David Frum was a speechwriter for George W. Bush. He writes for The Atlantic. He reminds us why Kevin McCarthy is as contemptible as the 20 members of the Chaos Caucus blocking his ascent to the Speakership.
The defeat of Kevin McCarthy in his bid for the speakership of the House would be good for Congress. The defeat of Kevin McCarthy would be good for the United States. It might even be good for his own Republican Party.
Because the people attempting to inflict that defeat upon McCarthy include some of the most nihilistic and destructive characters in U.S. politics, McCarthy is collecting misplaced sympathy from people who want a more responsible Congress. But the House will function better under another speaker than it would under McCarthy—even if that other speaker is much more of an ideological extremist than McCarthy himself.
McCarthy is not in political trouble for the reasons he deserves to be in political trouble. Justice is seldom served so exactly. But he does deserve to be in trouble, so justice must be satisfied with the trouble that he’s in.
McCarthy deserves to be in trouble because he refused to protect the institution he now seeks to lead. After the January 6, 2021, insurrection, he told fellow Republicans that he would urge President Donald Trump to resign immediately. When that vow became public, McCarthy denied he had ever made it, until a contemporaneous audio recording exposed his lie.
“I’ve had it with this guy,” McCarthy said after the January 6 attack—then voted in the impeachment proceedings to protect this guy. Eight days after Trump left office, McCarthy flew to Florida for a photo opportunity with the ex-president who had sent a mob to rampage through the Capitol and harm, abduct, or do worse to McCarthy’s own colleagues. Trump then released a statement boasting that he and McCarthy would be working closely together into the future, a statement McCarthy never contradicted.
McCarthy then enabled and supported a purge of every House Republican who had acted with the integrity that he himself had failed to muster. He endorsedthe primary opponent to Liz Cheney. He stripped committee assignments from Republicans who served on the committee to investigate the Capitol riot he had once condemned and now condoned.
For weeks after January 6, McCarthy denied that he’d telephoned Trump that day to blame him for the attack. When then–Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler exposed his denials as false, McCarthy brutally rebuked her.
“You should have come to me! Why did you go to the press? This is no way to thank me!”
“What did you want me to do? Lie?”
Well, yes, obviously. That’s what McCarthy did.
Herrera Beutler then lost the nomination in a primary battle against one of the most reactionary Republicans of the 2022-midterms slate—who then proceeded to lose a seat in rural Washington State to a Democratic newcomer.
There’s more but you have to subscribe to The Atlantic to read it.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The real question for responsible people of both parties is how we can use this moment to philosophically crush those who think the most important thing to do i government is to wreck it.
Beware the person who seeks power, they are bound to abuse it. McCarthy is not just seeking power, he is demanding it. The sooner he gives up (or is voted off the island) the better for everyone concerned.
But, the alternative in this case might be even worse! Be careful what we wish for, we might just get it!
“When we’re silent, we become unpleasant, said Edgar, when we speak, we become laughable.” – Herta Müller, Herztier
Seems to apply here.
(„Wenn wir schweigen, werden wir unangenehm, sagte Edgar, wenn wir reden, werden wir lächerlich.“)
Or the Southern version of the same thing:
It’s better to keep your mouth shut and have people think you’re a fool than open it and remove all doubt.
I prefer to watch this sideshow in The House to what they will do if they get a speaker. When given the green light, they will only obstruct and hold endless investigations on Hunter Biden’s laptop.
It’s going to be a horror show we can’t even conceive today.
You are right. Once they choose a Speaker, as they inevitably will, prepare for endless and pointless investigations and impeachments. They will endlessly investigate Hunter Biden. They will impeach Biden and chair of Homeland Security Mayorkas. They will vote against any social spending. They will support defense spending. They will disband the Jan 6 committee and try to discredit its report. They will pass nutty legislation that will die in the Senate. Two wasted years. Wonder what Kevin gave them to get their votes.
I do not think Traitor Trump should be Speaker of the House. I’ve read that he’s one of the names that has been bandied about. I also do not think anyone that supported Traitor Trump’s big lie and/or stayed silent after January 6, should be Speaker of the House.
The Speaker of the House is in second place, behind the VP in the line of succession should something happen to the president. And the malignant House Unfreedom Chaos Cult wants to impeach both Biden and the VP, an impeachment process that may never end. Fail once, try again, and again, and again like the Benghazi investigations.
If any Republican becomes Speaker of the House, they must be a well-known moderate with a history of willingness to reach across the aisle and compromise on important issues, that also never supported the traitors Big Lie, even if they were silent after January 6.
The ongoing saga involving this putrescent and pestilent specimen of larvae is the perfect case study of how (shameless) politics works. Look at what his speakership holdup has spawned: “fundraising” from his opponents in the caucus. It’s been such a disgusting week in American politics (that’s not saying much). On the other hand, kudos to Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for sacrificing their seats in the House for a cause much larger than them. I mean, that means something, man. That took courage and strength to maintain some shred of integrity somewhere, you know?
In 1861, Lincoln’s Republican party had this problem. To overcome Republican legislators from slave states, there wound up being a strange alliance between Lincoln’s Republican Party and some nativist congressmen. So, if history serves as a guide as it usually does, the real GOP will find common ground with some Manchinema Democrats to overcome the Trumpublicans. That will be a lovely mess.
Over on Twitter, @capitolhunters has posted a masterful reconstruction of January 6, 2021. The thread is more than 50 tweets long. I watched the attack as it unfolded on television, as I’m sure did many others. This thread helped me to make the chaos more linear and to gain a fuller understanding of the organization required for the insurrection. Highly recommend you spend some time there this evening.
Interesting thread, Christine. Thanks. Here’s something I haven’t seen but did see on the live video coverage of the event on the news: In some instances, early on, police seemed to ASSIST the insurrectionists by moving, opening, removing barriers. This was shocking to me at the time, and I am saddened that it has not been given more coverage.
This was omitted in the overview.
https://www.npr.org/sections/insurrection-at-the-capitol/2021/02/19/969441904/capitol-police-suspends-6-officers-investigates-dozens-more-after-capitol-riots
This will pass, and then the Repugnuts will turn to the important business of Hunter Biden’s laptop for the next two years. There will be disturbing revelations. A guy from New Jersey reposted a speculation by a guy from Texas that Marjorie Taylor Greene and Mike Lindell and Sidney Powell have evidence that Hunter’s laptop was manufactured by shape-shifting aliens from Alpha Draconis–the same ones who made the Space Lasers–and was purchased for Hunter in a secret deal in a pedopizza parlor by George Soros so he could use software developed the Venezuelans to organize caravans of rapists and murderers and Antifa and CRT-peddling teacher’s union members to pretend to be Trump supporters and attack the Capitol.
Or something like that.
Hakeem Jeffries is off to a rip roaring start:
What a speech!!!! Wow!!!!!
It’s a relief to see the next generation of leaders is dispensing with the idea of “decorum”; no doubt we’ll see some pearl clutching. When your opposition wants to overthrow the institution in which they serve, best to call it out clearly and plainly.
YES!!!! Agree, emphatically!
https://eand.co/what-just-happened-to-american-democracy-another-insurrection-only-this-one-was-successful-bb40e1a413aa
Please see umair’s column on this. The insurrectionists have won great power in what he calls a “soft coup.” Just as in the French and Russian Revolutions, the most extreme radicals supplant the less extreme radicals.
People with no agenda (unless you buy the allegations about sex with underage girls) have the power to destroy our democracy and the world economy.
I’m wondering whether this might be a good thing in the long run. Perhaps the people will see how dysfunctional the Recuckoocoupcrats are and turn against them in time for the 2024 election. The piece by Professor Haque is great. Thanks for sharing it.
I’m wondering whether this might be a good thing in the long run. Perhaps the people will see how dysfunctional the Recuckoocoupcrats are and turn against them in time for the 2024 election. The piece by Professor Haque is great. Thanks for sharing it.
A superb piece. Thanks for sharing it.
I’m surprised it isn’t more commonly noted that now BOTH the leaders of the House and the Senate Democrats are from Brooklyn. Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries. Of the 2 Brooklyn Dems, only Chuck Schumer supports public schools, while Hakeem Jeffries (whose positions I like on many other issues) is a loud and proud pro-charter DFER and a favorite of the anti-public school pro-charter PACs and the anti-public school billionaires who fund them.
Hakeem Jeffries is VERY SPECIAL friend of Eva Moskowitz and appeared at her anti-public school rallies and spoke at fundraisers to help a charter school already awash in money raise even more.
Jeffries appeared with KEVIN MCCARTHY.
“Wall Street leaders and political power players gathered at Cipriani 42nd Street to raise over $9 million for New York’s Success Academy Charter Schools.
Hedge funders Dan Loeb, John Scully and Joel Greenblatt mingled Monday night with Congressmen Kevin McCarthy, Gregory Meeks and Hakeem Jeffries, former city schools chancellor and current Amplify CEO Joel Klein and Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson.”
It’s ironic that two Brooklyn politicians who have actually stood up for public schools (de Blasio and Schumer) get bashed constantly as sell-outs when they make even the smallest compromises (where what they GAIN is not mentioned).
While folks like Jeffries who shares a love of charters with Kevin McCarthy and other right wing anti-public school billionaires do horrible damage to public schools and give unwarranted credibility to a charter CEO who made it her personal mission to make sure Betsy Devos was Secy of education.
Jeffries legitimizes and amplifies the credibility of Eva Moskowitz and Moskowitz amplifies and legitimizes the credibility of Betsy Devos when her confirmation was in danger.
What more could the right wing anti-public school billionaires who love Jeffries ask for?
I guess we are about to find out.
But I wish that folks who support public education could see who their real friends are, instead of so often focusing on how their real friends just aren’t doing enough. Although it is one reason that so many “not good enough” supporters of public schools get defeated while politicians whose positions on public schools are horrible get empowered.
I didn’t comment on Jeffries support of charters because it’s well known on Diane’s blog. I do raise that concern elsewhere, just as I do for Cory Booker.
^^^to be fair, Jeffries’ appearance at Success Academy-organized fundraisers and rallies was in 2015 and 2016 and he made sure not to public support Moskowitz when she endorsed Devos, although he declined fropm criticizing the charter CEO he had done so much more and his funders looved so much.
Diane Ravitch had a very good column “Who is Hakeem Jeffries” on Sept 23, 2018.
I just re-read the comments and they were revealing of how real supporters of public schools so often get demonized for every compromise (not criticized but demonized) while those who actually do harmful things that undermine public schools get mild criticism and a pivot to something good they did that has nothing to do with public schools.
In that discussion, someone actually demonized “she who may not be named” for supposedly parading charter school kids at the Democratic National Convention in 2016. When I explained that those kids were from a REAL DOE public school (with a name that happened to sound like a charter), the person just pivoted to the usual vague attacks that she is awful. Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders love of “public charters” in 2016 and his endorsement and fight for a DFER Democrat to turn Virginia into a pro-charter state is never invoked to demonize him.
Bernie didn’t deserve to be demonized for those pro-charter positions a few years ago, just like Jeffries doesn’t deserve to be demonized for his pro-charter positions. But neither do the Democrats that REALLY support public schools and occasionally make a compromise but get something in exchange.
But when a Democrat like Jeffries acts to undermine public schools, they should be called out and questioned, with pressure put on them to defend their views and not just let them spew talking points.
Make Attorney General Abandon
Make Attorney General Absent
And now, he has sold his soul to the devil. And we will all pay the price.
When the Riot Caucus demands concessions on Social Security and Medicare in order to allow the US to raise the debt ceiling, where will McCarthy stand? He’s always shown he has the backbone of a jellyfish.
When the Riot Caucus demands their person be named chair of the Eternal Investigations into Biden’s Children Committee, or else they will move to vacate the chair, what will he do?
McCarthy gave away his powers and agreed to place the Chaos Caucus on crucial committees.