Self-Immolation
The Republicans of the United States House of Representatives set themselves on fire yesterday. With no one to blame but themselves, they fired Kevin McCarthy as the Speaker. They don’t have a replacement, but the remains of the McCarthy caucus took the temporary chair, led by little Patrick McHenry in his bowtie. His first actions: lash out at Democratic leadership, particularly Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, by throwing them out of their “privileged” hide-away offices.
They can’t get it together enough to control their own caucus, something Pelosi deftly did with similar fractions two years ago. And they couldn’t convince four of their own eight “rebels” to rejoin the fold. But that’s the Democrats’ fault, of course. Democrats did what every “good” neighbor does when they hear the couple next door screaming at each other. They stayed out of it, hoping not to hear something that would require dialing 9-11. Sure it’s embarrassing, but if you make the call, then the whole world gets involved, and the couple say “nothing happened”.
And just like the fighting couple on the day after; the Republicans are uniting in blaming Democrats for their own self-destruction. Funny, the rebellious Gaetz faction blamed McCarthy working with Democrats as the reason for firing him, then the McCarthy faction blamed Democrats for not saving McCarthy’s… well, him. And McCarthy himself felt perfectly comfortable blaming Democrats for all of the drama of the near shutdown, even though they stepped into save the country from closure.
See what happens when you call the police? So, what’s the next move?
We Didn’t Start the Fire
It depends how long the Republicans let the fire go. The obvious “candidates” for Speaker: Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan, Tom Cole, Elise Stefanik; are never going to agree to the deal that McCarthy made. Why would they take the job if any Matt Gaetz (don’t worry, he’ll get what’s coming soon) can call for removal. To accept those “hostage” terms means to, like McCarthy, be a Speaker in name only. That was good enough for Kevin; a lifetime of Mr. Speaker, but not for anyone else (except maybe Newt Gingrich).
There may not be a “real” Speaker of the House for a while. And meanwhile, the nation faces two time bombs. The first is obvious: the deal that brought down McCarthy expires the week before Thanksgiving. It takes three: the House, the Senate, and the President, to get the budget deal done. If there remains no leadership in the House, then the Nation is heading to a cliff of closure, right before we carve up the turkey.
And, more importantly, the United States is committed to support Ukraine. Literally the whole world is “watching” and asking: will the United States keep its commitment, or will we return to the Trump era of withdrawing from world affairs, by crying “America First”. Support for Ukraine takes all three political bodies as well.
Learn to Deal
If any potential Republican leader wants to become Speaker without the Gaetz caucus, then their only choice is to make a deal with the Democrats. That makes Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies a potential king (or queen) maker. It takes only five Democrats to neuter the crazies, if only a Republican leader would make a deal with the Dems.
And what would that deal be? Aid for Ukraine, perhaps with increased Southern Border spending as well. A budget resolution through the November 2024 elections, perhaps with a freeze on increases, but without the Republican fever dream of slashing social programs.
So the future Speaker of the House has a decision to make. He, or she, can give the power to their own party’s “crazies”. Or they can give-in to some of the Democrats’ needs. If politics is the “art of compromise”; we need an artist to step forward and lead the Republicans in Congress.
Perhaps Nancy Pelosi would give them some lessons. They’ll need to take a walk; they kicked her out of her office in the Capitol. You can find her in her main office, 1236 Longworth House Office Building (I worked in that building back forty-six years ago). It’s just across Independence Avenue. There’s even a subway you can take from the Capitol basement; get on-board.
