See update for January 7, 2023, at end of post.
Of the chaos of the House of Representatives’ so-far failed attempts to elect a Speaker,[1] Molly Jong-Fast writes,
This intrinsic weakness in the GOP allowed the base to run wild, embracing everything from anti-science stupidity to paranoid conspiracy theories. Perhaps, in 2015, [Donald] Trump led the base. But by 2020, Trump had lost control of the monster he created. The base decided to reward social media stunts with small-dollar donations. Fox News and the right-wing internet ecosystem created a world of mini Trumps, little congressional bomb-throwers like [Lauren] Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Matt Gaetz. More motivated by fame than governing, these members seem to want what Real Housewives want: to build their brands. These congressional Kardashians don’t have a governing principle beyond obstruction and attention, of which they’ve all been getting amid this week’s party meltdown.[2]
Does the delusional raging narcissistic Donald Trump[3] himself know how to deal with other narcissists?
The holdouts have all offered slightly different reasons for disliking [Kevin] McCarthy, and [Donald] Trump has grown exasperated listening to them — privately expressing incredulity at how “stupid” the fight is, because none of the hard-right Republicans can seem to articulate a clear plan. The former president watched the proceedings all day Tuesday and complained they were a political embarrassment, an adviser said.
“This needs to end,” Trump has told the recalcitrant Republicans, the adviser said. “You all need to figure this out. Kevin is the one who can get the most votes. We ought to try and make a deal.”[4]
Looks like that answer is a hard no.
Greg Pence, the brother of the former vice president, walked into the House chamber before the start of a second day of voting for speaker, passing a sign that says “Members Only.” Though reelected in November and wearing an official congressional pin, Pence was not technically a member of Congress, because he had not been sworn in again.
“I’m a member-elect,” Pence (R-Ind.) explained.
But if there are no actual members, who is in charge on this side of the Capitol?
Pence pointed to the ceiling and said, “God.” (God could not be reached for comment.)[5]
If neither divine intervention nor narcissism will help, how about delusion? Or maybe hallucination?
[Ken] Buck suggested that Republicans adjourn and go downstairs to meet in private. “I don’t know if alcohol will help,” Buck said, “or if we need to bring in a plate of Colorado brownies.”[6]
Too bad marijuana isn’t hallucinogenic. For that, you need psilocybin. It’d be Oregon that might be able to help with that, eventually, maybe.[7] Perhaps in time to elect a Speaker.
Update, January 7, 2023: This particular drama is over. But is it really?
The deals [Kevin] McCarthy struck with a group of fewer than two-dozen hard-line Republicans will empower the far right of his party ahead of a congressional term that promises contentious battles over funding the federal government and increasing the debt ceiling.
“And so one of the strongest House Speakers in American history is succeeded by what is likely to be one of the weakest,” presidential historian Michael Beschloss tweeted early Saturday. . . .
The nature of McCarthy’s final bargain was not immediately apparent. But the rules package House Republicans hope to pass next week will reportedly allow a single member to force a vote to oust the speaker.
The far right also won seats on the powerful Rules Committee for members of the House Freedom Caucus and their allies. The panel, which controls how debates are conducted and bills advance in the House, is traditionally filled with allies of the speaker.[8]
Now the House of Representatives has to adopt[9] the rules that Kevin McCarthy agreed to.[10] And if it does, it’s hard to see what McCarthy has actually won.
[Kevin McCarthy] ceded so much to foes — effective veto power over must-pass legislation, greater say over committee assignments, allowing a sole dissident to trigger a vote on his ouster — that McCarthy will spend his shaky tenure, as long as it lasts, balanced on a razor’s edge. One nick and he’s gone.
Far more troubling, McCarthy’s cowardly concessions leave the country hostage for the next two years to an extreme fringe of far-right zealots, who threaten to turn the normal operation of government and such typically routine business — like raising the debt ceiling to avoid default and economic catastrophe — into a cliffhanging drama.
The deep humbling of McCarthy could be seen as cruel, a snub by fellow lawmakers whose power was made possible by the Bakersfield Republican’s years of hard work as grand strategist and campaigner in chief for the House GOP. But the drip-drip torture of prolonged balloting was so egregiously self-inflicted, so glaring in the making and so abundantly well-deserved that it is impossible to muster even the slightest bit of sympathy. . . .
There is an epithet thrown at those in the GOP deemed less than 100% pure: Republican in name only. McCarthy, eagerly stepping into a straitjacket of his own design, has earned himself the dubious distinction of becoming speaker in name only.[11]
Start placing your bets on how long this lasts.
- [1]Natalie Andrews and Eliza Collins, “Kevin McCarthy Falls Short of House Speaker Win in Three Rounds of Voting,” Wall Street Journal, January 3, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/house-prepares-to-vote-for-speaker-as-kevin-mccarthy-tries-to-rally-support-11672750973; Aaron Blake, “McCarthy’s big concession — and how it could hamstring a GOP speaker,” Washington Post, January 3, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/03/motion-vacate-house-speaker/; John Cassidy, “Behind the Humiliation of Kevin McCarthy,” New Yorker, January 3, 2023, https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/behind-the-humiliation-of-kevin-mccarthy; Clare Foran et al., “House adjourns after chaotic day without electing a speaker as McCarthy fails to lock down votes,” CNN, January 3, 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/03/politics/house-speaker-vote-mccarthy/index.html; Clare Foran et al., “House adjourns for second day without electing a speaker with McCarthy’s bid in peril,” CNN, January 4, 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/04/politics/kevin-mccarthy-speaker-vote/index.html; Molly Jong-Fast, “The Kevin McCarthy Mess Is Peak Trumpism,” Vanity Fair, January 4, 2023, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/01/kevin-mccarthy-speaker-vote-gop-trumpism; Nolan D. McCaskill, “Deadlocked House adjourns until evening after Kevin McCarthy racks up yet another defeat,” Los Angeles Times, January 4, 2023, https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2023-01-04/trump-mccarthy-speaker-votes; Tara Palmeri, “We Need to Talk About Kevin, ” Puck News, January 3, 2023, https://puck.news/we-need-to-talk-about-kevin/; Ashley Parker and Josh Dawsey, “The House hard-liners blocking McCarthy aren’t listening to Trump,” Washington Post, January 4, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/04/trump-mccarthy-speaker/; Dan Zak and Ben Terris, “Does the House even exist right now?” Washington Post, January 4, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/01/04/house-of-representatives-in-purgatory-without-speaker/↩
- [2]Molly Jong-Fast, “The Kevin McCarthy Mess Is Peak Trumpism,” Vanity Fair, January 4, 2023, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/01/kevin-mccarthy-speaker-vote-gop-trumpism↩
- [3]George Simon, “Understanding and Dealing with Narcissistic Rage,” Counselling Resource, July 24, 2017, https://counsellingresource.com/features/2017/07/24/understanding-narcissistic-rage/↩
- [4]Ashley Parker and Josh Dawsey, “The House hard-liners blocking McCarthy aren’t listening to Trump,” Washington Post, January 4, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/04/trump-mccarthy-speaker/↩
- [5]Dan Zak and Ben Terris, “Does the House even exist right now?” Washington Post, January 4, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/01/04/house-of-representatives-in-purgatory-without-speaker/↩
- [6]Dan Zak and Ben Terris, “Does the House even exist right now?” Washington Post, January 4, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/01/04/house-of-representatives-in-purgatory-without-speaker/↩
- [7]Andrew Jacobs, “Legal Use of Hallucinogenic Mushrooms Begins in Oregon,” New York Times, January 3, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/03/health/psychedelic-drugs-mushrooms-oregon.html↩
- [8]Nolan D. McCaskill, “Kevin McCarthy wins House speakership on 15th vote,” Los Angeles Times, January 6, 2023, https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2023-01-06/mccarthy-speaker-jan-6-anniversary↩
- [9]Nolan D. McCaskill, “Kevin McCarthy wins House speakership on 15th vote,” Los Angeles Times, January 6, 2023, https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2023-01-06/mccarthy-speaker-jan-6-anniversary↩
- [10]Mark Z. Barabak, “Kevin McCarthy ‘won’ the House speakership. Now the country will pay the price,” Los Angeles Times, January 6, 2023, https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2023-01-06/kevin-mccarthy-speaker-house-vote; Olivia Beavers et al., “McCarthy nears tentative deal with conservatives after days of stalemate,” Politico, January 5, 2023, https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/05/mccarthy-bid-00076520; Aaron Blake, “McCarthy’s big concession — and how it could hamstring a GOP speaker,” Washington Post, January 3, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/03/motion-vacate-house-speaker/; Aaron Blake, “What McCarthy’s concessions could cost him — and the GOP,” Washington Post, January 5, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/05/mccarthy-concessions-gop/; Bess Levin, “Kevin McCarthy Debases Himself in Hopes of Finally Winning Speaker Vote, Then Loses Again (And Again, And Again),” Vanity Fair, January 5, 2023, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/01/kevin-mccarthy-speaker-vote-concessions; Nolan D. McCaskill, “Kevin McCarthy wins House speakership on 15th vote,” Los Angeles Times, January 6, 2023, https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2023-01-06/mccarthy-speaker-jan-6-anniversary; Tara Palmeri, “The McCarthy-Scalise Detente,” Puck News, January 6, 2023, https://puck.news/the-mccarthy-scalise-detente/↩
- [11]Mark Z. Barabak, “Kevin McCarthy ‘won’ the House speakership. Now the country will pay the price,” Los Angeles Times, January 6, 2023, https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2023-01-06/kevin-mccarthy-speaker-house-vote↩