The gang that couldn’t govern straight

In the late ‘60s, Jimmy Breslin wrote a great book, The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight. It was a send up of The Godfather. As well run that Vito Corleone’s gang was, the gang of Papa Baccala was the inverse. Papa’s adversary was a member of his own crew, Kid Sally Palumbo of whom it was said, “if he owned a gas station, he’d lose money even if he stole the cars.”

As you might guess, mayhem ensues.

In a fairly rare instance where reality imitates art, I give you The MAGA Gang That Couldn’t Govern Straight. Breslin would’ve had a field day with these guys.

On October 3, 2023, the Office of Speaker of the House, occupied by Kevin McCarthy, was vacated by a vote of the full House of Representatives. This is of no small moment. The Speaker is second in line of succession to the presidency if the sitting president can no longer serve out his (or one day her) term in office.

This is the Constitutional plan of succession. When President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, Vice President Lyndon Johnson succeeded to the presidency, leaving the office of vice president vacant. Then Speaker John McCormack prayed every day for Johnson’s good health. Clearly McCormack wasn’t bucking for a promotion.

Unlike 1963, it’s now less likely that the Speaker would ascend to the presidency. As a result of the Kennedy assassination and Nixon’s antics as president, the 25th Amendment was enacted to ensure that when the vice president ascended to fill a vacant presidency, the new president can nominate someone who, with the assent of both chambers of Congress, would fill the now vacant office of Vice President, thereby precluding the likelihood that the House Speaker would ascend to the presidency.

I like to think of the 25th amendment as the John McCormack amendment. There was a rumor that if something happened to Johnson prior to the 1964 election, rather than succeed to the presidency, McCormack would resign his speakership. Thus, the idea for an amendment was born.

In fact, this process is so important that it was a story arc on The West Wing, season 5, I think.

At any rate, McCarthy is the first Speaker to be “vacated” in our history. Think about it, the first! Over one hundred years earlier, disgruntled congressmen tried to oust then Speaker Joe Cannon. That effort failed and to rub salt into the wounds of history’s memory, a congressional office building was named after Cannon.

Alas, no building will be named after McCarthy.

Aside from being a principle-less, spineless, craven House member bent on attaining the Speaker’s chair at all costs, what did McCarthy do to warrant getting bounced? It seems that many members have their own grievances with McCarthy, a list too long to recite here, but if there was one overarching grievance that united democrats and republicans, it’s that he couldn’t be trusted.

No matter your profession or station in life, your reputation is the most valuable thing you have. Evidently Kevin’s reputation caught up with him.

You might be thinking that there must have been a percipient event to trigger the Motion to Vacate. If so, you’d be right. To try to distill it down to its essential elements, this is what happened:

· Republicans have had a narrow governing majority for nine months;

· Under the Constitution, all government funding appropriations originate in the House;

· Government funding was set to run out at 12:01 a.m., Saturday October 1st, basically shutting down the government;

· The Republican majority, a group that can’t decide what toppings to place on a pizza order, couldn’t agree on the items to be funded or excluded from funding, or agree on the levels of funding on the items they did agree should be funded;

· McCarthy, who didn’t want to be blamed for a government shutdown, cut a deal with the democrats to vote for a continuing resolution to level fund the government for 45 days or until passage of appropriations legislation;

· With democrats’ assistance the shutdown was averted;

· The next day on the Sunday news shows, McCarthy trash talked the democrats;

· On Monday, Florida representative Matt Gaetz filed a Motion to Vacate the Speaker’s office;

· By dinner on Tuesday, Gaetz and seven other republicans joined with 208 democrats in ensuring that McCarthy might get a full sentence instead of a footnote in future history books and voted to remove the Speaker.

I listed these events so you’ll better understand what’s going to happen in less than 40 days from now. Groundhog Day might occur more than once this year.

The reaction to this historical event was anything but “ding dong the [Speaker’s] dead.” McCarthy whined that only 4% of republicans voted to remove him. McCarthy’s supporters claimed that the democrats were responsible for McCarthy’s ouster. Democrats argued the equivalent of when your opponents are self-destructing, don’t get in their way.

Matt Gaetz, a “leader” of the nihilistic wing of the House republicans, tried to affect a posture of innocence. He disclaims any political motive, asserting that he only wanted to make the House operate more efficiently for the American people. As always, Matt Gaetz is the very personification of noble intent.

And what did these solons who have our best interests uppermost in their minds do? They adjourned the House for at least a week. And threw Nancy Pelosi out of her private office located near the House floor.

Pelosi was in California attending the funeral of her longtime friend, Diane Feinstein. Republicans are classy as always.

So what’s next? The first thing I’d say is don’t be deceived by the mere eight Republicans who voted to remove McCarthy. Five of the eight belong to the Freedom Caucus, a MAGA inspired group with over 50 members. All 50+ of them, plus the three non-Freedom Caucus members, will exact a hefty price from the next fool who aspires to the Speaker’s office.

Speaking of fools, Jim Jordan is the Vice-Chair of the Freedom Caucus. He’s thrown his jacket into the ring and declared his candidacy for the office. Hopefully they’ll give it back to him and he’ll wear it if he wins. We don’t yet know if Taylor Greene will support him. She may still be in mourning over McCarthy.

And this just in: Trump endorsed Jordan for Speaker. And Boebert also endorsed Jordan. Things just went from bad to worse.

Second, Majority Leader Steve Scalise has also announced that he’ll seek the job. It was basically his job to make sure that a total cluster**** like ousting the Speaker wouldn’t happen. My guess is that he’s not likely to get a lot of love from the other members. But don’t get me wrong, if enough members hold their nose and vote for Scalise as Speaker, it still counts.

Third, don’t be surprised if a dark horse like Tom Cole ends up as Speaker. He’s reportedly disclaimed any interest in the job. Who could blame him. But the art of compromise is essential to the act of governing. Nah, with this crew it won’t be Cole.

Fourth, over the years, people have discovered that the Speaker need not be a sitting member of the House. It could be anybody. Enter Donald John Trump, the healer and MAGA whisperer of the Republican Party. A few members have floated his name and it’s been reported that he’s willing to head to Washington if there’s anything he could do to help. But with his endorsement of Jordan, he’s not going to be the next Speaker.

I don’t think Trump has enough time to involve himself in this scrum, what with him running for president and being a defendant in multiple criminal and civil matters. Besides, it’s a good rule to never permit an arsonist to douse a fire, which of course means that Trump’s got the plane gassed and ready to go.

Fifth, McCarthy was doomed before he first used his gavel as Speaker. In order to be elected Speaker, he had to agree to the House Rule that any one member can file a Motion to Vacate at any time, precipitating a vote on the Motion within 48 hours of its filing. After 14 fruitless ballots, this was the price exacted by Gaetz (and Boebert and a couple of others) for his support on the 15th and final ballot electing McCarthy.

By McCarthy acceding to this rule, he put the means of his destruction in the hands of a nihilist like Gaetz. Imagine giving a group of toddlers loaded weapons and then being surprised when someone gets hurt. This was McCarthy’s original sin.

Sixth, if you ever wonder what a MAGA fueled government in a pluralistic democracy would look like, it will look something like this. Actually, the MAGA faction of the House republicans is in the minority. On the aforementioned Continuing Resolution, over 90 representatives voted against it with full knowledge, if not express desire, that the government would shut down. My math isn’t great, but I still think 90+ is a greater number than the 50+ members in the Freedom Caucus.

Maybe the Freedom Caucus doesn’t list all its members. Whether it be 50 or 90 is a distinction without a difference.

That only eight congressmen could set in motion the events that resulted in the ousting of a Speaker is symptomatic of the rot in the Republican caucus.

This is scary stuff. Too many elected officials will support radical policies in order to avoid being primaried. Primaries are generally unpredictable but like all elections the candidatese best able to get their supporters to the polls will likely win. However, voter turnout in primaries is lower than in general elections. Thus, a candidate in a primary supported by a determined bloc of voters has an advantage over their opposition.

MAGA voters show up at the polls. Although a minority in a general election, these voters exert an outsized influence in republican primaries. And an incumbent who is a target of a dedicated motivated bloc of voters will have to spend an inordinate amount of time and money fending them off, and still might lose.

This simple reality may induce otherwise “sensible” members of the Republican caucus to vote for a clown like Jordan to be the next Speaker.

This is what MAGA governance looks like. Imagine the dystopian world we’d live in if adherents of this rightwing, authoritarian, anti-democratic political philosophy controls the other branches of government.

By any assessment, this is the tyranny of of the minority. History shows that a dedicated, motivated minority can seize power only if the majority is complacent.

This is the challenge of our time. We can either defend our democracy or remain complacent and watch it erode. Make no mistake, it is on us to meet this challenge.

NOTE: since the initial draft of this piece two things have occurred that may have bearing on the Speaker’s contest. The first is the outbreak of hostilities in the Middle East. Our ally Israel has already signaled that it will seek assistance in the form of weapons resupply from the United States. This will inevitably require that money be appropriated by the Congress. Because there presently is no Speaker or Speaker pro tempore in the House (Representative McHenry is “acting” Speaker whose only powers relate to the process of installing McCarthy’s successor), there is nobody empowered to bring any legislation up for a vote.

The second is a report in Politico that Republican “moderates” are working to re-install McCarthy as Speaker. This may redefine the notion of a fool’s errand.

Welcome to life in MAGALAND.