Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

The words do not have to be perfect.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

No one could have predicted…

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

This really is a full service blog.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

The lights are all blinking red.

He really is that stupid.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Friday Night Clown Show Open Thread: The Repubs Are Broken (Also: Busted)

Friday Night Clown Show Open Thread: The Repubs Are Broken (Also: Busted)

by | 85 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

Note that McQarthy can barely keep the broad grin off his face…

Journamalistic botfly Tara Palmeri, at Puck, on “The Kevin McCarthy Revival Plot” (yesterday):

For a guy who was unceremoniously defenestrated just 17 days ago, Kevin McCarthy seems surprisingly sanguine. His smile is a little too wide, his voice a little too chipper. Amid the preposterously deepening post-motion-to-vacate House turmoil, McCarthy appears to be enjoying life—herding the press, holding on to the official @SpeakerMcCarthy Twitter handle, and sitting in on meetings with his wannabe successors, Jim Jordan and Patrick McHenry, as some reflect on his achievements as a generationally talented fundraiser who commanded unruly conference grievance sessions with aplomb.

McCarthy’s mirth, of course, hails from the fact that he is indeed an active participant in his own succession. Unlike John Boehner (who quit in a huff and quickly landed a board seat at Reynolds Tobacco and a cushy job as a weed lobbyist for Squire Patton & Boggs) or Paul Ryan (who rejected the Trump clown show for the higher calling of the Fox boardroom) or even former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (who scampered off to Moelis), McCarthy is sticking around, for now. And he has leverage, particularly in the form of his fundraising juggernaut, through which he raised $80 million last cycle.

So what does McCarthy actually want? According to some McCarthy allies, his reluctance to wash his hands of the succession drama stems from the fact that he’s spent a long time building an unrivaled fundraising infrastructure inside the conference. Since becoming minority leader, in 2019, McCarthy helped raise a billion dollars. In 2020, despite Trump’s loss, McCarthy helped flip 14 seats for women, minority members, or veterans. In this altruistic rendition of events, McCarthy simply wants to leave the conference in a good place.

And yet McCarthy seems invested in finding a speaker who would need him the most. He helped tank the nomination of Steve Scalise, his former deputy, and the guy who would have had the most seamless transition with his own political infrastructure and army of fundraisers downtown…

Instead, McCarthy publicly whipped for Jim Jordan, a firebrand outsider who raised $14 million last cycle and detests the grip-and-grin part of donor maintenance. Jordan’s patrons on K-Street (which includes Big Tech) have described his fundraisers as “Star Wars bar parties,” referring to their lack of polish and deep pocketed mega donors—an insinuation that Jordan would need help from McCarthy and his people like Dan Conston at the leadership PAC or his top fundraiser Lauren Bryan. “Jim Jordan would be very deferential to Kevin on the fundraising apparatus; Jordan hates that shit, why wouldn’t he deputize Kevin to be in charge of that?” said another former leadership aide…

… But no matter who becomes speaker, it’s noticeable that McCarthy has been supporting members who would benefit from his largesse, perhaps setting up the sort of two-headed structure that many feared when Hakeem Jeffries ascended to minority leader and Nancy Pelosi stuck around as speaker emerita.“[Kevin’s] choosing weaker people who would need his support and depend on him,” said a former leadership aide.

Regardless, these guys are now toast, which leads way to another theory working its way around town—the notion that McCarthy is saying and doing the right things in case his old allies fall flat, everyone gets pissed at Matt Gaetz and the motion-to-vacate crowd, and asks for a mulligan, thereby welcoming him back as the only master zookeeper capable of the job. And, indeed, I’m hearing from all corners of the conference—except, of course, from the rebellious eight—that Republicans all want McCarthy back. Rep. Michael McCaul sort of put it out there on CNN on Tuesday, too: “maybe we ought to look at Kevin McCarthy again,” he said.

And McCarthy isn’t exactly rejecting it out of hand. Officially, he has said that he plans to run again for reelection in 2024. “If [McCarthy] is going to run again then a position helping the team is going to help him, but I don’t know why he would want to be Nancy Pelosi,” said former congressman Rodney Davis, a McCarthy supporter who is now on K Street. “McCarthy wants it back,” said another source close to the McCarthy apparatus. “The smile on his face. He’s keeping the dream alive, meeting with billionaire fundraisers or potential clients this week.” As this source put it, “McCarthy is orchestrating his revival.”…

If there’s one thing that is clear about McCarthy, it’s that he’s shameless—or, perhaps, shame-proof. And now he appears to be sitting back and watching as his successors struggle to even reach the votes that he managed to secure to become speaker. After surviving through much of the year without any wiggle room, he’s never had so much juice. No wonder the guy seems so happy.

Monica Hesse, at the Washington Post, “Check out these Republican uncles, fighting over a gavel”:

… Here was Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), whose trademark has always been pugnacious shirt sleeves, suddenly muscling his shoulders into a suit jacket and campaigning for the role on Tuesday afternoon. This move seemed the equivalent of Donald Trump vowing to act presidential as soon as he won the election — a successful, delusional strategy — but would it work for Jordan? It would not. Twenty Republicans refused to vote for him, in a contest in which he could only afford to lose four.

Jordan’s bid came after the futile, short-lived quest of Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), who told reporters “our support continues to grow” last week, and who then dropped out of the race less than a day later when it turned out he didn’t have the votes.

Scalise’s crusade came after the punch-drunk collapse of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) — who, upon hearing that a small faction of his colleagues wanted to oust him, tweeted “Bring it on,” only to stand flat-footed as it was summarily brought…

Who are these guys? These guys who think they can slither out of a snake pit and then lead the snakes. These card sharks forced into a game of Go Fish with their incorrigible nephews. These guys who keep trying to pull a gavel from a stone, except ain’t none of them Arthur.

McCarthy’s original pursuit to become House speaker, less than a year ago, was already a cringe-fest of Brobdingnagian proportions. In vote after vote, he was rejected — 15 votes over a span of four days. Members got more and more cantankerous, and McCarthy, who must have figured that his best shot at victory was to appear self-assured, ended up sweatily smiling through the whole thing. Have you ever seen 10-year-old boys play some variation of a game where they repeatedly twist the skin on each other’s arms and the goal is to laugh bravely and pretend it absolutely does not hurt? It was like that.

You want to tell them to cry “uncle,” but that is how we got into this mess to begin with. A parade of uncles decided they, alone, could fix this. Put them on the ballot, propel them to the dais…

“There has to be a better choice,” another caller harrumphed.

But no — ha-ha — that’s the whole point. There apparently is no better choice. And that is why we are where we are, scrolling through a roster of representatives to determine whether there’s anyone left who possesses the necessary qualities for speakership. At this point, the necessary qualities are not leadership and diplomacy as much as masochism and self-abasement. And even that might not do it…

Props to Rep. Frost!

Reader Interactions

85Comments

  1. 1.

    HumboldtBlue

    If there’s one thing that is clear about McCarthy, it’s that he’s shameless

    That describes the entire GOP.

  3. 3.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    How are Republicans going to find someone with more charisma and personal charm than Jim Jordan?

  4. 4.

    patrick II

    My younger brother Charlie has just dropped his first album at the age of 72 years old — a late bloomer. It is a work of near genius. (He’s my brother and asked me to say that.) The CD is titled “New World Folk Songs” and is available for listening at

    https://charliemcshane.bandcamp.com/album/new-world-folk-music-2

    Charlie did not start playing the guitar until his mid-40s. The work is very eclectic as befits someone who has listened to so many types of music over his many years. Charlie is an especially strong lyricist. My personal two favorites (if you are going to stop by) are ”Trouble” and “Different Seasons” but there are other songs well worth listening to. Here are a few words from his Bandcamp page.

    “This album is part real life, part fantasy, and part tongue-in-cheek. Yes, I’m a Boomer, but give me a minute. Sure, I’m steeped in the music of The Bob and The Joni, The Paul and The Leonard… but also Tom Lehrer, O’Carolan, Balkan brass bands, Susan Werner, Indonesian gamelan, Robert Johnson and more. I love it all. I present these songs with joy, in the belief that Music is the universal language, and we’re all cousins in the Family of Song.”

    He is having a CD release party on Sunday at 6:00 p.m. at Jarvis Square Pottery, 1443 W Jarvis, Chicago, this Sunday (the 22nd) at 6:00 p.m. Consider dropping by if you are in the area. Or you can fly in if not. Suggested donation is $15.

  7. 7.

    Ken

    I find myself worrying that Gaetz might be correct. If Jordan is indeed the most popular Republican in Congress, then given he got less than 90 votes in their caucus, we’ll be without a Speaker for quite a while.

  8. 8.

    SpaceUnit

    Not sure it’s useful these days to think of Republican behavior in terms of rational motivation and plans.

     

    They’re more like goblins on crack who lit their own pants on fire.

  11. 11.

    Another Scott

    JSF said downstairs that he’ll do a lap dance for the donor who puts the thermometer over the top*.

    Who will be the lucky juicer??

    Cheers,
    Scott.
    —
    * – not intended to be a factual statement.

  12. 12.

    twbrandt

    While the clown show that is the national GOP continues, the clown show that is the Michigan GOP also continues. The Michigan party, which has serious financial issues, took out a loan to pay for Jim Caviezel to be a speaker at their annual conference on Mackinac Island. The conference, normally a fundraiser, lost money. Kristina Karamo, the lunatic who is the party chair, blamed the “deep state” on the party’s financial troubles.

  13. 13.

    Brachiator

    The only good thing about this clown show is that we haven’t heard anything about Hunter Biden’s laptop in a while.

  15. 15.

    Jay C

    @Ken:

    unfortunately (for Congress and the country), not having a Speaker – and hence, not having a functioning House, or a functioning Legislative Branch, is seen as a feature (and exploitable opportunity) by all too many players in DC…

  16. 16.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Ken:

    If Jordan is indeed the most popular Republican in Congress

    Naah, head to head Scalise and McCarthy both smoked Jordan.  They just couldn’t get the sacred 217 so it didn’t matter.

  17. 17.

    Damned as Random

    Unless the Repubs give their Whip an actual bullwhip nothing will change. I blame their parents.

  18. 18.

    WaterGirl

    oops, Anne Laurie, I didn’t see you putting this together in the back room.  I pressed Publish and then my laptop crashed, just got it up again now and discovered your post.

  20. 20.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Another Scott: I was thinking I’d offer up my story about how the Army and Navy took me from my beloved Virginia mountain roots to Virginia Beach despite never being in the military or my folks not being in the military either but honestly, who fucking cares? :

    The lap dance sounds intriguing.

  22. 22.

    Ken

    By the way, in which sense is the post title’s “busted” meant? I’ve heard that several state parties are running out of money, but there are also a large number of Republicans who’ve been arrested and charged with crimes.

  23. 23.

    WaterGirl

    @Another Scott: Ha!

    A new BJ angel just emailed me to say that he will match the next 4 $50 donations to get us to the top.  So if someone here wants to donate $50, you get a full match and the lap dance. :-

    Just $239 needed to get us to our goal.

    edit: we did it!

  24. 24.

    p.a.

    … animatronic Trump or Reagan hologram.

     

    Paging Mr. Bush… paging Mr. George W. Bush… 🤔😳🫨😂

    That is one goddamn deep memory hole!

  29. 29.

    Geminid

    While reading the long article that led the post, I was struck by one passage:

       …perhaps setting up the sort if two headed structure many feared when Hakeem Jeffries ascended to minority leader and Nancy Pelosi stuck around as Speaker Emerita.

    “…that many feared,” huh? That made me look to see who the author was. Sure enough, it was Tara Palmieri. She’s the one who pushed this invidious theory when Pelosi announced she was stepping back and it was clear that Jeffries would be Minority Leader. A lot of the Jeffries haters ran with it.

  31. 31.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Frankensteinbeck: ​ Pulling up from downstairs:

    Any Republican Speaker is going to be an extreme asshole whose political positions are almost all loathsome.

    Dammit! You’re a writer! You should know that that’s too long for a rotating tag!

  33. 33.

    CaseyL

    @patrick II: I listened to a few of the songs, and like how they’re so distinct from one another: different styles, rhythms, and sounds.  (Also easy to listen to.) Mad props to your brother for daring to take up a new skill and art, and persevering.

    The GOP is still terrifying from any kind of normative moral, intellectual, or legislative point of view.  But they’ve managed to be terrifying and tedious at the same time: so much stupidity, so much dishonesty.  I have absolutely no idea which worm-riddled carcass  they’ll nominate for Speaker next (I thought for sure Jordan would get it and was wrong).  Maybe McCarthy will get his second act.

  38. 38.

    Anne Laurie

    @Ken: By the way, in which sense is the post title’s “busted” meant?

    I mostly meant it in the sense ‘Kevin’s clever plan is not quite so hidden as he probably thinks’, but all your interpretations would also work!

  42. 42.

    TS

    Thanks AL – you have found the descriptions of the GOP that fit so very very well

    My favorite – from Rep Maxwell Frost – telling the GOP to pull themselves up – none of this socialism.

  43. 43.

    Geminid

    @eclare: There is a core of Democrats and Democrat-adjacents who have never liked Hakeem Jeffries. They say he is a PINO- a Progressive In Name Only- and the leader of the “Corporate Democrats.”

    Palmieri is either one of them or is friends with some of them. At the time, it was obvious Jeffries would be the next Democratic leader, and Palmieri tried to dirty him up by making him seem subservient to Pelosi.

    Ed. That put Palmieri on my journalistic shit list.

  44. 44.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Geminid: To be fair, Democrats maybe should consider nominating another Democrat for Speaker since Hakeem Jeffries keeps losing.

  46. 46.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Geminid:

    There is a core of Democrats and Democrat-adjacents who have never liked Hakeem Jeffries. They say he is a PINO- a Progressive In Name Only- and the leader of the “Corporate Democrats.”

    I remember that some used to say that about Nancy Smash.  Were they the same people?  Just curious.

  49. 49.

    Scout211

    @Just Some Fuckhead: To be fair, Democrats maybe should consider nominating another Democrat for Speaker since Hakeem Jeffries keeps losing.

    If the Republicans would just help him out he wouldn’t be such a loser.  😉

  50. 50.

    Percysowner

     

    And to complicate things Trump is telling loyalists to kill new speaker candidate’s prospects in the cradle: report . The target of his ire seems to be Tom Emmer, because Emmer had the audacity to 1) vote to certify Biden as President and 2) tell the Republicans to not be distracted by Trump in the 2022 elections. Obviously Trump’s ring and other body parts must be kissed by the entire Party or he will take you down.

    I do think it’s time for 10 Republicans to announce they’ve tested positive for COVID and they just can’t show up for the next vote. Or join Van Orden on a trip to Israel.

  55. 55.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Just Some Fuckhead: You made me curious.  Turns out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakeem_Jeffries#:~:text=Jeffries%20was%20born%20in%20New,of%20the%20Cornerstone%20Baptist%20Church.

    Jeffries was born in New York City, at Brooklyn Hospital Center to Laneda Jeffries, a social worker, and Marland Jeffries, a state substance-abuse counselor. He has one brother, Hasan. He grew up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn and is a lifelong member of the Cornerstone Baptist Church.

    But that said, it’s certainly truthy[1] that Leader Jeffries is a Muslim.

    [1] in the sense of truthiness.

  59. 59.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Just Some Fuckhead: BTW, thank you for making the joke: you caused me to look it up.  Which, hah, I had no idea, b/c I just didn’t care.  *grin*  Still don’t, b/c all I care about is he’s a Dem in good standing.

  60. 60.

    Ken

    @Frankensteinbeck: I’m not trying to write rotating tags!  I’m trying to communicate clearly for an audience of deeply skeptical and fractious pedants!

    That’s a little long for a rotating tag.

  63. 63.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Chetan Murthy: ​ 

    By the quality of the fried chicken, greens, cornbread and ham?

    I mean, the ham is a killer for the Muslim faction, but they kick ass with hummus.

  64. 64.

    Anne Laurie

    @Villago Delenda Est: Take a bite of spaghetti, remove smol black kitten from desk. Repeat.

    I have *never* been able to figure out why some cats have a jones for tomato sauce!

    P.S.  Congratulations, if appropriate, on the new feline housemate!

  65. 65.

    Chetan Murthy

    @HumboldtBlue: Here in SF, there’s a Middle Eastern grocery, Samiramis, in the Mission.  I think it used to be run by an old Lebanese guy, but he sold up to a younger guy a few years back.  They make the *most amazing baba ganouj*.  I mean, stab-your-dinner-partner-in-the-back-of-the-hand-to-keep-it-all-for-yourself amazing.

    As for hummus, I used to really like Sabra brand, but then I tried Trader Joe’s Mediterranean style.  Sabra is to sweet+salty in comparison.

  67. 67.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Anne Laurie:

    I have *never* been able to figure out why some cats have a jones for tomato sauce!

    Cats have the unusual trait of being biologically required to eat poison and force themselves to vomit, so their taste bud preferences are pretty damn weird.

  68. 68.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Frankensteinbeck: Wait, are you serious?  Or joking?  B/c I googled (after reading your comment) and it seems quite the opposite?  That cats are fussy eaters, and hence less likely to eat something poisonous ?

    I’ve never had a cat [never felt up to the task of caring for another living being] so I have no idea.

  69. 69.

    Geminid

    @Chetan Murthy: I did not follow politics so closely when Pelosi was ascendent as I do now. But I definitely think that it’s the same people who still run Pelosi down that are the ones who run Jeffries down. Some of them write for journals like Slate and Jerkobin.

    Another one of them is a Twitter polemicist who operates out of Minneapolis, wears goofy sweaters and says he is a “proud do-something Democrat.” He got really shitty about Jeffries, describing him as a “bloodless Wall Street leech.” Palmieri’s gossipy lies were like catnip for this person. He talked about “training wheels” and other derogatory tropes; did everything but call Jeffries “Boy.”

    All this stuff is in abeyance right now, but I think we’ll see it again. I also think this is one reason Ms. Pelosi waited until a week before last November’s Caucus elections to show her hand. She knew these people would be revving up an anti-Jeffries campaign and trying to dirty him up.

  70. 70.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Geminid: o.i.c.  The “leftier-than-thous”, eh?  Heh.  I’m way to the left of Pelosi on economic issues.  If the leader of the House Dems hewed to my positions on economic matters, the Dems would endure a historic shellacking in their next election.  Which is why I was glad of Pelosi, and glad of Jeffries.

  71. 71.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Chetan Murthy:

    Wait, are you serious? Or joking?

    I am completely serious.  It’s the hairballs.  Cats have to eat stuff – like grass – that makes them vomit, or their digestive system gets clogged and they die.  They are indeed fussy, but they’re fussy with ‘also, that turpentine smells delicious!’ weird and unexpected additions to what they like.  It can be a problem for some cat owners if the cat’s taste buds pick a flavor it craves that’s dangerous or just something you don’t want ripped up.

  72. 72.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Chetan Murthy: Yeah, I kind of see myself the same way. But at the same time, I don’t trust 80 year-olds to have the pulse of the nation. We have a gerontocracy that is helping to do real damage to the country and the environment. I’m not suggesting that replacing them with youngsters is going to be an automatic fix but it’s the start to the fix.

  74. 74.

    Geminid

    @Chetan Murthy: A lot of “Progressives” did not like it when Jeffries ran for Caucus Chairman and won. This was a few weeks after the 2018 midterms, and the post was open because of Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s famous primary victory over Joe Crowley. Jeffries’ opponent was the veteran liberal hero Barbara Lee, and his win deeply disappointed her adherents.

    One thing that struck me at the time was that Jeffries had been in Congress just three terms before he was made head of the Democratic Caucus. Six years is not that long a time. Both Jeffries’ colleagues and his leaders must have seen something that impressed them.

    I sometimes see people speak of Jeffries as someone Nancy Pelosi picked out of obscurity and “groomed” into leadership material. I’m not sure people credit Jeffries as the formidable politician he is in his own right. Yet.

  75. 75.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Geminid: When Pelosi was in ascendance she was considered a member of the far left wing of the party, sort of the AOC of her day. I’m old enough to remember that.

  77. 77.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Chetan Murthy: Cats are less likely to eat poop or rocks than dogs are. But they do like to eat grass and some plants one wouldn’t characterize as food. We had a spider plant, I think, that one of our cats just murdered. We didn’t sweat it at first because we looked it up and determined it wouldn’t hurt her, but she ate the whole thing and destroyed it. And some cats are fascinated by weird chemical tastes that can get them in trouble.

  78. 78.

    Geminid

    @Matt McIrvin: Politicians are seen a lot of ways. Usually the image relates to how they actually are, but it often leaves some things out. In this case, describing Pelosi in terms of her relative progressivism then and now leaves out a quality that I think transcends ideological affiliation, and that is poltical pragmatism. What made Nancy Pelosi such an outstanding Minority Leader and then Speaker was her pragmatism. And I think that is the most important knowledge that she got to teach younger members, especially from 2018 to 2022.

  81. 81.

    Kathleen

    @Geminid: The same cohort that has problems with a Black Vice President and Black head of DNC, and powerful Black voter block, for “reasons”, I suspect. I contend the media’s visceral hatred of Biden/Democrats is prominence of Black people.

  82. 82.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: To be fair, I would point out that over the last 10 months, the Minnesotan I talk about here seems to have modulated what I considered a reflexiively negative view of Democratic Party. leadership.

  84. 84.

    Kay

    @Geminid:

    I don’t read him any more because I finally (really and truly)  quit reading Twitter but maybe he has a “newsletter”. Some horrible Substack thing I can purchase.

Comments are closed.