The Incomprehensible Election for House Speaker

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It is surprising to see the lineup of people who support Kevin McCarthy for House Speaker, given his poor performance as House Minority Leader.  What is far worse is the disingenuousness of some of the unhinged arguments McCarthy supporters are spewing.

Kevin McCarthy does not have a stellar resume.  He served as House Majority Leader, the number two man in the House, during the checkered speakerships of John Boehner and Paul Ryan.  I don’t hold him responsible for anything he did during that time, but I do hold him liable for his failures as the House Minority Leader since.

One, I don’t believe McCarthy has any sense of the existential problems facing America, let alone any idea how to handle them.  Those problems begin with the fundamental changes being made to this nation by a progressive left that is acting extraconstitutionally.  Reestablishing rule of law and equal application of the law in this country have to be the first priorities.  As it stands today, Republicans are below the protection of the Constitution and progressives are above its restrictions.  Men – and President Trump – are being denied the most fundamental rights of due process.  The bureaucratic state is destroying this nation without any votes of Congress.  People are rotting in jail for Jan. 6 while McCarthy says nothing.

A close second priortity has to be stopping the radical left’s balkanization of America and their war on families.  But when McCarthy stated his goals for a Republican-led house in 2021 and 2022, he sounded like he was articulating a lite version of Gingrich’s 30 year old Contract With America.  That America doesn’t exist anymore.  Beating one’s chest over those goals would be akin to Nero fiddling while Rome burns.

Moreover, McCarthy has horrendous strategic sense.  When Peloi refused to seat his five selectees on the January 6 Commission, McCarthy had every right to be angry and make a cause celebre of it.  But picking up his toys and going home gave the left carte blanche for the January 6 committee circus and free reign to commit all of the damage it has done under a ludicrous “bipartisan” cloak.  This was sheer idiocy on McCarthy’s part and he has done nothing to my mind to suggest he has learned his lesson.

And what do the people who know McCarthy think of his promises and threats.  Recall recently that McCarthy threatened the 18 Senate Republicans who voted for the lame-duck $1.7 trillion dollar progressive boondoggle.  He states that he would block any legislation in the House that is proposed by those Senators 18 Senators, one of whom was Senate Minority Leader McConnell himself.

This from McConnell within days of that threat, showing what he thinks of McCarthy as, in essence, a toothless eunuch with whom he can do business.

So count me among those who think McCarthy has to go.  What I find incomprehensible is that my opinion on that issue puts me in rarified company.

Trump has given his imprimatur to McCarthy without explanation.   Kurt Schlichter supports McCarthy for reasons that seem incredibly minor to me — timing and the fact that McCarthy won his last two elections in California.

At least, though, those are not attacks on fellow Republicans using slanderous arguments we’ve come to expect from the left.  Former Speaker Newt Gingrich has called failing to support McCarthy a “moral” failure.  Wow.  Dan Crenshaw, perhaps the biggest disappointment for conservatives in the House, has labeled any Republicans who stand against McCarthy as “enemies.”

What a worthless piece of garbage Crenshaw has turned out to be.

And then there is Scott Johnson at Powerline, who this morning sounds like the most rabid of progressives in his arguments against those who do not vote for McCarthy.  Those opposing McCarthy are a “fringe” that will destroy all Republican chances of retaking the House in 2024.  They have, says Johnson, in a common type of argument from the left, no plans or demands.  Maybe Johnson should try searching the Internet, he might find some of the requests Lauren Boebert has made of McCarthy.  Or perhaps Johnson could listen to a Chip Roy floor speech:

Finally, Johnson is left pining for the good old days . . . of 2020-2022:

The Republican fringe makes the Pelosi era look like the good old days before an electoral force such as Lauren Boebert became a power player.

What slanderous, progressive idiocy.

It is one thing to disagree on who should be Speaker.  But to trot out smear tactics and panic that define progressive methods of “argument” is a way to truly destroy the Republican Party.  Perhaps it should die, and quickly.  It seems too feckless to me to stop our nation’s downward spiral.

Image: YouTube screengrab.

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