The GOP Clown Show
Just when you thought they couldn't get more incompetent.
NPR (“This was supposed to be Kevin McCarthy’s moment. Instead, GOP chaos reigns“):
This one had to hurt.
“Maybe the right person for the job of speaker of the House isn’t someone who has sold shares of themself for more than a decade to get it,” Matt Gaetz, the hard-right Florida congressman, said on the House floor before nominating Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan for speaker before a second round of voting Tuesday.
This was supposed to be Kevin McCarthy’s moment, one he had contorted himself into political knots to get to.
The California congressman has wanted to be speaker – badly – for years. He seemed willing to do a lot of things to get the job, including burrowing into former President Trump’s good graces. [I see what you did there! – ed.]
But none of it has been enough. Congress adjourned Tuesday without McCarthy – or anyone – as speaker after three ballots of voting, the first time the voting has gone beyond one round in 100 years.
The House without a speaker cannot move forward, no other votes can be held, no legislation can be considered. How this gets resolved is an open question – either McCarthy somehow wins over the hard-right members who are steadfastly holding out against him or he bows out, clearing the way for someone else.
Who that is, however, also isn’t clear.
It’s an untenable position for the country. But how we got here is something of a Washington tragedy — for McCarthy and for governance.
NYT (“Speaker Fight Reveals a Divided and Disoriented House Majority“):
House Republicans began their new majority rule on Tuesday with a chaotic and historic debacle, an embarrassing failure to rally around a leader that showcased the difficulties they will face in performing even the basics of governing and their lack of a unifying agenda.
Handed narrow control of the House by voters in November, Republicans squandered the opening hours of the new Congress they could have used to dispel concerns about their capabilities. Instead, they feuded in a disorderly display over who among them should be speaker as the most extreme elements of the new majority repeatedly rejected Representative Kevin McCarthy of California.
Despite Mr. McCarthy’s prominent role in fund-raising and delivering the House to Republicans and his backing among most in the party ranks, about 20 Republicans refused to support him and for the first time in a century forced repeated rounds of voting for the speakership. After three flailing attempts at electing a speaker, Republicans abruptly called for the House to be adjourned until noon Wednesday as they scrambled for a way out of their leadership morass. The stalemate meant the usually routine organization of the new House did not occur and its members were not sworn in, nor could any legislation be considered.
The paralysis underscored the dilemma facing House Republicans: No matter the concessions made to some of those on the far right, they simply will not relent and join their colleagues even if it is for the greater good of their party, and perhaps the nation. They consider themselves conservative purists who cannot be placated unless all their demands are met — and maybe not even then. Their agenda is mostly to defund, disrupt and dismantle government, not to participate in it.
It means that whoever emerges from the messy leadership fight will face deep-seated resistance when trying to shepherd spending bills and other measures that are fundamental to governance. Tuesday’s spectacle reflected that House Republicans have grown more skilled at legislative sabotage than legislative success, leaving the difficult business of getting things done to others.
WaPo (“Kevin McCarthy faces open GOP revolt as House fails to elect speaker“):
Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) faced open revolt in the House chamber Tuesday, failing in three rounds of balloting to earn enough votes to capture the speakership in a once-in-a-century showdown that will now spill into a second day.
The stunning failure of the House to elect a speaker on its first round of voting came after McCarthy and his allies spent weeks working to secure the 218 votes needed for him to take the gavel. Republicans won back the House in November’s midterms, but with a slim, four-vote majority, requiring near-consensus among the conference to move votes forward.
By early Tuesday, it became clear that hard-right GOP holdouts had not been swayed. The failure was the culmination of an internal divide that had in the past helped bring down the speakerships of Republicans John A. Boehner (Ohio) and Paul D. Ryan (Wis.), with members of the staunchly conservative House Freedom Caucus asking for a range of demands in exchange for their votes.
Newsweek (“Republicans Savaged as ‘Clowns’ After McCarthy’s Failed Speaker Bid“):
Republicans are being branded “clowns” following Representative Kevin McCarthy’s failed attempt to become speaker of the House.
[…]
The GOP chaos was welcomed and celebrated by Democratic lawmakers, who quickly mocked their political rivals as McCarthy’s failure was unfolding.
Representative Jamie Raskin said in a tweet that Republicans had achieved a “once-in-a-century humiliation,” while Representative Ted Lieu shared a photo of himself gleefully holding a bag of popcorn just prior to the session.
As the day continued, a wave of circus-themed mockery of Republicans emerged from both ends of the political spectrum.
Fox News host Sean Hannity warned that “House Republicans now are on the verge of becoming a total clown show if they’re not careful” during his Tuesday night broadcast, while similar sentiments were expressed on social media.
“Republicans need to reach a consensus, and fast,” conservative commentator Tomi Lahren tweeted. “Y’all still have time to pull this together before the entire party looks like a clown show. Move it or lose it.”
John F. Harris, POLITICO (“After Another Failed Vote, McCarthy’s Speaker Bid Is Starting to Look Pathetic“):
Tuesday’s drama surrounding the GOP’s efforts to elect a speaker to lead its wafer-thin House majority is normal only in the sense that the past generation has made the politics of chaos, confusion and contempt come to seem normal.
By any historical standard, however, vivid evidence that one chamber of the national legislature is essentially ungovernable is a high-water moment. Kevin McCarthy, whatever the outcome of this contest in coming hours or days, can rest assured he has earned a legacy — as a symbol of pathos and ineffectuality, an emblem of the cannibalistic spirit of the age.
That age, McCarthy’s travails make clear, is not defined exclusively by former President Donald Trump. Recall that the first time McCarthy vied for the speakership — eight years ago, before dropping out in the face of right-wing opposition — occurred before Trump entered the presidential race and made himself the most important figure in the Republican Party. This time around, McCarthy is stumbling even as he holds Trump’s endorsement.
That the McCarthy backlash both predates and postdates Trump’s presidency is a reminder that Trump was someone who exploited the politics of contempt but was not the cause of it, and suggests that he may be only glancingly relevant to some questions facing the future of the conservative movement.
McCarthy and his allies had signaled before the voting began that he was prepared to insist on vote after vote, for days if necessary, to grind down opposition and win vindication for his desperate plea, in a Monday closed-door meeting, that, “I’ve earned this job.” By early Tuesday evening, after McCarthy lost a third vote, that strategy was looking increasingly problematic. The Californian was effectively asking that his own party match him in tolerance for televised public humiliation. Still, no viable alternative to such self-abasement had emerged.
One must squint through the smoke of recent years to recall a time when the conservative movement was shaped by instinctual deference to authority — to establishment priorities and establishment values. When it came to selecting leaders, according to the old saying, Democrats needed to fall in love, while Republicans were content to fall in line.
By the third vote, 202 Republicans were willing to do that, including members who have privately questioned his leadership in biting terms. But 20 were not, and decisively so. That minority faction was acting with justifiable confidence that they were being faithful to the organizing principle of contemporary conservatism: Contempt for any figure who doesn’t also share an attitude of contempt or express it with sufficient purity.
Tim Miller, The Bulwark (“Never Trumpers Understood Kevin McCarthy’s Conference Better Than He Did“):
For years Kevin McCarthy, a blow-dried, donor-class Republican, has tried to maintain a hold on his increasingly bedraggled, QAnon-class conference by prostrating himself before Donald Trump—in increasingly ostentatious ways, so as to prove to his flock that he was an authentic convert to the One True Church of MAGA.
McCarthy calculated that this public self-abasement would be worth it because he would be rewarded in the end with the gavel and bust he had long coveted.
This afternoon he was rewarded instead with the type of humiliation we have not seen on the House floor in a century: Being forced to smirk through repeated public beatings at the hands of his own members.
Kevin is a man with many flaws, but on this day his fatal one was not heeding the lesson of the leopard-eating-faces allegory.
Those of us outside the party—whose faces were long ago masticated—had the distance to see this dynamic clearly. The days where “principled conservatives” huff and puff about CUTGO for a while and then surrender to an old guard master are long gone.
We knew that there was no sacrifice, no degradation that would satisfy Kevin’s leopards. He may have been able to cobble together the votes to get into the speaker’s office for a spell. And who knows, he might still? But he was never going to lead this party.
Because they were never going to put their trust in him. They would never give up one retruth, one Newsmax hit, or one scampac fundraising email for the betterment of the party. (Forget about the country.)
[…]
McCarthy and Crenshaw and their ilk convinced themselves that they could throw in with the world’s biggest grifter, tell lie after lie (after lie) to their own voters, campaign for a boat of shithouse rats so crazy that they make yesterday’s crazies blush—and at the end be rewarded with their loyal support.
[…]
He woke up on the biggest day of his life knowing he’d lose 5 votes on the first ballot and thinking he could lose 9 more. Throw in a wild card and the worst case was 15 no votes, when he could only afford to lose 4.
What he found is that crazy begets crazy. Once the floodgates opened the 5 Never Kevin votes had ballooned to an unthinkable 19. And then the same 19 voted against him a second time.
These 19 anarchists don’t have any tangible policy objections to a McCarthy speakership and neither do they have a realistic alternative. Their goal—their only goal—was to fight for the sake of fighting and show their constituents they are just as mad at the “elites” as they are. Their only alternative, Jim Jordan, is the man who oversaw the committee that expressed its vision for the party as “Kanye. Elon. Trump.”
In other words: exactly the type of members that this party has cultivated for the past eight years.
Responsible Republicans who want to run a governing party will eventually have to come to terms with the fact that there is no appeasing or accommodating their leopards. That no amount of submission to the orange idol that will do. That they are either in the boat with the lunatics or out here on the shore with the cucks.
In the meantime, the votes and the claw marks will continue until morale improves.
The meltdown has been a long time coming and the humiliation is so richly deserved. But what now?
Democrats are presumably enjoying the show but they would actually like to govern, which can’t happen until and unless a Speaker is elected.
POLITICO (“Biden world both humored and terrified by McCarthy meltdown“):
Staff throughout the West Wing wouldn’t cop to watching live coverage of Rep. Kevin McCarthy failing to get enough votes to become speaker of the House. But, to a person, they were more than aware of the fiasco that was unfolding on the House floor throughout the day, and on the TV sets in practically every office.
At Tuesday’s briefing, the first of the year, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierrerefused to comment on the speaker’s election, demurely batting away several questions about McCarthy’s humiliation and the new House GOP’s majority appearing to be every bit the chaos caucus many feared.
But make no mistake: this administration is about as distraught over all this as a flock of vultures happening upon a freshly killed gazelle. For whatever headaches a Republican-controlled House will create for President Joe Biden through investigations and its ability to control the floor, the disorder and rancor likely to characterize the new GOP majority, administration aides believe, will benefit the president politically.
Administration aides are confident that the president, by focusing on governing and working in a bipartisan manner, is delivering what the public wants — and that Republicans, as long as they’re continually bogged down by intra-party fights, are not.
“The Republican Party is almost non-functional right now,” said Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas). “They can’t even agree on who should lead them. It’s not just a matter for the Republicans in Congress. It affects the whole country, and we can’t even take a vote on anything else until they decide who the speaker is.”
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wisc.), who contemplated a Snickers bar dinner if voting ran into the late evening, marveled at the absurdity of it all as McCarthy failed to pick up more votes. He quipped that Republicans “should probably nominate Bill Murray at this point.”
I still think McCarthy should nominate Hakeem Jeffries. It would serve the idiots right.
Indeed, Jeffries received 212 votes to McCarthy’s 203, so he’s already got plurality support.
The party of Buckley and Reagan and Goldwater is not the party of Gaetz and Marge and Bobo and Gosar and Biggs and Gym.
Schadenfreude, at this point, is a quaint response to this performance.
But remember…we do not have a Legislative Branch of Government right now.
The question is whether after sufficient votes where the lunatic right has postured in front of the cameras about their political sincerity that they will grudgingly permit a Speaker to be elected, or whether they will ride the nuke all the way down.
I don’t know. I’ve heard of funny clowns, sad clowns, and creepy clowns. Are pathetic clowns something new?
Normally I would be just sitting back and enjoying the ironic twist of rock solid unity among the Democrats and the S**t Show in a F**k Factory antics of the GOP. But frankly the specter of next Septembers vote on rasing the debt ceiling again has me terrified. I’m worried that the Crazy Caucus is a bit too enamored with the idea of leveraging defaulting on the debt unless they get everything they want to the point of actually going into default because “what could go wrong”.
These people are so insulated from accountability that they think defaulting will be “no big deal”. The lack of any deep notions in how this could seriously effect actual people seems totally lost on them (not to mention their donors).
Speaking of which, how is this going over with the money guys?
Even tho I know I shouldn’t, I’m enjoying this. If this is the end of the world, at least it’s entertaining.
On the more serious side, this is a GOP problem. They opened their doors and let the lunatics in to their party. Now they have to figure out how to control them or give up their dreams of a GOP H of Reps. If they surrender to the crazies now, I give it a month before it all blows up in their faces again. And I think a month is rather generous of me.
@Rick DeMent: At this point in time, I am not too worried about the debt ceiling. In addition to 213 DEMs, I am quite sure there are at least 5 Republicans who will listen to their 6 and 7 figured donors about the economic chaos that will ensue if it isn’t raised.
This is something to enjoy for a bit since the GOP certainly deserves it but it is pretty harmful to the country. It needs to be resolved. OTOH, they arent likely to really govern anyway. I expect nothing much other than a lot of fake investigations and impeachments.
Steve
@daryl and his brother darryl:
I would agree that the party of Buckley (“the White community is so entitled because, for the time being, it is the advanced race”) and Reagan (referred to African diplomats as monkeys) and Goldwater (endorsed by the Klan) is the not the same as the modern racist, reactionary party it irrevocably gave birth to.
I’m guessing that the deal was reached last night as this morning Trump announced his active support for McCarthy ( source: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-doubles-support-kevin-mccarthy-house-speaker-rcna64203 ). If McCarthy doesn’t win on the first vote today then it’s going to be an even bigger black eye for the party.
All that said the damage is already done.
Also, serial fabulist and McCarthy supporter George Santos fibbed again when his team released a press release saying that he was sworn in yesterday. I had thought about doing a quick take on it, but as it turns out he’s not the only one who made this mistake: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/04/george-santos-sworn-in-mistake-house/
While the most likely scenario is that they find some other hapless victim and elect that poor bastard as speaker, I contend that these scenarios, however unlikely, are not out of the question:
– Things become so chaotic that a vote is called when Repubs don’t have a majority on the floor, leading to election of Hakeem Jefferies. Heck, when he finally realizes he is not going to be speaker, McCarthy may “inadvertently” enable it on the way out.
– One of the first acts of the Republicans was to have the metal detectors removed, presumably so their gun fetishists and gun fantasists can come to the floor armed. Since these unhinged children are primarily angry with each other right now, a gun battle could leave at least five of them dead, giving the Dems the majority.
– Once Repubs realize it isn’t going to be McCarthy and that no one sane wants the job, they will elect someone from outside Congress (and no, it won’t be Trump).
@grumpy realist:
Considering one of the rules they demanded was a vastly lowered threshold for replacing him (5 unhappy people and he’s got 20 NO votes right now!), he’s getting replaced eventually. The real question is do they extract all of his precious bodily fluids now before going for the MAGA candidate or do they give him a few months before the inevitable backstab?
This is the shit test that happens when spoiled children now have to integrate into a new family. How much can they get away with? How much abuse can they heap upon their new step-daddy before he weakly resists? They know the power they wield and have no intentions of giving in – the GOP must cave to them, not the other way around. MAGAts are perfectly happy to spend the next 2 years complaining and grifting rather then working so this isn’t a setback for them; they fundraise off How Corrupt the GOP Has Become & Only They Can Fix it!!! as easily as they can off the Evil Libs Ruing Everything.
@Kylopod:
Yes, I get your point. But you have to admit previous generations of Republicans have been more intellectually capable racists who stood for something beyond their racism and hatred. Today the racism and the hatred is the only point.
Chip Roy is my Congressman so I follow him on Facebook (I gave up Twitter last year). It is kind of fascinating to look into the “minds” of those who follow and comment. One, it is hard to tell but I would guess that about half of the commenters are not even in our CD. Chip has 22K followers. Why are there groupies following congressmen? Second, about 3/4 of the commenters are mad at Chip for not voting for McCarthy. So many of the followers are on the sane side? Although one kept claiming Chip is not voting for McCarthy because he is in the pocket of Biden. Go figure.
It’s an adventure into the world of crazy.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Sure, but if the Crazy Caucus gets their way with the House rules they can effectively shut out the moderates and prevent any bill they don’t like from coming to the floor. That’s the problem.
Insurrectionists Scott Perry (R-PA10) and Bobo (R-CO3) have now both compared Gym Jordan (Molester Protector – OH4) to George Washington.
That’s it…that’s all the comment needed.
As a Brit, can I just I’m very pleased to see another country’s elected assembly majority party f’in up choosing a leadership.
Perhaps US Republicans and UK Conservatives can join together, and offer lessons to the Italians in how to really bork Parliamentary procedure?
@daryl and his brother darryl:..But you have to admit previous generations of Republicans have been more intellectually capable racists who stood for something beyond their racism and hatred.
Guns for the mentally ill and no abortions for 10 year old incest/rape victims comes to mind.
@Rick DeMent: Whoever gets saddled with the Speakership, this is preview of the incapacity of the Republican House members to get anything remotely controversial to the Democrats – House and Senate – over the line.
@Rick DeMent:
Voting for Speaker and raising the debt limit is encountering the same issue: negotiating with terrorists. You just can’t. And McCarthy is breaking that rule. He will lose as a result.
@JohnSF: ouch… Italians, really….
So these votes are open roll to follow as goes?
@JohnSF:
I think this appropriate:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-Elr5K2Vuo
I think if a debt default becomes a real possibility, the Dems will revive an old idea that was widely mocked when it was brought up during the 2011 standoff: the trillion-dollar coin. They didn’t pursue that route back then because they didn’t think they needed to. Also, I’m convinced Obama partly went along because he wanted to make a deal with Republicans on a debt-reduction package (and I think this was a mistake), and he thought it gave him political cover. The stakes have changed so much that I think Biden would seriously consider a nuclear option to avert disaster.
Or maybe as happy as that bunny eating Bald Eagle Jax saw while plowing the snow.
Two quick notes.
One, Benito has endorsed Kevin, but did not call or meet with any of the never-Kevins. Word is his office sent his not-a-Tweet to the reluctant GQP members. that’s like having those who paid for Cheeto U to pose for photos with his stendee. Totally on brand.
Two, remember the fable of the man, the horse, and the wolf? Both man and horse fear the wolf. The man convinces the horse to let him put a bridle and saddle on him, so together they can chase and kill the wolf.
After a successful hunt, the horse asks the man to remove the bridle and saddle. Whereupon the man refuses, and spurs the horse to move along.
The moral is: don’t make concessions you’re not willing to endure for the rest of your life.
Well, Santos’s seat will likely be a D before too long, so that takes the majority down to 3 seats. How long does a majority of 3 last when your population is made up of grey haired antivaxxers?
Maybe we just keep this speaker’s race going for a few weeks and see if we can’t get a D majority out of it through death and attrition.
@Kylopod: In seeing this overall spectacle I have thought that maybe you are perhaps near a once in centuries party decomposition à la partie of Whigs….
If the Radicals bring up a real debt default then I would rather suspect the barons of capital will really turn. Such things cost real money to cspital…
The Crazy Caucus isn’t a united front. Marge Taylor Greene is now squabbling furiously with Boebert and Gaetz.
One minute and counting…
moderation! good grief…must have screwed up the name or eMail
Now they are petitioning god. I’m sure that will help.
In the name of our redeemer. Wonder what the Jewish representatives think of that?
@Rick DeMent:
Agreed.
Donalds just gave himself his eighth vote. I thought McCarthy could only lose 4 0r 5. Isn’t he already in the toilet? Again?
@OzarkHillbilly:
The problem is that will require the Speaker to ignore the “Hastert Rule”:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hastert_Rule
I’m proved wrong a lot, but not usually this quickly.
McCarthy, even with Trump’s endorsement, has lost a 4th vote. I feel sorry for Mar A Lago’s walls… hopefully someone is hiding the ketchup as Trump’s now officially backed a loser and his lack of control over the free-dumb wing of the party has been called into question.
@Lounsbury:
Turn where? Make a new political party from scratch for the robber barons? And somehow take the yokels with them? How would that work? And how would that be remotely comparable to the circumstances that did in the Whigs?
What happens will happen, even if we suffer from the result, so enjoy the spectacle.
@Lounsbury: is perhaps right and this is the beginning of the dissolution of the R’s as a viable political party. Given the structural impediments to doing so, I have no idea how this process can unfold.
The parties base, is happy with these revolutionaries sticking it to the elites and this is where the problem begins.
For the next round, I’m looking forward to my Congressman, Chip Roy, to take off his shoe, pound it on the table while screaming “Nyet! Nyet!”
@Lounsbury:
You’re assuming that all the barons of capital are solely interested in making money. Some of them all, but a significant faction of them believe some or all of the following:
1. They are ordained by the Christian god and will therefore rule;
2. That they are uniquely smart and talented and will therefore rule;
3. Something something they are the best and will therefore rule.
Yeah, they care about money, but they are more interested in power and are so self assured in their ability to get and wield it.
@Matt Bernius: Truly. Sucking up to Trump brought him nothing, because no one in the MAGA nuthouse feared going against Trump’s endorsement. I think most of them realize that as soon as McCarthy loses Trump will retcon the whole thing anyway, and say he was always for whoever wins.
@Beth: Agree. There are about 720 billionaires in the US. Most have enough for their needs. Their attention then goes to politics and power. Which is the point where confiscatory inheritance taxes look pretty good.
@Scott:..“Nyet! Nyet!”
First Chipper will have to check out an American front loading washing machine with the Ghost of Richard Nixon.
This shows at least one path to power for even a small but internally cohesive third party. What would McCarthy concede to them in return for 5 votes? What would Jefferies? But, so far, anyway, the self destruction of the Republican Party in the several states it has happened in did not give rise to a viable, cohesive third party in time to prevent Democratic lock.
What’s this latest clown show? The Forward Party? Vague statements and a strident promise to not tell you what they stand for until you elect them?
@Beth: (Hey Beth! Hope the recovery is going well!)
@Stormy Dragon:
A rule named after the most notorious pedophile in US political history ought to be jettisoned.
Mike Flynn?
@Rick DeMent: To reiterate, “At this point in time, I am not too worried about the debt ceiling.” I never worry about what might happen months or years into the future. I will worry about it when the time comes, if it comes.
@Stormy Dragon: Ah yes… The pedophile rule. I rather suspect our oligarchs can be quite persuasive.
But from what does their power come? Money, without which the rest is unobtainable.
@MarkedMan: Myself, I am hoping that 3 or 4 moderate GOPs say they’ve had enough, declare themselves Independent and that they will caucus with the DEMS.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
I am such a joker.
@OzarkHillbilly: Hah! I suspect if by some unbelievable set of events it happens, the choice will be a semi-fictional character of some sort. Sean Hannity. Tim Allen. James Woods. Stacey Dash. Dean Cain. Isaiah Washington. I don’t know who in that group, or anyone else, has enough star power combined with stupidity and a wish to finally put their career out of its misery.
@steve:
I don’t see it as harmful to the country at all. I think a hard right Republican establishment continuing to work with the Q Caucus is far more harmful.
This fight needs to happen, and right now we aren’t facing down an imminent government shutdown, debt default, or a Ukraine running out of weapons.
Hah! It turns out that former Rep Justin Amish is prowling around thinking he can get enough Repub and Dem votes to become a consensus outsider. Remember, this is the guy who left the Republicans to join the Libertarians, and then voted for Trump’s impeachment. From Wiki:
He was the founder and chairperson of the Liberty Caucus and was a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus, which he left in June 2019. Amash received national attention when he became the first Republican congressman to call for the impeachment of Donald Trump, a position he maintained after leaving the party. Amash left the Republican Party and became an independent in July 2019. In April 2020, he joined the Libertarian Party.
Amash formed an exploratory committee to seek the Libertarian Party presidential nomination in 2020. In May 2020, he announced that he would not run for president. Amash did not seek reelection to Congress in 2020.
@Beth: the phrase refers to capital, not merely the wealthy, Wall Street or The City or Mr Buffet in contast to the Pillow Person. The sort of people who invest in funds I manage.
Such people in my experience, actual real direct profesional experience, are highly unamused by things like default and material changes in their costs of capital.
The Pillow Person, and others of that ilk, well they are something different. Not barons of capital.
@Gustopher:
> “a Ukraine running out of weapons”
That’s a feature, not a bug, for more than a few Republican members and assorted GOP fellow travelers sympathetic to Putin…
@Lounsbury: However I will allow that American naïveté and blindness can have a role, as of course the people I deal with have had actual experience with national defaults and what it does to their operational cost of capital. Whereas Americans continuously believe the rules of national gravity do not apply to them.
@Lounsbury: Bugger, stupid edit does not show, adding to allow that for illustration of the rules of gravity, and barons, see Madame Truss Clown & Kwarteng Show and the results of what happens right fast when cost of capital is materially changed for reasons of sheer political incompetence. Capital was most unamused.
Kevin McCarthy just lost his fifth vote.
@MarkedMan:
You know what? I think I’d be okay with that. Amash may not be great, but he seems to be reasonably sane and wanting to get things accomplished.
@anjin-san: welcome back from wherever you’ve been!
This headline is on CNN’s front page:
I hope that they are telling these “some Republicans” to go pound sand, and that they created this mess by being feckless, spineless toadies to that blithering idiot Trump.
@Mu Yixiao: Oh, he’s a piece of work, but I agree there is a chance he would be better than McCarthy. He does have some idealism and perhaps some integrity. He doesn’t understand anything necessary for the mechanics of the job, but that may allow Dems to actually get things done in spite of him.
Addendum: Do these Republicans realize that lowering the threshold to, say, 212 would mean a Speaker Jeffries?
Are they really this stupid?
@MarkedMan:
He’s such an odd person. A principled opportunist.
Well…
If the goal of the GOP is to make government smaller, and to reduce spending, then if they do not elect a speaker… they can all go home!
Think of the jobs eliminated and the cost savings!
After all: the people should know that they still have two out of three branches of the government working for them (and half of the third), and that ain’t bad.
@Jen: The strategy would be for some number of Dems to vote present. And maybe some of the Republican rebels.
@Jen: Tempting as that may be, governance is about cutting deals with who you have in front of you, not who you wish you had.
I’m glad Pelosi is still in the mix.
@MarkedMan: I meant to add that if they cut a deal it would have to be publicly acknowledged because what a Republican promises behind closed doors isn’t worth spit.
McCarthy is losing his SIXTH vote. for the Speakership.
@Kathy: In my version of the story, the horse turns to the wolf and says “how about we combine our efforts to kill the man, who is a threat to both of us, and I’ll be on my way while you stop here for dinner.”
The moral: This is why animals can’t talk to each other.
@Mister Bluster: I think that if you check again, you’ll see that the machine is a combination washer and dryer. Back in the 60’s they weren’t very good (in fact, having one in a house I looked at was a deal breaker given that there was no place to put a dryer and a vent and no 440 line to run it). In the modern era, Korea builds pretty dependable washer/dryer combos. Most have a feature that washes whites in boiling water.
@Jen: Yes, Republiqans really are that stupid. And unlike the subhead writer, I have infinite confidence in the ability of Republiqans to keep becoming more and more incompetent as the ability of others to compensate for the incompetence rises. There’s no bottom in this situation where Republiqans won’t be able to dig deeper.
McCarthy didn’t win the 6th round and then they adjourned. I think that is a mistake. I would stay all day and night forcing them to go round after round. If he gives in to these terrorists, then he will always be at their mercy. One thing about Trump, he was always about dominance. McCarthy should apply some of that here.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:..combination washer and dryer
I’ll take your word for it. I’m sure that we would want to show up the Ruskies on their home turf with the most impressive laundry contraption that capitalism could produce in 1959.
@Jen:
I’d stipulate two conditions:
1) an iron-clad guarantee, backed maybe with a non-negotiable bond with all Kevin’s campaign funds, that there won’t be any opposition to raising the debt ceiling, nor any move to shut down the government.
2) Kevin must adopt as his official title “Speaker Kevin McCarthy by the Grace of Speaker Nancy Pelosi.” It has to go on the door to his office, on his business cards, on his websites, on the official House website, it must be his handle on all social media.
@Scott:..I would stay all day and night forcing them to go round after round.
Did I hear the gavel say that they would reconvene at 8pm. tonight?
I heard the voice vote to adjourn. The gavel said that the ayes had it but the noes sounded a lot louder to me.
Why didn’t anyone call for a count of the votes?
I don’t know if Ozark Hillbilly remembers this, but there was a struggle for the speakership of the Missouri House back in the early 90s. Speaker Bob Griffin had become embroiled in a few ethics controversies that almost seem quaint today, and Republicans had gained seats in special elections. A group of Republicans almost succeeded in ousting him.
Although the playbook was different, I am reminded of that because as soon as Griffin realized what was happening, he called in favors and quickly closed ranks. He was speaker, but decided to retire soon after, serving out his term.
McCarthy is not going to succeed here. Even if he manages to squeak out of this vote, he is mortally wounded by this event. He cannot lead.
@Lounsbury: I bow down to your far more extensive first hand experience with the wealthy (my experience is limited to trying to satisfy their construction desires) but you and I are in total agreement (mark it on the calendar!) on rich fucks desire to continue being rich fucks.
@becca: Anjin, I second this sentiment.
@Jen: No, I don’t remember that. While I was politically aware enough to vote in every election, I was distracted by a very ugly divorce and my caving,
@Lounsbury:
This seems closest to the mark, I think.
From Josh Marshall:
This is exactly what I meant when I used to say, “Trump IS the Republican Party”. He wasn’t some outlier, but rather the natural progression of all that had come before.
@Mister Bluster:
I dunno. Because they were afraid they’d win and miss dinner?
@becca:
I spent many years wandering in the wilderness after the 2016 election… 🙂
@OzarkHillbilly:
Thanks, it’s good to be back. I have spent less time talking about politics in the last few years. For one thing, all the people I grew up with who identify as conservatives have stopped communicating with me. I’m talking about people I’ve known and mostly gotten on well with for over 50 years. Very depressing.
@anjin-san: welcome back and I’m sorry to hear that. I am in a similar position after moving to a small city in northeast Florida—er, I mean southwest Ohio— to help my mom. It’s a daily stress additive.