Chaos Caucus🌻 🌻 🌻

Republicans in Disarray:  By a vote of 216 to 210, Kevin McCarthy was kicked to the curb yesterday.  Though he blamed his demise on the failure of Democrats to give him a lifeline, make no mistake, this is on him, his speakership was doomed from the start because that’s when he made the decision to give just one member of his caucus the right to call for his removal through a motion to vacate. As former Speakers Newt Gingrich, Paul Boehner and Paul Ryan all learned the hard way, House Republicans are virtually impossible to satisfy and suck at legislating but are really good at eating their own.  Moreover, it certainly didn’t help that Kevin burnt bridges on both sides of the aisle by reneging on deals and promises, including the budget agreement he made with President Biden to raise the debt ceiling. As promised, Panhandle Putz Matt Gaetz led the effort to oust McCarthy.  He was joined by Arizona’s Andy Biggs, Colorado’s Ken Buck, Tennessee’s Tim Burchett, Arizona’s Eli Crane, Virginia’s Bob Good, South Carolina’s Nancy Mace and Montana’s Matt Rosendale. Sure, Democrats could have saved McCarthy’s butt, but that never all that steady ship sailed when he told a few Sunday news hosts that it was their fault that the government nearly shut down last week, a particularly disingenuous claim given that more Democrats than Republicans voted to pass the continuing resolution that kept the government open. It also didn’t help that he facilitated the opening of the inquiry into a Biden impeachment.

What’s Next:  The short answer is that it’s anybody’s guess.  For now, North Carolina Representative Patrick McHenry, one of McCarthy’s top lieutenants, is serving as Speaker Pro Tempore. McHenry says that he doesn’t plan to run for the Speaker position and has scheduled what is likely to be a challenging Speaker vote for next Wednesday.  About all you need to know about McHenry can be summed up by his first move.  Before scheduling the vote and putting the House into a one-week recess, he ordered Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi to vacate the special hideaway office she occupies by tradition as a former Speaker.  Even worse, he demanded that she do so by today, telling her the office was being rekeyed and that her belongings would be tossed to the curb, maybe even gifted to some January insurrectionists, if she didn’t remove them ASAP.  That’s vindictive and also unnecessarily cruel as Pelosi, who didn’t vote yesterday, isn’t even in Washington.  Well before the vote to dethrone McCarthy, she accompanied Senator Dianne Feinstein’s body back to San Francisco and has been there ever since, preparing for tomorrow’s memorial service. Several Republicans names are being bandied about as possible replacements for McCarthy.  The list of possibilities includes Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana who is currently being treated for multiple myeloma;  bombastic Ohioan, Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan;  Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota; Rules Committee Chair Tom Cole of Oklahoma; and New York’s Trump fangirl Elise Stefanik. Since the Speaker doesn’t have to be a member of Congress, a few, including Margie Q want Trump to run and a few others, mostly not currently sitting in Congress would love to see former Representative Liz Cheney throw her hat in the ring.  All of the candidates, with the possible exception of Trump whose policy positions have more to do with retribution and personal aggrandizement than anything else, fall to the right of McCarthy on most issues.  Remember, that though Liz deserves praise for standing up to Trump she voted with him on almost everything and still insists that Democrats support abortion after birth. She would need all of those Democrats plus a bunch of Republicans to support her and that’s very unlikely.  As to Trump, hard to contemplate but we should all take solace knowing that he’d hate the job because Speakers actually have to work and anyway his plate is full given his presidential run, he’s busy with all of those court cases and the Speaker’s aircraft is smaller than his.

Shut Up Already! As to Trump, at least one judge has had it with his intentionally threatening, intimidating and dangerous social media posts.  Yesterday Trump attacked Arthur Engoron’s clerk,  posting on Truth Social that “Schumer’s girlfriend, Allison R. Greenfield, is running this case against me. How disgraceful! This case should be dismissed immediately.” His post included a link to Greenfield’s Instagram profile. To be clear, Greenfield is not and has never been Schumer’s girlfriend. In response to the post, a really angry Judge Engoron ordered Trump to take it down.  Trump did but not before it was widely shared.  The Judge went on to say that “Personal attacks of any member of my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate and I will not tolerate them.” He followed up with a gag order, forbidding all parties involved in the fraud case from “posting, emailing, or speaking publicly about any members of my staff.  Adding, “failure to abide by this will result in serious sanctions.” Bigly bucks or an orange jumpsuit? That jumpsuit thing is probably just wishcasting but still. Though neither Special Counsel Jack Smith nor Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan are involved in Trump’s NY fraud case, it’s fair to assume that both are aware of Trump’s post and Engoran’s order.  Not good for Trump but maybe good for the rest of us.