting skills and zero leverage left. He’ll all but guarantee his own defeat at the current trajectory of events.
It’s a different Kevin but the situation and sentiment hold up almost five decades later. I keep hoping someone with good computer skills will superimpose McCarthy’s head in the place of Kevin Bacons, and also the letters “Never Kevin’s” with “Freedom Caucus” in parentheses below it on Neidemeyer’s robe. Like right freaking now so that by noon tomorrow it’s gone viral!
Christopher Bouzy, data analyst geek who is launching Spoutible, has this pegged as going into next week and that McCarthy will never be Speaker. I’m inclined to agree. The whole failed gambit from Club For Growth should have been your sign: whatever traditional levers and mechanisms could hold back or steer the Republicans are GONE. But that doesn’t automatically mean the termites of MAGA or Freedumb Caucus get the control. Even if they wind up ousting Kevin after (somehow) putting him in place, that only means we’ll be right back here again soon enough.
We’re off the map here, friends. Here there be dragons…well, komodo dragons, but still…
He might be correct. On the other hand NPR was interviewing one of the ‘pubes in the House who claims negotiations are ongoing and he will be Speaker soon. Guess it depends on who’s doing the talking. I wonder if even McCarthy is stupid enough to allow the “five ‘pubes can oust the Speaker” rule change but even if he is, I can’t imagine the rule lasting very long into this session of congress.
Wait…you actually believe those Republicans to tell the truth at this point? Remember, Spike, that this is the same hymn they’ve been singing to the media since the start, scum like Gaetz notwithstanding. Acting as if has only made them look ridiculous. So take with a full shaker of salt at all times.