So Kevin McCarthy is our new Speaker of the House for the 118th Congress. It took six present votes to get him over the finish line on the 15th vote. Historic. 15 votes. It's been awhile since electing a speaker took so long (not the longest...it only went to the fifth day). What a civics lesson!
I'm not particularly keen on McCarthy, seeing him as too much a Paul Ryan/John Boehner than a Newt Gingrich, which is the kind of Speaker we really need. But I agree with Tucker Carlson that he's far more suited for the post than for most any other...for a rather establishment Republican. That is to say, he really is more of a swamp creature than I'd like to see leading the GOP in the House. We have a worse example leading the GOP in the Senate, but they're of the same breed more than not.
On the plus side, the 14 of the original 20 opponents who changed their votes to support McCarthy worked hard to squeeze him for most necessary concessions. I'd like to think McCarthy conceded the points on the principle that the points had merit...which they do (insofar as do those of which I heard). The remaining holdouts who voted "present" simply don't like the guy for the job, which is cool. I don't agree he's so bad that they'd totally hold up business indefinitely, and their "present" votes seem to have demonstrated that. Of course, there was always risk. But at worse I think the GOP would have simply nominated and pushed a different name rather than let election denier Hakim Jefferies take the gavel.
One of the concessions had to do with ridding ourselves of the Speaker, should he fail to satisfy. I don't know exactly how many reps must join forces to get it done, but if I understood him correctly, Byron Donalds asserted that prior to Nancy Pelasshole changing the rule to make it harder, it had long been the rule that only one Congress-critter could demand the Speaker be removed, yet it had never been exercised before. I imagine...and this is likely the case...Pelosi simply didn't want to risk being tossed, so she got the rule changed to raise the bar for removal while she had the majority. It should be fairly easy to reject a lame Speaker such that the Speaker must do his/her job effectively to prevent it from happening. We adults call that "accountability", and it is a good thing. Kudos to the holdouts.
Another is the move to deny the absurdity of another omnibus spending bill as was just passed. The rule will prevent such monstrosities from being passed in the middle of the night without the bill given adequate time for scrutiny before voting on it. Also, it would require that each department would be of a separate spending proposal and in addition, no amendment unrelated to the bill would be allowed. If I've got all this right, it is a good thing.
Also, I think Friday is now pizza night, but I'm not sure about this one.
In any case, the holdouts did their duty as their oath to their office and their promise to their constituents demanded and together with other concessions the rules of operation will result in the House going what the House is supposed to have been doing for some time but hadn't in quite awhile. We'll see.
For the record, Steve Scalise is Majority Leader and some dude from Minnesota is Majority Whip, while the moron Jefferies is Minority Leader and some broad from Massachusetts is Minority Whip.
All in all, I enjoyed the entire process. It was amazing to witness, though I hope we don't have to endure another for a long time. I wish McCarthy the best and hope that he will lead the House to do its job and justify a better opinion of them in short order. The people shouldn't have such low regard for Congress and this part of it can do great things, even with it's small majority...that is, so long as the assholes in the Jackass Party don't obstruct just to obstruct.
8 comments:
Why does the troll even try anymore?
It's strange that the left wants to pretend like healthy, principled disagreement within a party is a sign of dysfunction. It's like they really think that unwavering support for the party line regardless of one's own convictions or the will of their constituents is a much healthier model.
Unfortunately, there are those among the right who were concerned as well: Newt Gingrich, Sean Hannity and of course those among the GOP House members (Crenshaw, for example). It's a sad state of affairs, as if they want the GOP to be good sheep like the Dems.
The problem is that when everyone in your caucus is a good sheep and simply does what they're told, then it's pretty simple for the majority to run roughshod over the minority. The DFL does this very well. They have their majority trained to do what they're told and they've used that strategy effectively over the years (Obamacare). The disconnect is that everyone will say that they want their representatives to be independent and to vote the way their constituents want, but what they really want is for the majority party to rule.
I do indeed want my rep to be as conservative as possible, informed by strong Christian faith and to vote in a manner I would as well. But what I really want is for the entirety of the party to which he belongs, if not the entirety of government, to do so, too. I want the party I support to be in the majority, instead of the Democrats...who are evil...and to only rule when there is a serious need for them to do so, instead of supposing they're there to legislate so as not to appear worthless. They're worth more to me the less they do.
But in any case, even within the contest as I've described above, disagreement within might take place, and hashing things out is part of their jobs. I want the result to be the consequence of honest, intelligent give-and-take of persuasive, fact-based positions. A fantasy world, I know. But it's what I want and represents the kind of reps I seek. The GOP, by virtue of the Speaker debate, demonstrated that as closely as I've seen in some time, looking far more American in doing so.
The problem is that it's not a fantasy world. It's how things were done in our federal government as recently as the late 20th century.
It's a fantasy world now, and this recent spat within the GOP over the Speaker position is represents what once was and hopefully can be again. The wheels of government aren't meant to speedily turn, and this kind of debate must be allowed, if not encouraged, to take place for the good of the nation.
I agree that these sorts of debates within a party can be healthy and good. Certainly healthier than the sheep model that the DFL follows. Unfortunately, we need to seem more of this between the parties as well.
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