There May Have Been Worse Speakers Of The House Than McCarthy-- One Helped Found The Confederacy

We'd all be better off if Kevin McCarthy were still be operating a deli in Bakersfield. Here’s a guy who has dramatically overreached… and in so doing has caused profound harm to his country. Yesterday I was reading how his handpicked candidate to replace West Virginia extremist nut Alex Mooney as a West Virginia congressman, Riley Moore, keeps going on Nazi psychopath and QAnon nut Michael Scheuer’s show to campaign. Moore has praised the host and his “tremendous program,” despite Scheuer’s virulent anti-semitism. Scheuer has told his audience that Jewish people are “disloyal,” “subversive,” and “lethal enemies of Americans” who "must be stopped and then scoured from the continent.” Wealthy Jewish conservatives like Paul Singer, Miriam Adelson, Stephen Schwarzman, Jeffrey Yass, Bernard Marcus keep funding McCarthy's political operation-- which showers immense amounts of cash on anti-semitic candidates like Moore... not to mention McCarthy favorite, Marjorie "Jewish space lasers" Traitor Greene herself.

Most historians say it’s too early to rate McCarthy among America’s 55 House Speakers, although there is a consensus forming that he fits in with secessionist Langdon Cheves of South Carolina (1814-15), Virginian and Confederate senator Robert Hunter (1839-41), Confederate founding father Howell Cobb of Georgia (1849-51), Know Nothing Nathaniel Banks of Massachusetts (1856-57), virulent racist and another Confederate senator James Orr, of South Carolina (1857-59), far right psychopath Nicholas Longworth of Ohio (1925-31), warmonger Joseph Martin of Massachusetts (1947-49 and 1953-55) and polarizing, divisive Georgia extremist Newt Gingrich (1995-99). McCarthy defines mediocrity and spinelessness, never good traits in a national leader. He is a weak speaker easily buffeted by extremists in his own party.

Yesterday, John Bresnahan reported that McCarthy had once again surrendered to the extremists and nihilists in his own party, this time, though gambling national security. The debate among Republicans is over the NDAA, the bloated Pentagon budget. But instead of debating the bloat, the Republicans have decided to make it another battle about all their woke nonsense.

McCarthy is allowing a budget so extreme and divorced from reality that it will pass with no Democratic votes and only by forcing mainstream conservatives in swing districts to walk the plank and quack like QAnon/MAGA ducks. No matter how far the “Freedom” Caucus pushes, McCarthy and Scalise feel they can drag their vulnerable incumbents along for the ride. He’s “giving the House Freedom Caucus and other conservative hardliners what they’ve demanded all week— dozens of ‘culture war’ amendment votes on the $886 billion NDAA package,” wrote Bresnahan. The fascist and nihilist wing of the party “threatened to derail the defense-authorization bill unless they got these votes,” causing McCarthy’s collapse. Chaos and dysfunction is what Trump has charged his allies with creating in Congress. McCarthy still hopes to vote on the final bill tomorrow.

The 80 fascist amendments “cover everything from the Pentagon’s abortion policy, DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) initiatives, Covid-19 vaccines, critical race theory and transgender-related medical services. Ukraine, China and Taiwan are also key amendment topics. If some or all of these poison-pill provisions are added to the defense authorization legislation— which Congress has enacted every year since the early 1960s— then Democrats will oppose the measure. The House Armed Services Committee initially passed the bill by an overwhelming 58-1 vote on June 22.”

In Bresnahan’s opinion, “the most high-profile amendment is authored by Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX). Jackson’s proposal would bar the Pentagon ‘from paying for or reimbursing expenses relating to abortion services.’ Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) has been holding up dozens of military promotions for months in a bid to force the Pentagon to rescind the abortion policy. There are several amendments designed to block or reduce military aid to Ukraine. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) will get a vote on her proposal to cut $300 million in Ukraine funding. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) has an amendment to prohibit DoD-run schools ‘from purchasing and having pornographic and radical gender ideology books in their libraries.’ Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) wants to block the removal of Confederate names from military bases. And Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) is seeking to prevent the Pentagon from implementing Biden’s climate change executive orders. The House Rules Committee met late Wednesday night to pass the rule covering this second tranche of controversial amendments. During that session, Republicans defeated numerous Democratic attempts to add their own amendments to the approved list. Of the 80 amendments cleared for potential floor votes, just four were from Democrats.”

Jim McGovern, ranking Rules Committee Democrat: “Looking at the amendments made in order, I’d be surprised if this barely passes the House. The amendments you made in order, if they are even adopted because they’re so extreme… will make what was a bipartisan bill demonstrably worse… This is a very sad night. It’s outrageous that a small minority of MAGA extremists is dictating how we’ll proceed. This is not how this place should work.”