OMG. If I could put laughing emojis in a headline, I would have done it with this one. Friends, we are in the 246th year of this republic and in the 2,023rd year of Our Lord and the only thing that is saving us from chaos, from complete existential madness, or so Newt Gingrich would have us believe, is Kevin McCarthy.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! 
We’ll know in a few hours whether McCarthy gets the Speakership, the Holy Grail he has been chasing lo these many years, on the first ballot or if things are really going to go to hell. He needs every single vote, including that of the fabulous fabulist, George Santos. When a man like George Santos is the only thing keeping your dream alive, maybe you need to consider what your dreams are and how you’re pursuing them.
McCarthy has nothing to trade away. I don’t know what the screaming behind closed doors this morning was, as you may have read about here earlier, but McCarthy’s out of bargaining power — not to mention credibility.
You recall that the bright red line that McCarthy would never cross was to agree to a rule that would allow a snap vote at any time to oust the speaker. Well, guess what he agreed to over the weekend? Yep. He just modified it to where he needs five members of congress who want to dethrone him at any given moment, rather than one. His enemies number more than five. This is going to be a real shitshow, when and if this speaker ousting starts happening.
What else can McCarthy concede? He’s given it all away and all it truly has done is weaken him, not strengthen him. Charlie Sykes says:
Time after time, the man who would be speaker tried to shrink himself into the office, and is ending his bid by offering multiple concessions to the bomb-throwers in the caucus who will hold him hostage if he survives. Even Newt Gingrich is alarmed by the shambles. “The precedent that sets is … any five people can get up and say, ‘Well, I’m now going to screw up the conference, too.’ The choice is Kevin McCarthy or chaos.”
But it’s chaos either way, isn’t it? McCarthy is a hollow man and a weak leader, and his caucus is now in the process of testing just how weak he is. One of the most powerful speakers in House history is about to be replaced by one of the puniest.
The way I see it, is the Republican caucus knows how weak McCarthy is. He’s not strong enough for this position. He’s miscast himself in a role that he cannot fill. As Bob Good, one of his staunchest enemies said, McCarthy hasn’t gotten to this place by dint of leadership, he’s gotten there by playing the game, being “part of the swamp cartel” as he told Fox News.
Good intends to pull a rabbit out of a hat on the second round of voting.
REP. BOB GOOD: What we will do is block Kevin. I suspect there will be 10 to 15 members who will vote against him on the first ballot tomorrow. That will vote for Andy Biggs. But then I think you will see on the second ballot, an increasing number of members vote for a true candidate who can represent the conservative conference and can motivate the base, and can inspire Republicans across the country, get 218 votes to bring Congress together to fight against the radical Democrat agenda, the most extreme agenda we’ve ever seen.
GRIFF JENKINS, FOX NEWS: Let me stop you there. Who is that name? Here we are in the 11th hour. There are no names. Give me a name. It’s not Andy Biggs. Andy Biggs isn’t going to win.
REP. BOB GOOD: I’m going to resist for a few more hours what I have resisted the last several weeks. As you know, if we were to put forth a name right now or over the last few weeks that person would have suffered all of the attacks and retaliation.
GRIFF JENKINS, FOX NEWS: So, you don’t have a name?
REP. BOB GOOD: Absolutely. Griff, you will see that name tomorrow on the second ballot.
Mysterious. As I’ve said, I think Fred Upton might be the magic name. If things get totally nuts, you might even see Liz Cheney’s name come up, but I don’t think that’s where we’re going.
I think McCarthy is going down in flames. I could be wrong. He might pull a miracle and squeak by on the first ballot. It is possible. But even if he does, with as slim a majority as he’s got and as intense as the intra-party fighting is right now. he’s going to have a nearly impossible job governing.
Newt is forgetting something: the ‘pube party has been using government in chaos for decades in their constant effort to eliminate government. Hard to switch directions, quickly or otherwise, after so long.
Newt was the first to go for chaos. He’s forgotten that.
I never did, P J. And do recall that his own shock troops yanked his ass out in 1997 and he’s been irrelevant ever since.
The GOP, including House members still there today ran off two Republican Speakers with far more gravitas than Kevin McCarthy. Look, I couldn’t stand either Boehner or Ryan but they at least had actual credentials for the job other than time in Congress. They had a large group of Republicans that knew and trusted them and who were strongly supportive of the vision those two had for GOP policy. McCarthy? Don’t make me laugh. His “case” is “I’ve been here fifteen years and unlike lots of people I said I wanted the job long ago so I deserve it.” That’s pretty much it. I’m no Republican but from the outside looking in it seems a Party that’s given itself over to authoritarianism isn’t going to “blow their load” over McCarthy and his “case” for the Speaker’s Gavel. Well, the clerk just banged the gavel and the shit show is about to begin!
Boehner and Ryan deserve no more kudos than McCarthy here. As I see it, the only “qualification” all three had is no one else really wanted the job as bad as them. And Boehner and Ryan were exactly the same kind of weaklings McCarthy is, albeit with slightly more sense. In the post-Trump era of the GQP, that is apparently no longer enough for the latter.
I could be wrong, but I don’t see the moderates supporting Biggs. It’s got to be someone with widespread support.
Correct, Cherl, someone who can unite the caucus as a whole. You see anybody doing just that here? Because I don’t.
If the Dems and moderates do get together, they’ll choose someone outside of the current House because there isn’t a single GOP there who is worthy of the position.
my idiot Congress person chip Roy is one of the bomb throwers. he was a Ted cruz staffer.
As long as Chip and his maga pals prevent McCarthy from becoming Speaker, I’m happy for them to throw as many bombs as they like.