For the first time in the history of the country a sitting Speaker of the House has been ousted from his position. 208 Democrats and 8 Republicans voted to support Matt Gaetz’s motion to vacate the Speaker’s Chair.
Sundance over at CTH has a remarkably clear post that outlines just how this took place.
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 Republicans 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 Republican 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.
There are many more examples that could be added to the list. As Matt Gaetz said, why is in Washington that forming a committee is considered an end result and not a beginning? The committee on weaponization of the government against conservatives and Christians was formed. What has it done? What changes in how the DOJ and FBI operate have been achieved?
McCarthy promised to release the J6 footage. That did not happen. The majority of Americans do not want to see any more money going to Ukraine. But McCarthy made a secret deal with the Democrats and the White House to do so at a later date. The senile one in the White House told the public about that.
These people believe that they are no longer accountable to the American public. And when one looks at the re-election rate of incumbents, one begins to understand why. It is long past time for term limits in Congress. If it is a good thing for the Presidency, it would be an even better thing for Congress.
There is another storyline that deserves some scrutiny here. Nancy Pelosi did not vote on the motion to vacate. Her stated reason was that she was accompanying Senator Feinstein’s remains to California. Is there more to this story?
After McCarthy was ousted, a visibly angry House Speaker pro-tempore Patrick McHenry, (R-NC) gave the order for former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to be evicted from her private Capitol office. Why? The reason given was that the former speaker’s hideaway was being reassigned “for speaker office use.”
This has all the earmarks of some kind of retribution. Did Pelosi promise some kind of Uniparty assist to keep McCarthy in the Speaker’s chair? I am certain that the Democrats would like to have seen McCarthy stay there since he was caving into all their demands. Did Pelosi convince McCarthy to accept the terms for the motion to vacate in order to become speaker? Let’s be reminded that McCarthy only gained the speakership after agreeing to such a condition.
Did McCarthy and his cronies expect Democratic support? Is this why McHenry was so angry that he slammed the gavel as hard as he did? Will McHenry need anger management counseling?
Chaos has arrived in the House. This is sand in the gears. And that is a good thing.