Uncharted Water – Speaker of the House

Opinion: This thread will be somewhat long and certainly, the events of the last twenty-four hours with the removal of Kevin McCarthy, as Speaker of the House; leave us all saying “what’s next”? Arguably, there doesn’t appear to be a Plan B. However, even historically when provided with clear direction and empowered with the ability to do so; the Republicans fail to deliver. Time to listen to the American people DC?

From: The Conservative Tree House

Kevin McCarthy Tells Republican Caucus He Will Not Seek Speakership Again – Here’s My Thoughts

According to multiple DC media sources, a quiet effort is underway by members of the professionally republican mindset to kick Matt Gaetz out of the House Republican caucus.  However, the advocates worry they will be primaried by voters in their district, as the population of Republican voters supports Gaetz.  It is a duplicitous dynamic.

Meanwhile, Kevin McCarthy has told his Republican conference that despite prior statements, he will not attempt to become the House Speaker again and will instead retire to his home district in California.

No one is quite sure what comes next; what is clear is that Gaetz has channeled the frustration of the Republican/MAGA base into an actionable result.  This should not come as a surprise to the GOPe, although many of the cloistered clan continue pretending not to understand the dynamic at play.

Allow me to provide some simple clarity.

♦ In 2009 72% of the country, and an even larger percentage of the Republican voters, did not want Obamacare.  The govt takeover of healthcare was along purely ideological grounds.  For the 2010 midterm election, the professional Republican apparatus campaigned on this single issue – repeal Obamacare.  The voters destroyed the Democrats and flipped 67 seats to Republican control.  The professional Republicans wanted the House, frustrated American voters gave it to them.

The Republicans did nothing.

♦ In 2012, the professional Republicans campaigned on retaining the House and asked to begin a process of taking down the Democrat control of the Senate. Remember, it was a 60/40 Senate when the Obamacare boondoggle was begun.  Keep the House, help us take Senate seats, and we will repeal Obamacare and balance the budget.  That was the call of the 2012 professional Republicans.  The voters delivered.  The GOPe kept the house, took 6 seats in the Senate and introduced a wave of fresh Republican blood.

The Republicans did nothing.

♦ In the 2014 midterm election, the professional Republicans campaigned on retaining the House and now flipping the Senate with more GOP seats.  Keep the House, give us the Senate majority, and we will repeal Obamacare and deliver a balanced budget.  The voters again delivered.  Beginning in January 2015, the Republicans controlled the House and the Senate majorities for Obama’s last two years.

The Republicans did nothing.

Worse still, even with professional Republican control of both chambers of congress, President Obama never had to use his veto pen.

♦ In the 2016 election, after the professional Republicans could no longer stop/block candidate Donald Trump, they said if we get the White House, retain the House and retain the Senate, we will repeal Obamacare, return to regular budgetary order, and balance the budget.   Stunningly, against all the odds, the voters yet again delivered.  President Trump won the election; Republicans now held the White House, the House and the Senate – as requested.

The Republicans did nothing.

Worse still, the professional Republicans acted as if they were the dog that just caught the car.  Now they had no excuses, and as a result there was an exodus of retirements announced from the caucus of the professionally Republican to begin in 2018.

Simultaneously, the professional Republicans passively allowed the targeting of Donald Trump by a fully weaponized intelligence apparatus and justice system to commence.  To say the professionally Republican were willfully blind would be polite and generously honest.

In the background the RNC did nothing.  The California ballot harvesting operation of 2018 reflected a complete lack of action by the RNC or CA GOP.  We all well remember how that operation expanded nationwide in 2020, again with the RNC doing nothing.

This is the reality of what took place between the elections of 2010 and 2020.   Every ask of the professionally rRpublican apparatus was delivered by voters. Every ask of the voters in return was ignored.  Effective January 2021, Obamacare still exists, no budget was ever produced, the borders were unsecured, the economy tanked due to Biden policy, energy and printing presses.  Crises, along with insufferable government mandates, amplified and expanded from coast to coast.

The Green New Deal was passed by Republicans and Democrats, and the collapse of the economy came with it.

Clear enough?

Suddenly, as if there was no background of repeated broken promises and a complete failure to deliver on any key request, Kevin McCarthy and his legion of professionally Republican supporters pretend they cannot fathom why the base voters are more than happy to support Matt Gaetz.

WASHINGTON DC – Kevin McCarthy will not seek the speakership again, marking a devastating end to his time in GOP leadership.

The California Republican informed his members behind closed doors Tuesday night that he will forsake another attempt to win the top job after his ouster on Tuesday, according to seven people familiar with the remarks.

His announcement comes amid intense anger over his ouster by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and seven other GOP members, who voted with House Democrats to eject him earlier Tuesday. Most Republicans vocally opposed his eviction.

McCarthy told his conference that he would return to California to spend time with his family. In his stead, the House will be run by Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), his hand-picked choice as acting speaker. House Republicans have no plans to return to session until next week, scrapping their plans to try to pass party-line spending bills.

The vacancy atop the House is sure to set off a scramble among ambitious Republicans — one that’s likely to get dirty and dragged-out, particularly if McCarthy’s deputies try to ascend. The GOP agrees that the most obvious choices are Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) and Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), all of whom had publicly backed McCarthy until he bowed out.

“I might have been given a bad break, but I’m still the luckiest man alive,” McCarthy said, according to multiple people in the room when he revealed he would not, as he’d vowed, keep trying to stay speaker.

[…] Republicans are willing to admit one thing: No one knows what the coming days, or weeks, will bring. (read more)

Battered Conservative no more!

Source: https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/10/03/kevin-mccarthy-tells-republican-caucus-he-will-not-seek-speakership-again-heres-my-thoughts/#more-251538

From: RedState

What’s Done Is Done, and Republicans Better Come Up With a Plan

AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

On Tuesday, for the first time in the nation’s history, a sitting Speaker of the House was ousted. That came after eight Republicans joined with the entirety of the present Democrat caucus to boot Rep. Kevin McCarthy from the post. 

Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing is certainly up for debate. On its face, it seems unlikely any consensus Speaker candidate will be markedly different from McCarthy. Rep. Steve Scalise is currently undergoing chemo treatments for an aggressive cancer, but he has indicated (at least according to reports) that he would accept the job. Does shifting the number two Republican and a close ally of McCarthy into the top spot really change anything? Probably not. 

Source: https://redstate.com/bonchie/2023/10/04/whats-done-is-done-and-republicans-better-come-up-with-a-plan-n2164660

Nancy Pelosi Ordered to Vacate Her Office by New Acting Speaker, and the Tears Start Immediately

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Kevin McCarthy is out as Speaker of the House. What that means going forward for Republicans isn’t known yet, but there is some objectively good news that broke on Tuesday evening. 

Following McCarthy’s ouster, acting Speaker Patrick McHenry ordered Nancy Pelosi to leave the special hideaway office she didn’t relinquish following her party’s defeat in the 2022 mid-terms. The email notifying Pelosi’s office of the order to get out got right to the point, noting that the office will be re-keyed if she doesn’t leave.

As one of his first acts as the acting speaker, Rep. Patrick McHenry ordered former Speaker Nancy Pelosi to vacate her Capitol hideaway office by Wednesday, according to an email sent to her office viewed by POLITICO.

“Please vacate the space tomorrow, the room will be re-keyed,” wrote a top aide on the Republican-controlled House Administration Committee. The room was being reassigned by the acting speaker “for speaker office use,” the email said.

McHenry is a close ally of McCarthy, and this is almost certainly well-deserved retaliation. According to McCarthy, as part of the passage of the recent 45-day clean continuing resolution, Pelosi had promised to not support Gaetz if a motion to vacate was filed. Instead, the former Democrat Speaker stabbed now former Republican Speaker in the back and actually encouraged her caucus not to save McCarthy. In the end, Democrats joined with a small group of Republicans to end McCarthy’s tenure.

I suppose the lesson is to not make deals with Nancy Pelosi, but what’s done is done, and it’s good to see McHenry striking back. Naturally, Pelosi cried and moaned about the decision. 

The former speaker blasted the eviction in a statement as “a sharp departure from tradition,” adding that she had given former Speaker Dennis Hastert “a significantly larger suite of offices for as long as he wished” during her tenure.

Oh, it was a “sharp departure from tradition?” So was ousting a sitting Speaker, but Pelosi had no problem helping make that happen. Democrats play for keeps, and the only way to respond to their ruthlessness is with ruthlessness.

The band-aid was ripped off in a variety of ways with McCarthy’s ouster. Going forward, there should be no presumption that the opposition party won’t get involved in the majority’s fight over who will be Speaker. Pelosi wanted to cause chaos and chaos she should receive. That starts with making her staffers haul her big screen TV and the rest of her belongings out of her prestigious office.

Source: https://redstate.com/bonchie/2023/10/03/nancy-pelosi-ordered-out-of-her-office-by-new-acting-speaker-n2164656

Who Will Be The New Speaker Of The House?