POLITICO Playbook: McCarthy on the brink

[brooklynite]

There’s no way to sugarcoat this: Seven years after his last, failed bid for the speakership, KEVIN McCARTHY’s dreams of wielding the gavel are again in peril. Despite years of political contortions aimed at winning over his critics on the far right, with just over 24 hours left until the critical floor vote, the California Republican’s math problem is getting worse, not better.

On Sunday evening, McCarthy announced on a private conference call that he would give his antagonists one of their top demands: The threshold to trigger a vote ousting a speaker would shrink from half the GOP conference, as had been agreed to by a majority of the members, to five dissatisfied lawmakers. But hours later, a group of nine House conservatives issued a letter saying that’s not good enough.

That’s in addition to the five “Never Kevin” lawmakers who have already declared they’re opposing McCarthy. (Remember: He can lose only four votes if all House members cast votes Tuesday.)

But this morning, we can report that that’s not even the worst of it. We caught up Sunday with one of the GOP fence-sitters, a member who has been in the room for these negotiations. And he told us that some of these undecided members won’t support McCarthy — even if he gives them everything they want.

“The problem is people don’t trust Kevin McCarthy and a number won’t vote for him. Those are just the facts,” this lawmaker told us. “The list [of demands] that we offered was not for guaranteed support but rather the kinds of things that might move some of his detractors.”

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2023/01/02/mccarthy-on-the-brink-00076003

[70sEraVet]

1. Good. I hope they spend the next two years arguing about it!

[Raine1967]

2. By weeks end I think we'll be saying

Speaker Steve Scalise.

McCarthy is willing to sell his soul for that position, and that is what cost him. Even Repubs have to stand for something besides pure power for power only. When he gave them the trigger, it was probably all but done.

Happy new year, DU.

[PJMcK]

5. That's what I think, too

Scaliest has the experience and the conservative credibility.

McCarthy hasn’t got a spine and the Speaker must be strong-willed (i.e., Nancy Pelosi) in order the corral the unwieldy House.

There might be a couple of others in the mix but Scalise has a national profile.

[Maeve]

6. To sell your soul for something, you first have to have a soul to sell

That went with his spine years ago

[jaxexpat]

13. Bingo and things from Politico need a little salt.

[BumRushDaShow]

20. "Speaker Steve Scalise"

That's who I think as well. At this point, if all of this "drama" is actually truly playing out, Scalise is waiting in the wings and he was never caught on tape dissing their fearless MAGat leader. And if not him, there might be a faction who like copycat moves and might consider Stefanik as faux "window dressing" to attempt to falsely show their *pat pat on the head* support for their zombie women.

[Walleye]

3. Donna Brazile says the Kevin made so many concessions

He should open a stand

[2naSalit]

4. I like that one!

[niyad]

9. you nearly owed me a keyboard.

[crickets]

27. Ouch! Good one. nt

[Tickle]

7. OMG Christ! Lol Trump

will be speaker of the house. LoL that's the rumor, LoL
It never ends with them

[SouthernDem4ever]

11. is that the new King's plot?

become speaker and get rid of the others in succession?

[gab13by13]

8. Don't count out Elise Stefanik.

[Lonestarblue]

10. Whether it's Stefanik or Scalise, neither will do anything good.

We are in for two years of nonsense hearings and attempts to cut Social Security and Medicare. Two years of wasted time while other issues go unaddressed because Republicans are having a tantrum over conspiracies.

[gab13by13]

12. Magats want chaos,

and I believe the debt ceiling will need to be raised again around October of this year. If House Magats allow the US to default on our debt, they will have obtained chaos.

[peppertree]

17. Absolutely. They want chaos - and a severe recession for '23/'24.

And if it means destroying global faith in the dollar - our greatest economic asset, really - so be it.

They couldn't care less - and in fact are probably already thinking of ways to profit personally (gold; short-selling, etc.).

Eric Cantor reportedly in talks with vulture boss Paul Singer during the last near-default.

[Martin68]

14. The Republican-majority House will be paralyzed while they sort out who will be speaker. It only

takes a few MAGA Tea-Party die-hards to do to Congress what McConnell did to Obama. With Republicans in the majority, a stalemated House leadership is a good thing.

[machoneman]

30. My prediction: 3 Speakers in the next 30 days! Circle jerk to the max!

[republianmushroom]

15. Damn cats, having a good day Kevin ? Tomorrow could be worst.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

16. They can't govern their own party, let alone the whole country. . . . nt

[Hermit-The-Prog]

18. It would be easy to eliminate the worst of Kremlin Kevin's opponents...

While Gaetz, Gosar, MT, and BoBo are present, someone should nominate Hillary to be Speaker. Just have the men with butterfly nets and strait jackets standing by to take them away. Might need tranquilizer guns, too.

[Hortensis]

21. Sure would! They'd end up carrying out a few of our own too,

but...collateral damage.

[live love laugh]

19. Even after he made that trip to 'lardo to kiss the ring?

Or maybe it’s BECAUSE he made that trip.

Delicious either way.

[Silent3]

22. I wish enough Republicans had the courage...

...to form a coalition with Democrats. While that coalition would necessarily suck in many ways, it would be a whole lot better for the country than anything Republicans alone will do.

[hadEnuf]

28. Republicans are beyond reach in their insanity now.

They are simply fascists who need to be rendered unable to cause anymore damage to the country.

[Silent3]

29. The best-chance Republicans for a coalition didn't survive Republican primaries...

…but perhaps there’s a (very!) tiny hope some Republicans who won narrow victories in swing districts might go for such an idea.

For a fair number it’s a lack of courage and behaving like there’s nothing worse in the world than not getting reëlected. They aren’t all fascists at heart, some are merely ambitious and unprincipled.

[deurbano]

23. Last time he was derailed by threats to expose his affair. Obviously, the most extreme of his

extremist party didn't really care about the morality of the situation, but just used that as an excuse to undermine the ambition of someone they considered too clueless (after he publicly spilled the beans that the real reason for the eternal Benghazi "investigations" was to bring down Clinton's approval ratings), and especially too insufficiently radical (which he has done his best too correct in the intervening years) to be their Speaker.

I love how he used his wife and children as props, like a scene from The Good Wife, when he announced he wasn't running for Speaker last time:

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/05/the-forgotten-scandal-that-derailed-mccarthys-speakership.html

[Grins]

24. He meant to say "Republicans..."

“The problem is people don’t trust Kevin McCarthy….”

He meant to say ‘Republicans’

[Just A Box Of Rain]

25. I'm convince McCarthy will get the speakership. At least for a time.

But only by swallowing the deal that would allow 5 or 6 GOP House members to call for a vote on his ouster. That will make his reign unstable and (likely) quite short.

There will be ongoing chaos.

[Mr.Bill]

26. Wild prediction that is only my opinion:

I'm sure there will be no more rules about masks on the House floor no matter what happens with Covid. I would imagine the metal detectors will be gone, too. If that happens there will be people open carrying on the house floor. Before the metal detectors I'm sure many were carrying concealed.

[markodochartaigh]

31. "There's no way to sugarcoat this..."

Sorry, Politico, Republicans in disarray is sweet enough for me it doesn't need sugar coating.