Analysis by Paul Kane: For the entire 13-year arc of Kevin McCarthy’s House GOP leadership tenure, Republicans kept employing the same hostage-taking strategy. It never really worked. Now, he’s gone. https://t.co/yPfm1LesS5
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) December 17, 2023
Gonna drop this here, for perspective during the coming week… Paul Kane, at the Washington Post, “McCarthy’s exit changes little: House Republicans are still lost” [unpaywalled gift link]:
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) had assembled a photo line Thursday morning just off the House floor for anyone who wanted a picture with the ex-speaker before he cast his last votes.
But after a few minutes, one of the House’s far-right conservatives forced a vote on a procedural motion designed to try to block a defense policy bill. The ex-speaker had to rush on to the floor to help tamp down another mini-rebellion.
It was a fitting end to McCarthy’s career, a 17-year arc that traced House Republicans’ path in helping the GOP move away from its conservative policy roots to instead focus on political stunts.
Rather than trying to work on policy through congressional committees and winning political support, they would find some looming fiscal deadline and threaten calamity unless their conservative demands were met.
For 13 years, the House GOP has cycled between a far-right group of about 15 to 30 conservatives first holding things hostage, and then the leadership team getting ahead of the next hostage-taking by declaring that that was the preferred strategy…
And now, as McCarthy heads for the exit, House Republicans are the driving force in another legislative hostage-taking. This time, following the lead of Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), the House GOP is holding hostage a $110 billion national security package to help defend Israel and Ukraine, fearing support for Ukraine would draw the ire of their leading political figure, ex-president Donald Trump, and many of his supporters.
In terms of his legacy — tangible policy achievements — McCarthy has little to show. By some measures, this has been the least productive Congress since the Hoover administration…
During his first job in House Republican leadership in 2011, then-majority whip McCarthy played the affable understudy to House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), Majority Leader Eric I. Cantor (R-Va.) and then-Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), who chaired the Budget Committee.
Those leaders came up with the first hostage strategy, prompting a spring and summer negotiation over the nation’s debt limit that ended with $2 trillion of cuts and savings — a policy win for Republicans. Still, a third of the most conservative lawmakers voted against it.
By the fall of 2013, the most conservative antagonists essentially took charge of the Republican conference and forced Boehner’s leadership team into a government shutdown over their attempt to defund the implementation of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.
It ended terribly, with no concessions, and almost two-thirds of Republicans voted against the leadership team’s bill to reopen government.
From then on — whether it was Speaker Boehner, Speaker Ryan or, eventually, Speaker McCarthy — the tail of the House GOP regularly wagged the dogs of leadership….
******
As The Washington Post reported later, McCarthy thought his seven years of publicly bowing to Trump would have resulted in the former president’s calling the group of GOP rebels and telling them to stand down when days later they moved to remove McCarthy as speaker. Trump didn’t and, instead, in a phone call questioned McCarthy’s loyalty. The ex-speaker later told people he then cursed at the ex-president.
The eventual election of Johnson — a much more conservative speaker than his three GOP predecessors — has helped the legislative morass only on the margins.
The appropriations funding bills ran into the same dead end. Far-right Republicans sometimes block the procedural rules votes. And, just a few weeks into the job, Johnson had to pass another “clean CR,” just as McCarthy did, to keep agencies running deep into the winter.
Those Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy aren’t happy with Johnson, yet they have set the expectations bar quite low…
The House closed later that afternoon for the holiday season and will not return until Jan. 9 — 10 days before the first of two funding deadlines. The federal workforce will again be held hostage…
Delusional. Just delusional.
McCarthy: "There’s so much that we’ve been able to accomplish in a short amount of time… I had the privilege of being leader for 5yrs. I think about did I leave this place better than I received it."pic.twitter.com/uxqAMJDqZt
— Victoria Brownworth (@VABVOX) December 14, 2023
Odie Hugh Manatee
“Delusional” isn’t the word to describe McCarthy, it’s “liar”. They all lie and he’s the leader of the liars. It’s all they have now, lies and the outrage that their lies feed. Lies piling upon lies, all believed by their stupid fucking voters because it’s what they believe.
Republicans are the party of lies and what they offer is nothing but lies.
Ruckus
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
This.
Also I think they are just lost in the forest of stupid and conservatism that says that the world was better 400 yrs ago and we should at the very least try to get half way there. They are not politicians in any way they are illogical racist dipshits. They do not want better they want to revert to pre civil war bull and shit. They are the proof that sticking one’s head up one’s own ass really isn’t a positive thing.
Frankensteinbeck
Posturing and cowardice have been the Republican playbook for a decade. A Republican Speaker delays until the last possible moment on financial bills, declaring all kinds of reactionary, hyper-conservative goals, then gives in and passes something bland and tries to pretend it didn’t happen. Johnson is following that playbook so far.
Everything else is sham votes and committees designed to yell how much they hate Democrats while safely achieving nothing.
Trump has affected this pattern not at all.
satby
@Odie Hugh Manatee: You are correct. And I really do blame the infotainment media that passes for “news” in this and other countries. They’ve allowed the lying to go on without a robust correction for so long that now when they try to feebly push back they’re ignored as fake news. The liars trained their audience well.
NotMax
@satby
This coming weekend to be your final fling at the market?
Dangerman
@Ruckus: My personal (currant edition) favorite is MAGA’s just want their Country back. One, WTF does that really mean? Two, it’s not their country. It’s our country.
ETA: Yes, I’m raisin a fuss.
montanareddog
@Dangerman:
ETA: removal of a stupid joke that you had already made
Marmot
They also offer nonsensical mixups of some words they know!
That sort of mangled nested question squirms out from corporate maws all the time. Somehow you’re supposed to be impressed.
Matt McIrvin
The House Republicans just went the same way as the Senate Republicans: doing their best to keep anything from happening legislatively. From a conservative perspective, the job of a legislator is primarily to prevent legislation. So being “unproductive” was success.
Honestly, we’d probably be even worse off if they felt otherwise; I can only imagine what horrors a truly activist Congressional Republican leadership would produce.
NotMax
@montanareddog
Fruitless repetition?
satby
@NotMax: No, the buyer for my booth has to go back to Great Britain to finalize the sale of his family home right after Christmas and will be gone all of January. As I normally am too. So we’ll conclude the sale next spring, and I’ll keep selling until then, as my fees are paid until April and that (market board) lot doesn’t do refunds. The Etsy store will be gone as of Jan 1, but people can still email me at (skinluvvers) at gmail dot com if they want to order anything next year, up to April anyway. I may continue to do seasonal sales; but I want to travel and see a few things before I have eye surgery.
Cornea transplants are reasonably successful, even combined with cataract surgery; but any surgery has risk of less than perfect outcomes.
satby
We’re under a winter storm watch here, the incoming cold may trigger lake effect snows between 4-8 inches across Northern Indiana and SW Michigan, + 40 mph wind gusts which should create some white outs. I’m getting out early for a couple of small errands, then hunkering down for the duration.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@satby: I didn’t know you were having cornea transplants. I just googled it. The results do sound encouraging.
Mousebumples
Sounds exciting – and thanks for the timeline update. Good luck to you in what’s ahead.
linnen
And this is how to normalize the far-right shenanigans and hostage-taking in the previous 10 years starting with House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
NotMax
@satby
Lake effect flakes? Almost mandatory.
:)
Yarrow
They may be lost but they don’t lose enough. They need to lose in a big way for three election cycles (I think Josh Marshall said that but whoever did they’re right) and maybe they’ll change their ways.
satby
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Yes, I’m hoping so! But, having worked for an eye doctor, I realize there’s no guarantees, so at least a couple of things to check off before I get it. Besides, since it’s combined with cataract surgery, I have to wait until they’re bad enough for Medicare to pay for it. 🙄
I can see, everything’s just more or less fuzzy, so it’s not terrible.
Yarrow
@linnen: Agreed. It’s not like the Republican hostage taking is new.
satby
@Mousebumples: Thanks!
@NotMax: and thank you too!
satby
That cute little video of the tap dancing Nutcracker at the White House AL shared earlier?
Evidently the MAGA crowd was OUTRAGED!
Eyeroller
@satby: I’ve had both DMEK and DSAEK. IIRC you have Fuch’s dystrophy. The transplant should have very good odds of success for that. I have corneal decompensation as a complication of glaucoma surgery, and the tube greatly increases the chance of graft failure (not rejection, it just fails to work). The surgery itself is not that big a deal, at least for the patient. The post-surgery requirements are unpleasant but tolerable. For the DSAEK I got some prism glasses from Amazon so I could read without having to hold the item over my head.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
“By some measures this has been the least-productive Congress…”
I guess that’s “some” in the mathematics sense, where it means “more than zero” and includes the possibility of “every single one”.
NotMax
@satby
Inconsistency abounds. Tchaikovsky was Russian, after all.
//
Anyway
@Matt McIrvin:
Yes, obstructing the D agenda is their goal. Too bad aid to Ukraine is caught up in their performance tantrum.
The article is good tracing how this goes back to Ryan and Cantor and of course Bohner.
Anyway
@satby:
Good luck with the eye surgery (and all the travel you’re planning before).
JR
@Matt McIrvin: I think there would be a schism if the Republicans actually pursued an activist agenda. Many of those folks don’t actually want what others in their coalition want. In many ways their interests are more divergent than those within the Democrats’ coalition.
Yarrow
@satby: That’s a lot to manage. Sending good thoughts for every success with all of it. And to some exciting travels.
satby
@Eyeroller: Thanks! Good to hear from someone who’s had it. Yes, I have Fuchs.
@NotMax: And he was gay!
satby
@Yarrow: Thanks.
satby
@Anyway: Missed your comment, thanks!
Fucking eyes 😂
Princess
@satby: The MAGA crowd are easily triggered. Snowflakes.
zhena gogolia
@satby: In the linked article —
It’s Duke Ellington’s reimagining of the Nutcracker. In the Nutcracker, it’s the Waltz of the Flowers. Ellington called it the Dance of the Floreadores. It’s a classic! I hate MAGA.
zhena gogolia
@satby: As I mentioned that day, when I googled to try to find a YouTube version, all the hits were “CRITICS ROAST JILL BIDEN FOR TASTELESS VIDEO”! I couldn’t believe it.
zhena gogolia
@Anyway: Ukraine is caught up in it because the Republicans are allies of Russia.
Chief Oshkosh
@Matt McIrvin:
No need to use any imagination; just look at the FL legislature. [See thread from earlier about weakening child labor laws.]
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
Albatrossity
Yes, for a very long time the chaos muppets have been bollixing the plans of the House GOP “leadership”, and ruining things for everyone in the country. Including their deranged base, who have mistaken revenge for progress.
satby
@zhena gogolia: I know! But jazz is the music of the devil.
I hate them too. Believe me, even the ones who I apparently get along with IRL I have zero respect or regard for: shallow, wilfully stupid, mean little people.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I’m waiting for cataracts to get bad enough that my eye doctor will do the surgery. I’m no longer correctable to 20/20, I think it’s 20/30, and it’s really annoying the number of situations where I can’t read something, such as the street name on a sign.
My wife had the cataract surgery some years back and went from more myopic than me, to “superhero vision”.
Unfortunately the doc at the last visit said I’m not going to be due any time soon.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@satby:
… when blah people perform it. Why do I feel that Gene Kelly could have done exactly the same Nutcraker performance and none of them would have batted an eye? I wouldn’t be surprised actually, if there exists some footage of Kelly doing something all but identical.
Kristine
@satby: best wishes re: surgery and upcoming travels. Looking forward to photos!
Paul in KY
@satby: I hope your eye surgery is completely successful!!
Uncle Cosmo
Nothing so became you like your leaving, Qevin. And once you leave this will be a better place. Not by much, but baby steps. Pending a wholesale cleaning out of your Traitors’ Klown KauKus next fall…
Uncle Cosmo
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I hope they’re better than my results. But unless her docs render her blind, they’re almost bound to be.
In summer 2022 I paid premium prices for the premium lenses which, I was cheerfully informed by the surgeon here at the self=proclaimed Best Eye Clinic In The World, would ensure I’d “never need glasses again.” He lied. The myopia I lived with for 65 years has been turned topsyturvy, I need reading glasses to see anything closer than 14″, and the vision problems I though were caused by cataracts have not been fixed at all. in general I am still struggling with the aftermath 16 months later.
Good luck, satby.
JAFD
@satby:
I’m glad to have had my cataracts removed, greatly improved my sight. I trust that you have confidence in your doctors, and will drop in the drops before and after.
Best wishes for a blessed Christmas and a healthy, happy, peaceful and prosperous 2024
RaflW
Overal a good review of his crappy party and his flaccid leadership. But it still fundamentally misunderstands the GOP. “The least productive Congress since the Hoover administration” is the point. That’s a win for the Freedumb Caucus.
SomeRandomGuy
I do wonder why, even for the Washington Press corp, no one asks “how is this pending total collapse of the US economy different from the last five or six pending total collapses of the economy that would happen, if previous shutdowns didn’t occur; and, as a follow-up: given that you didn’t get what you want each and every time, and no actual calamity has occurred – why should you be given any credibility whatsoever?”
I swear – did the Clinton, W, Obama and Trump years make so many authors rich that none of them are actually journalists any longer?
satby
@Kristine: @Paul in KY: Thanks! (Me too!)
satby
@Uncle Cosmo: I’m so sorry about your outcome. The wildcard in any surgery is how we heal, and everyone doing everything perfectly can’t always result in a great outcome, unfortunately.
@JAFD: Thanks JAFD! As part of those aforementioned travels, I’m thinking of heading east again. If I do you’ll be hearing from me!
pluky
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I can see where infinitesimal math would be useful in calculating the effectiveness of this Republican House caucus.
burritoboy
Yes……and no. If, ultimately, their politics points towards wanting an authoritarian regime (and I think most of us agree that it does), this is a pretty good strategy, or at least a plausible strategy. Of course, their personal, individual problem is that authoritarian regimes don’t really need legislatures. Legislatures are only important in republics. (That doesn’t mean that the legislatures don’t exist in other regime types, but that they’re not very essential. They ratify things that the regime wants to have ratified or legalized, a minorly useful but not incredibly necessary function.) But many of the current US right wing legislators seem to be well aware of that – they seem to view their legislative positions primarily as stepping stones to future positions within the executive branch (or possibly other things like right-wing media or possibly executive functions like state governor-ships), which is where power in authoritarian regimes precisely does reside.
This is very well trodden ground: authoritarians have traditionally used legislatures for creating various political dramas to undermine democratic governance, or use legislatures as launching grounds for taking executive power. (For a number of examples, see: the behavior of the Nazi legislators in the Reichstag 1930-1933, the Serb nationalists in the Yugoslavian parliament in the 1920s, and many others historically.) In general, they do not legislate in any meaningfully coherent way that makes sense within democratic republics – quite reasonably from their perspective, since they are not aiming to support the structure of the democratic republic. There’s no very important reason for them to focus on legislating meaningfully within the democratic republic, since that would be supporting it, which is not their aim.