Congressional Clown Show Leads to Chaos
McCarthy was not the speaker the GOP needed. But he was the speaker they deserved.
Tuesday. October 3, was a huge day in domestic politics. Rep. McCarthy getting dumped, former President Trump being ordered to shut up, and Laphonza Butler being sworn in as the Senator from California all will impact the 2024 elections.
Although there seems to be a reluctance with the chattering class to say so, I’ll go out on a limb and declare that it was a good day for Democrats.
The former speaker’s fundraising ability kept hopes alive for five Republicans running in competitive House seats in California. Reps. Michelle Steel, Young Kim, Mike Garcia, David Valadao, and John Duarte all now face a steeper climb. It just so happens that five is the magic number Republicans have as a majority.
Via Politico California Playbook:
Orrin Evans, a Democratic consultant working on multiple swing races, said McCarthy tarnished GOP candidates on his way out the door by forcing them to vote on a stopgap spending bill with cuts to law enforcement and other key services. The bill failed, and McCarthy relied on Democratic votes to temporarily avert a government shutdown.
“The GOP is in full crisis mode. Every single one of these Republican enablers are going to have to own that parting gift from Kevin McCarthy from now to November 2024,” Evans said.
The chaos caucus in the House of Representatives, led by Slimy McForehead (AKA Rep. Matt Gaetz) removed Rep. Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House. There was no plan by the MAGA-motivated insurgents on what to do next, so they promptly adjourned for a week.
Joyce Vance at Civil Discourse called it like it is:
Trump’s MAGA caucus demonstrated today, for anyone who still has doubts, that they lack any interest in governing. They are the party of Trump and of Steve Bannon, interested in burning down the house. But for what? For fun? For pleasure? Certainly not for the American people. Because the mayhem in this Congress does not serve anyone, and even in a Congress all too often marked by gridlock and dysfunction in recent years, it is exceptional.
The House GOP has been untethered from the idea of governance for more than a decade now. Demands from the Freedom Caucus for more government shutdowns and unworkable funding cuts led former Speaker John Boehner to throw up his hands and walk away from the job.
Rep. Paul Ryan ‘retired’ after learning the hard way that there was no way to manage his party’s extremists, especially with Trump as President. A total of 39 GOP members opted not to run for re-election in 2018.
Success as part of the House GOP leadership means being either a fool or a liar, or, preferably, both. House Republicans probably can’t be herded by anyone. A potentially competent speaker who knows what can or can’t be accomplished wouldn’t want the job in a political environment where performative politics in the service of Dear Leader is Rule Number One.
For the moment GOP House leadership is in the hands of Speaker pro tempore, North Carolina’s Patrick T. McHenry. In the days running up to McCarthy’s demotion he was urging Democrats behind doors to support keeping the former speaker. His anger at their failure to play along was evident as McHenry gaveled out the evening with such ferocity that he damn near cracked the thing.
His first move as caretaker leader was to announce that he was evicting Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi from her office, promising the locks would be re-keyed effective Wednesday (today).
Pelosi was not in Washington when this announcement was made, having flown to San Francisco to attend Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s funeral. Staffers from other congressional officers were recruited to move her office overnight.
Democrats echoed the solidarity we’ve been seeing on picket lines lately, refusing to help Republicans sort out their mess. Any potential deal they might have made with ‘moderate Republicans’ wouldn’t have led to a better outcome.
McHenry is supposed to hold the position only so long as it takes to elect a new speaker, and to wield the gavel only for purposes of getting this done. The search for a new speaker won’t be quick and it won’t be easy.
Congressman Jim Jordan, the leader of the Don Quixote caucus, and Rep. Steve Scalise, currently undergoing chemotherapy, are the two names mentioned most often as seeking the Speakership. Both have issues with various House GOP members.
This is why barely-tethered to reality GOP members are talking up bringing in an outsider for the job, namely Donald Trump.
There is no rule requiring the Speaker to be serving in the US Congress. But there is a rule saying that anybody facing felonies with the potential for two years or more sentencing can’t serve in a leadership position.
I’m not sure rules will matter anyway, but get ready for weeks of unrest and nothing getting done. And the clock is ticking on the next government shutdown, Nov 17.
Meanwhile, the former president is busy at the moment, waiting for the right moment to violate the gag order imposed by the judge overseeing the New York trial seeking to determine damages in the case where a finding of fraud has already been established.
The gag order, which followed an off-the-record admonishment on Monday, was triggered by a Trump missive (via Social Media and email) claiming that the Clerk of the Court where he was being tried was “[Sen. Chuck] Schumer’s girlfriend.” This misleading claim was based on a photograph found in an inactive Instagram account.
It will surprise exactly nobody in the coming days as news accounts emerge of the Clerk getting additional security in the face of death threats. Because that was exactly what Trump was telling his followers to do.
“Personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate, and I will not tolerate them under any circumstances,” Engoron said.
Trump quickly deleted the post midday Tuesday. The judge explained that it only happened after he had personally ordered Trump to do so, a rare flex of power against the politician who has yet to face similar repercussions from other judges overseeing nearly half a dozen criminal cases across the eastern seaboard.
What did Trump do after court?
Tuesday evening, despite having already been given one gag order, Trump appeared to tear into the legal system and Attorney General Letitia James in a series of false claims.
After claiming James’ civil lawsuit against him was unconstitutional and election interference, Trump wrote the decision to apply that statute to him “was done by Radical Left Marxists design, and is not the America we know.”
Given that this is a civil case, there is a high bar as to what would have to be done by a defendant to warrant incarceration. Somehow, I’m sure he’s going to try. The man needs to do something to distract from the damning testimony being rendered in the courtroom.
The former president received another blow to his ego yesterday, as Forbes dropped him from their list of the nation’s wealthiest 400 people.
According to Forbes, the former president’s fortune fell by 19% to $2.6 billion over the past year, in large part because of his struggling social media platform, Truth Social.
“Donald Trump is no longer rich enough for the country’s most exclusive club,” Forbes said in its announcement, calling its ranking a “measurement that Trump has obsessed over for decades, relentlessly lying to reporters to try to vault himself higher on the list.”
Donald J Trump has the right to remain silent. Unfortunately, the voices in his head won’t allow it.
I’ll close this post out with commentary about the unrest in the House from Joyce Vance at Civil Discourse:
The Founding Fathers, whose views on the best system of government developed in systems characterized by corrupt leaders and powerful kings, knew what they were doing when they created a three-branch system of government with checks and balances. They understood the risk that a self-serving leader might risk to stay in power one day and knew that there had to be ways of keeping that person in check. Trump tried to blow up that system. He was entranced by notions like the “unitary executive”—an all powerful president who could take charge, or the “independent state legislature theory,” thankfully rejected by the Supreme Court last term, that would have let state legislatures override the will of the people in elections with no possibility of judicial review. Perhaps instinctively understanding that a system of checks and balances was inimical to his personal survival, Trump sought to undercut public confidence in all three branches of government when it served him and to damage key democratic institutions that are essential to our country’s stability with his careless accusations and American-carnage-style rhetoric.
All of that comes to a head in this moment—the effort to destroy versus the effort to sustain and nourish. The outcome is not certain, but to be an American means to have hope in the aspirational, to believe that we can persevere and move past difficulties. In some ways, the responsibility for the future is on the shoulders of a very small group of people. But in reality, the burden is for all of us to carry, not just the judges who must hold Trump to account or the Democratic legislators who refused to support a politician who wanted the Speaker’s title so much that he debased the office. All of us have a solemn duty to stay informed, to prepare for the upcoming elections, to get engaged in local and national politics. Democracy hangs, quite literally, in the balance, and we continue to have important work to do.
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While Republicans were making muck on the House side of the Capitol, Democrats were making history on the Senate side.
Newly appointed California Senator Laphonza Butler was sworn into office by Vice President Kamala Harris to complete the term of Senator Dianne Feinstein, which ends next year.
Don’t expect Butler to be a seat warmer, particularly if (undecided yet) she decides to re-up. Before her nomination, Butler was the president of EMILYs List, a political action committee dedicated to electing Democratic female candidates who back reproductive rights to office.
For five years she served as president of Local 2015 of the Service Employees International Union, pushing for policies that included raising the state minimum wage to $15 and increasing income tax rates paid by the state’s wealthiest residents.
Her role as a player in California Democratic politics enabled a trip through the corporate revolving doors, consulting for AirBnB and Uber, a move leading to disappointment and anger in some circles.
Having her as Senator -even on a temporary basis– represents a generational and social change for the institution.
Via the New York Times:
The Congressional Black Caucus, which had previously urged Mr. Newsom to appoint Ms. Lee, issued a statement on Monday celebrating Ms. Butler as the first lesbian Black woman in the Senate.
“For many years, Laphonza Butler has been a champion for women and girls, students, and union workers, and we believe she will bring that same fight to the U.S. Senate on behalf of Californians and our entire nation,” the statement said. “Laphonza will bring an important perspective to the upper house at a time when the rights of women and the L.G.B.T.Q.+ community are under attack.”
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Today’s Links to Click On For Other Thoughts
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Opinion: People think drug use causes homelessness. It’s usually the other way around Via the Los Angeles Times
Findings from the recent California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness encompassing more than 3,200 adults — the largest and most representative sample of homeless individuals since the 1990s — found that 50% have not used any drugs (methamphetamine, cocaine, crack cocaine or nonprescription opioids) in the last six months.
While drug use is much lower in California’s housed population, by no means does every person who is homeless actively use drugs.
For those who did use drugs in the last six months, 40% of people started using — more than 3 times a week —after becoming homeless. Thirty-one percent of those individuals reported using methamphetamine and 11% used nonprescription opioids more than three times per week. Those who spent most of their nights unsheltered in a non-vehicle (sleeping outside, in tents, in places not meant for human habitation) and individuals who were homeless for more than a year had higher proportions of methamphetamine and opioid use.
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Michael Smolens: GOP battles itself, Trump over mail ballots Via the Union-Tribune
For years, one of the most successful states with nearly all-mail-ballot elections has been heavily Republican Utah. Trump and other mail-ballot critics tend to ignore that reality.
Some Republicans, specifically Trump, contend Democrats benefit more from mail balloting. But analyses have questioned whether the process itself gives any party a leg up. History has shown the advantage of mail ballots tends to go to the party most adept at using them.
Decades ago, Republicans saw the value in encouraging absentee voting beyond those people who were going to be out of town during elections. That helped give them the edge in many elections in San Diego and across California — back when Republicans either controlled or were a more essential partner in governing.
Then Democrats wised up.
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For 40 years, Big Meat has openly colluded to rig prices by Cory Doctorow
After all, the CEOs of giant companies in concentrated industries *openly boast* to their shareholders about how they've used the covid and Ukraine invasion shocks to hike prices to increase their profit margins - not just cover their additional costs.
While excuseflation is new, open, naked price-fixing by industry cartels is not. Take the meat-packing industry, dominated by a tiny handful of giant corporations whose executives literally ran a betting pool on how many of their workers would get covid each week while working in their cramped, unventilated factories.
These companies have seen their margins soar - up 300% over the lockdown - while their payments to ranchers and growers cratered.
Tv news commentary being what it is, could it be true that Newsum’s seemingly fine choice is not a registered voter?
The House has about six weeks before another government shutdown. Instead of actually governing, they are running around like chickens without heads. I can only imagine which one of the many embracers of evil will become Speaker. As for moving Pelosi out of her office, that is diabolical.