"Baby steps" is meant to be an optimistic analogy anyway. As in, "sure, it might not look like we got a lot done, but like a baby's first steps lead to walking and running, our efforts will lead to big things."
McCarthy is a spineless turd who only cares about how high he can climb Mount Wingnut, but things can and will get worse and weirder once he’s replaced with a speaker willing to go full MAGA. This “inquiry” will be yet another rehash of 2020 Burisma, Shokin, laptop boners and Hunter, Hunter, Hunter. Because if you put your phone on speaker and yell, “say hi, Dad!” that’s the exact same as Joe being directly involved in Hunter’s dealings. This is never about removing Joe, which ain’t happenin’. It’s about saying negative things about Joe’s family and implying suggestive innuendo. But this will hurt the gop. The election is 14 months away, a long time in news cycle years. A year of circle jerking about Hunter and Ukraine isn’t going to win over any moderates who are anxious about Joe’s age. At least it keeps us talking about Ukraine, which is far more important and needs our support.
They are trying to create a false equivalency between Trump, who was impeached twice for good reason and who is facing 91 felony charges, and Biden, for whom there is zero evidence of wrongdoing. In fact, their "evidence" actually disproves their allegations.
It's about muddying the waters, and in an effort to get disengaged voters to throw up their hands and say "they're all corrupt!" Plus they are actively working with Trump on this, and he just wants payback. They can't erase his impeachments, but they can impeach the Democrat.
Ironically, the GOP is undertaking the plot that Trump used to extort Ukraine, which led to his first impeachment. He wanted them to manufacture an investigation about Biden, and he and the GOP congress would "take it from there." Ukraine wouldn't play ball, the transcript of the "perfect call" was exposed, and Trump was rightfully impeached. The GOP House is running the exact same playbook about the exact same conspiracy theory bullshit.
Gee.......what happened to the other 'Young Guns" from 2007? Cantor.....voted out in the 2014 PRIMARY when he was the house Majority Leader! Then Ryan was installed as speaker after Boehner saw the writing on the wall as to how ungovernable his caucus had become. Ryan tried herding cats for a while and bailed.
He is sitting on the band wagon furiously pulling the reins and snapping his whip. Until the camera pulls back to show the wagon is on blocks, the reins are tied to a post and the whip is CGI. He hasn't been in charge of anything since the Ultra-Far Right made his job a farce in poor taste. He should have quit and let them run the Reb House into the ground like they wanted to. At least the would be laughing as the party imploded.
I feel like this would be a solid gambit to shut down the impeachment inquiry. If the R's refuse to fund the government anyway, fuck it, shut it all down.
I just accidentally listened to the sound clip of Gaetz threatening his own Speaker and demanding that McCarthy fulfill the demands of the Loony Caucus that Qevin agreed to back in January. Strangely, Gaetz doesn't mention that the OtherGOP Caucus is - we may presume - not on board with any of the things the Loonies want.
Are the House GOP (all of whom are facing reelection challenges next year) really interested in being forced to vote Y/N on:
~ a balanced budget amendment (won't pass but would put any swing districts even more in play)
~term limits (who is going to vote to term-limit themselves?)
Also not mentioned by Gaetz is that if Qevin were stupid enough to bring these bright ideas to a floor debate, they would get 45 votes (the number of Loonie Caucus members) out of a total of 432 votes.
But you do you, Gaetz. Personally I would really like to see another 15 rounds of proposed new Speakers not getting a majority all night.
Not to mention (but I will, of course) SCOTUS has already ruled on term limits for Congresscritters, deeming them unconstitutional. I can't see Matty Molester voting in favor of limiting his time in the House, though. Works for thee, but not for me, type of thing, amirite?
That's the thing about the threat of removing him as speaker – who the fuck else would get enough votes to do it? McCarthy had to go 15 rounds just to become speaker in the first place, and there is no one obvious who could get the votes to replace him.
I'd actually be quite happy if they remove him and then spend the next few months trying to replace him. They looked like the amateur hour clowns they are when it happened the first time.
Except for the need for a budget and DOD funding, I'd be ok with that scenario. It's not as if the House is able to pass much actual legislation - or rather, the Dems can get some stuff done by peeling off 15 Congresscritturs in swing districts - presumably even if there is no Speaker, or a new Speaker once a week, there is some mechanism for getting things gaveled.
Gaetz doesn't seem to realize that all his power lies in the potential damage he and the other members of the Freedom Caucus can do. The first time they put that to a vote and lose, their power over the Republican caucus goes the way of the dodo.
We thought Paul Ryan and (would-be Speaker) Eric Cantor had a crap time trying to cat-herd all the chaotic factions of their caucus. McCarthy is proving to himself, leading a fractious mob can always be worse if you are cowardly and incompetent.
“However, if he can’t keep the government open and successfully moves forward with a bogus impeachment, Democrats might just help end his undistinguished speakership.”
That’s only going to happen if a more moderate / logical Republican steps up to kill their career while helping save the country.
ISadly, not clear if there are any more Liz Cheneys and Adam Kinzingers left to provide that option.
The ones who want the job don't even appeal to a majority of Republicans. They may have to call on outside help, or Divine Intervention, to find a sucker for the job. Maybe an unemployable ex-President? Goddess knows he needs a steady salary to pay the lawyers. 🙄
I just meant he has no power to oust McCarthy. They do have the power to stop Congress, unless, the Democrats throw McCarthy a lifeline, and if he grabs it (big if right?). As much as that hurts, it'd hurt worse if they shut down the government.
That's fair, but like you said, unless the Democratic Caucus gets behind McCarthy's milquetoast legislative initiatives (say, a continuing resolution) Gaetz doesn't need to be able to fire him. They can just fiddle on C-SPAN while the country burns, which I guess is what Florida voters think people in Congress are elected to do.
"Baby steps" is meant to be an optimistic analogy anyway. As in, "sure, it might not look like we got a lot done, but like a baby's first steps lead to walking and running, our efforts will lead to big things."
McCarthy is a spineless turd who only cares about how high he can climb Mount Wingnut, but things can and will get worse and weirder once he’s replaced with a speaker willing to go full MAGA. This “inquiry” will be yet another rehash of 2020 Burisma, Shokin, laptop boners and Hunter, Hunter, Hunter. Because if you put your phone on speaker and yell, “say hi, Dad!” that’s the exact same as Joe being directly involved in Hunter’s dealings. This is never about removing Joe, which ain’t happenin’. It’s about saying negative things about Joe’s family and implying suggestive innuendo. But this will hurt the gop. The election is 14 months away, a long time in news cycle years. A year of circle jerking about Hunter and Ukraine isn’t going to win over any moderates who are anxious about Joe’s age. At least it keeps us talking about Ukraine, which is far more important and needs our support.
They are trying to create a false equivalency between Trump, who was impeached twice for good reason and who is facing 91 felony charges, and Biden, for whom there is zero evidence of wrongdoing. In fact, their "evidence" actually disproves their allegations.
It's about muddying the waters, and in an effort to get disengaged voters to throw up their hands and say "they're all corrupt!" Plus they are actively working with Trump on this, and he just wants payback. They can't erase his impeachments, but they can impeach the Democrat.
Ironically, the GOP is undertaking the plot that Trump used to extort Ukraine, which led to his first impeachment. He wanted them to manufacture an investigation about Biden, and he and the GOP congress would "take it from there." Ukraine wouldn't play ball, the transcript of the "perfect call" was exposed, and Trump was rightfully impeached. The GOP House is running the exact same playbook about the exact same conspiracy theory bullshit.
Gee.......what happened to the other 'Young Guns" from 2007? Cantor.....voted out in the 2014 PRIMARY when he was the house Majority Leader! Then Ryan was installed as speaker after Boehner saw the writing on the wall as to how ungovernable his caucus had become. Ryan tried herding cats for a while and bailed.
How's it going Qevin?????
He is sitting on the band wagon furiously pulling the reins and snapping his whip. Until the camera pulls back to show the wagon is on blocks, the reins are tied to a post and the whip is CGI. He hasn't been in charge of anything since the Ultra-Far Right made his job a farce in poor taste. He should have quit and let them run the Reb House into the ground like they wanted to. At least the would be laughing as the party imploded.
Telling the assholes to go fuck themselves certainly seemed to help John Boehner's mental health.
McCarthy's last bit of dignity left him long before he even tried to be speaker.
i'd love to see the dems vote to get rid of him and the chaos that would then inevitably ensue
I feel like this would be a solid gambit to shut down the impeachment inquiry. If the R's refuse to fund the government anyway, fuck it, shut it all down.
And most of the purportedly liberal media would shout "Dems in disarray!"
second verse, same as the first for most of these hacks
Was McCarthy quoting Fetterman??
No thanks. There was too much Ryan Gosling footage in the theatrical release.
I just accidentally listened to the sound clip of Gaetz threatening his own Speaker and demanding that McCarthy fulfill the demands of the Loony Caucus that Qevin agreed to back in January. Strangely, Gaetz doesn't mention that the OtherGOP Caucus is - we may presume - not on board with any of the things the Loonies want.
Are the House GOP (all of whom are facing reelection challenges next year) really interested in being forced to vote Y/N on:
~ a balanced budget amendment (won't pass but would put any swing districts even more in play)
~term limits (who is going to vote to term-limit themselves?)
Also not mentioned by Gaetz is that if Qevin were stupid enough to bring these bright ideas to a floor debate, they would get 45 votes (the number of Loonie Caucus members) out of a total of 432 votes.
But you do you, Gaetz. Personally I would really like to see another 15 rounds of proposed new Speakers not getting a majority all night.
Not to mention (but I will, of course) SCOTUS has already ruled on term limits for Congresscritters, deeming them unconstitutional. I can't see Matty Molester voting in favor of limiting his time in the House, though. Works for thee, but not for me, type of thing, amirite?
That's the thing about the threat of removing him as speaker – who the fuck else would get enough votes to do it? McCarthy had to go 15 rounds just to become speaker in the first place, and there is no one obvious who could get the votes to replace him.
I'd actually be quite happy if they remove him and then spend the next few months trying to replace him. They looked like the amateur hour clowns they are when it happened the first time.
Except for the need for a budget and DOD funding, I'd be ok with that scenario. It's not as if the House is able to pass much actual legislation - or rather, the Dems can get some stuff done by peeling off 15 Congresscritturs in swing districts - presumably even if there is no Speaker, or a new Speaker once a week, there is some mechanism for getting things gaveled.
Gaetz doesn't seem to realize that all his power lies in the potential damage he and the other members of the Freedom Caucus can do. The first time they put that to a vote and lose, their power over the Republican caucus goes the way of the dodo.
We thought Paul Ryan and (would-be Speaker) Eric Cantor had a crap time trying to cat-herd all the chaotic factions of their caucus. McCarthy is proving to himself, leading a fractious mob can always be worse if you are cowardly and incompetent.
couldn't happen to a lamer POS...
“However, if he can’t keep the government open and successfully moves forward with a bogus impeachment, Democrats might just help end his undistinguished speakership.”
That’s only going to happen if a more moderate / logical Republican steps up to kill their career while helping save the country.
ISadly, not clear if there are any more Liz Cheneys and Adam Kinzingers left to provide that option.
There aren't. The purge is complete.
Hey Qevin?
https://gifdb.com/images/high/gladiator-thumbs-down-angry-joaquin-phoenix-wgc9hlaatcgkwbst.gif
McCarthy is a fool. Gaetz has no power to do anything because no one else has the votes to be elected Speaker.
They do with Dem help.
The ones who want the job don't even appeal to a majority of Republicans. They may have to call on outside help, or Divine Intervention, to find a sucker for the job. Maybe an unemployable ex-President? Goddess knows he needs a steady salary to pay the lawyers. 🙄
Gaetz and the Anti-Everything Caucus have the power to stop Congress from governing, and by golly, they mean to if it costs them their lives*
* it won't even cost them their lucrative jobs
I just meant he has no power to oust McCarthy. They do have the power to stop Congress, unless, the Democrats throw McCarthy a lifeline, and if he grabs it (big if right?). As much as that hurts, it'd hurt worse if they shut down the government.
That's fair, but like you said, unless the Democratic Caucus gets behind McCarthy's milquetoast legislative initiatives (say, a continuing resolution) Gaetz doesn't need to be able to fire him. They can just fiddle on C-SPAN while the country burns, which I guess is what Florida voters think people in Congress are elected to do.
Lolololololol
"publicly placed the speaker on a performance improvement plan"
Where I worked I NEVER saw anyone survive a performance improvement plan. If you got PIPed you better start looking for a new job.
Democrats might just help end his undistinguished speakership? Nah, bruh, That would require a spine.
Is baby steps a Gaetz code for teenagers dancing in his hotel room?
Gross, but fair.