(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . A fall in autumn?: McCarthy, on a short leash and a tightrope, fights for his job [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-02 And how was your weekend? Enjoy the changing weather? The first days of sweaters, morning frost, and pumpkin spice lawn mowers are here, right on schedule, even though we just missed that other hardy American perennial: the federal government shutdown. We can thank Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the California Republican and 55th Speaker of the House of Representatives, who helped the American economy dodge that bullet — shepherding the passage of a continuing resolution that funds the U.S. government through Nov. 17 — at the extreme displeasure of a renegade faction within his own party. Result: The Speaker of the House may not be able to dodge the political bullet aimed squarely at him. It’s a classic adage, or it should be: Do a deal with the devil, you’re gonna get burned. McCarthy knows this saying, its truth and its consequences. Remember, the Speaker attained his position — one in the line of presidential succession — in January after Faustian promises were extracted from McCarthy by the deepest Pantone-red members of the Republican caucus. Among them: The Republicans reluctant to vote for McCarthy’s rise to Speaker would only go along if McCarthy agreed to be subject to a motion to vacate — a motion to remove him from the Speaker’s role at any time, should any congressperson decide to do so. ◊ ◊ ◊ Substitute the words “short leash” for “motion to vacate,” if you like, the result’s pretty much the same. From the beginning, McCarthy’s been subject to the whims and whines of the archest, most politically intransigent members of his party in the House, obliged to do their bidding, to acquiesce to their demands regardless of any need for bipartisanship in the name of actually getting something done for the people who elected them. A lot can happen in two or three days. Just look at Saturday night and late Sunday morning. First, McCarthy defied his masters in the party’s rightest wing (including such flamethrowers as Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia) by daring to work with House Democrats to pass the “clean” continuing resolution – a stopgap measure untethered from Ukraine aid, border security or any other attachments — required to keep the government running after Sept 30 at midnight. “If someone wants to remove [me] because I want to be the adult in the room, go ahead and try,” McCarthy told The Hill and other news outlets Saturday before the deadline. “But I think this country is too important. And I will stand with our military. I’ll stand with our border agents. I’ll stand with those that have to get their medicine from government as well. I think that’s too important,” he said, in a rhetorical style that might have won him centrist cred if his stated political convictions hadn’t always been so transparently strategic. “Go ahead and try," he said, laying on a blend of situational ethics and civics that was just a bit thick. "You know what? If I have to risk my job for standing up for the American public, I will do that.” Paging Frank Capra. ◊ ◊ ◊ The clean CR passed with Democratic support. President Biden signed it into law on Saturday night. Almost immediately, McCarthy faced calls for his ouster, calls from Gaetz and others in the hard-right caucus chorus — the same group that didn’t want him in the speaker’s chair to begin with. Gaetz started rolling out the tumbrel early Sunday, when he announced he intended to begin the process of McCarthy’s ouster as soon as this week. “Speaker McCarthy made an agreement with House conservatives in January, and since then he’s been in brazen, repeated material breach of that agreement,” Gaetz told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “This agreement that he made with Democrats to really blow past a lot of the spending guardrails we set up is a last straw.” “I think we need to rip off the Band-Aid,” Gaetz said in blazingly frank language. “I think we need to move on with new leadership that can be trustworthy. Look, the one thing everybody has in common is that nobody trusts Kevin McCarthy. He lied to Biden, he lied to House conservatives. … when you believe in nothing, as Kevin McCarthy does, everything’s negotiable.” McCarthy made bravado noises on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. "Yes, I'll survive," McCarthy said. "You know, this is personal with Matt." Brave words, but the Speaker’s well advised not to dismiss the personal as a catalyst for getting things done, in Washington or anywhere else. He must remember the 15 grueling rounds of vote-counting that ultimately won him the Speaker’s gavel — rounds and rounds of voting that Gaetz orchestrated with fellow hysterics Lauren Boebert of Colorado, and Chip Roy of Texas. Proof (as if you needed any) that people put effort into doing something as a personal matter that they never invest in something that’s purely professional. ◊ ◊ ◊ McCarthy’s bring-it-on response presumes an unjustified confidence that Democrats will side with him, will support him remaining Speaker, against the right-wing onslaught Gaetz has promised. McCarthy’s counting on Democrats to fall back on the familiar: “Better the devil you know.” But that may be a longer shot than he might like. The phrase “quid pro quo” has myriad applications; the Democrats know what it means too. Already there’s speculation as to what concessions the Dems might extract from McCarthy to help keep his speakership intact. McCarthy doesn’t exactly help himself by spearheading the specious Biden impeachment inquiry. Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez of New York said straight-up that Democrats aren’t inclined to help McCarthy keep his day gig without getting some serious Republican concessions. “I don't think we give up votes for free,” Ocasio-Cortez said on CNN's “State of the Union.” When Tapper asked her point-blank if she’d vote against McCarthy as Speaker, the New York Democrat was candid (having never been anything else). “Absolutely. Absolutely. I think Kevin McCarthy is a very weak Speaker. He clearly has lost control of his caucus.” To be sure, Gaetz has his detractors too. "It is destructive to the country to put forth this motion to vacate," New York GOP Rep. Mike Lawler said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” “By putting this motion to vacate on the floor, you know what Matt Gaetz is going to do? He is going to delay the ability to complete that work over the next 45 days.” We don’t know how widely Lawler’s sentiments are shared by his House colleagues, though, so it’s way too soon to know if Gaetz’s gambit will work. But for Kevin McCarthy — weakened and politically compromised since day one — the coming week on Capitol Hill will be among the most interesting times he’s ever had in Congress. He is a man with diminishing meaningful political leverage. You’re in bad shape if you’ve lost the support of the people in your party. You’re in really bad shape when you’re forced to go, hat in hand, to the opposing party for help you can’t get in your own tribe. Right now, Kevin McCarthy is Willy Loman without a smile or a shoeshine. He’s a man with precious little to sell, except the rest of himself. What he hasn’t sold already to get the job he’s got. And how the hell was your weekend? [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/2/2196987/-A-fall-in-autumn-Speaker-McCarthy-a-man-on-a-short-leash-and-a-tightrope-fights-for-his-job Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/