New Year, Still Crazy 🌻 🌻 🌻

Mutiny on the Bounty: All eyes, at least all political junkie eyes, are on the House of Representatives today watching to see if California Republican Kevin McCarthy manages to secure the 218 votes he needs to become Speaker.  McCarthy spent his holiday weekend promising his naysayers, mostly a group of far-right clowns and election deniers, just about everything they want in an effort to get them on board. Those promises include key committee assignments, a commitment to allow investigations into all things Biden even going the impeachment route, the ability to defund departments they don’t like, and of most concern to McCarthy, the right to vote him out of the Speakership at any time with five or fewer votes.  Those asserting that they’ll never vote for McCarthy include Andy Biggs of Arizona, Panhandle Putz/accused pedophile Matt Gaetz, Bob Good of Virginia, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, and Matt Rosendale of Montana.  Those who say they could be persuaded but only if they get all the concessions they demand include Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Paul Gosar of Arizona, Chip Roy of Texas, Dan Bishop of North Carolina, Andy Harris of Maryland, Andrew Clyde of Georgia, and three newbies, Eli Crane of Arizona, Anna Paulina Luna of Florida and Andy Ogles of Tennessee. Notably Scott Perry’s name is all over the January 6 report as he’s the one who pushed Trump to fire acting Attorney General Rosen, replacing him with insurrectionist environmental lawyer Jeffrey Clark who was all in on the phony elector scheme.  Though it’s not clear what her position really is because she probably doesn’t know herself, Colorado’s Lauren Boebert also says that she’s a “no” but that’s probably more about competing for the spotlight with Margie Q, a Kevin supporter, than anything else.   McCarthy’s unenviable task is to thread the needle in a manner that pulls in all the “persuadable” crowd and peels off at least one of the “never Kevin” crowd and Boebert while not offending any of what passes for the “moderates” in his caucus.  As of now McCarthy doesn’t have a declared opponent other than Andy Biggs who knows he doesn’t have the votes to win but has thrown his name into the mix to disrupt the first and possibly subsequent rounds of voting.  That said, there are possible alternatives to McCarthy.  The NY Times cites Louisiana’s very conservative Steve Scalise the second in Republican leadership who remains all in on guns even though he almost died in a shooting and who once campaigned with KKK’s David Duke, Ohio’s thoroughly disruptive and obnoxious Jim “Gym” Jordan, North Carolina’s lesser-known Patrick McHenry, and Elise Stefanik who the NYT skewered this weekend in a story about her extreme ambition and hypocrisy. That so many Republicans contributed anonymously to the story about Stefanik is probably an indication that she’s viewed as a contender.  Lastly, since the Speaker doesn’t have to be a member of Congress, if all else fails, and enough of the so-called moderates rebel, an outsider could grab the spot but only if that person wins enough Republican and Democratic votes to take him or her over the top.  Names frequently mentioned include former Representatives Liz Cheney who is probably too polarizing to pull that already unlikely alternative off and the well-liked Fred Upton of Michigan who did not run for reelection. Some have even suggested Trump and or even another “surprise” awful alternative could emerge as a candidate.  It’s unlikely that a non-member of the House will end up as Speaker but then again, most of us never believed that Trump would end up as president. One vote McCarthy needs and will get is that of Long Island Congressman-elect George Santos, or whatever his name is this week.  Santos’ name went up over his office this weekend and he is still due to be sworn in even though his story continues to explode. Over the weekend a former boyfriend who lived with him while he was allegedly married to his Brazilian “90-day wife,” the woman who had a baby during their marriage, one that he’s never mentioned, revealed that he never went to work and scammed him out of money.  Also, now that they know where he is Brazilian authorities have reopened their check theft case against him, those are the checks that Santos admitted stealing before he called the Brazilian thing just more “fake news.”         

January 6:  The Committee spent the holiday releasing tons of transcripts and sending those they didn’t release back to places like the FBI and Department of Homeland Security where they’ll be secure, an attempt to protect those who agreed to testified in exchange for privacy.  Ordinarily, few if any of the transcripts would have been released to the public because doing so complicates the DOJ’s investigation but the Committee feared that the Republican led House, assuming they actually manage to vote in a Speaker, would selectively release information in a manner intended to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the whole investigation. There’s so much to say about what was released that it’s impossible to know what to say but the bottom line is that the Trump coup was long planned, and Trump knew what was happening at the Capitol on January 6 and also knew that he had the power to stop it, he just didn’t want to because those were his people, and they weren’t there to hurt him and he really wanted to stay president no matter what.  On a more humorous, twisted note, what Hope Hicks and Julie Radford, an aide to daughter Ivanka, found most upsetting about the Capitol invasion was that it would damage their future employment options.  Because at the end of the day, it was always about them not the country.  Also humorous, in an attempt to distance himself from the Republican Party’s failure to achieve that much predicted mid-term red wave that wasn’t, Trump posted on Truth Social that it “wasn’t his fault that the Republicans didn’t live up to the expectations….It was the ​’abortion issue,​’​ poorly handled by many Republicans, especially those that firmly insisted on No Exceptions, even in the case of Rape, Incest, or Life of the Mother, that lost large numbers of Voters​.”  He’s not wrong about how the Dobb’s abortion ruling affected the election but somehow or other he failed to mention that he’s the one who nominated the three Justices who provided the crucial votes overturning Roe.  As to the red wave predictions, the NY Times ran a story criticizing everyone, including Democratic leadership for believing the polls and poll averages, especially the ones like the too often cited Philipps poll, compiled by prep school students and others that were obviously skewed Republican.  They blame reliance on those polls as a reason that Democrats overspent to defend Senate candidates in places like New Hampshire and Colorado when money would have gone further in Wisconsin.

And:  A final good-bye to Barbara Walters or as Gilda Radner lovingly called the ground-breaking broadcaster Baba Wawa.  Also, good-bye to Pope Benedict. And only the best wishes to Buffalo Bills football player Damar Hamlin who suffered a cardiac arrest likely caused by a traumatic tackle during last’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals.  If ever there was a right moment to call for thoughts and prayers, it’s now and for him.  And while we’re at it send some to actor Jeremy Renner too, he appears to have gotten into a tussle with a snowplow and is now in critical condition.