Get Ready For Speaker McCarthy

by JASmius

Okay, my Tea Party friends, now I'm completely confused. I thought the whole problem with John Boehner as Speaker of the House of Representatives was that he's a RINO/squish "progressive" cockroach traitor "establishment" guy, the embodiment of everything Tea Partiers hate and exist to stamp out. Now your House caucus is so desperate to get rid of the orange Ohioan after all the ludicrous, pathetic failed "coup" attempts over the past four and a half years that they're willing to replace him with the least conservative member of the House GOP leadership over that time period?

I take you back to a little over a year ago and the race to succeed the primaried Eric Cantor:

If Representative Kevin McCarthy is elected House majority leader next week, Republicans will have picked a #2 with a less conservative voting record than his predecessor.

The American Conservative Union gave McCarthy, the majority whip who has represented California in the House since 2007, a 72 score for his House votes last year. That was down from 86 the previous year.

McCarthy's scores were far lower than those of Virginia-7 Representative Eric Cantor, who announced Wednesday that he was stepping down as majority leader on July 31st after his GOP primary loss to newcomer David Brat on Tuesday.

The ACU scored Cantor at 84 on his voting record last year. That was down from 95 the year before. [emphasis added]

Let me reiterate that: Last year, Tea Partiers got rid of a MORE conservative House Majority Leader and replaced him with a LESS conservative House Majority Leader. All over Cantor being willing to pass a "comprehensive immigration reform" bill last summer for which McCarthy had, if anything, even more enthusiasm. I'd suggest that perhaps the Tea Party has been reduced to a single-issue rump sect - it'd sure as shinola help explain Trumpmania - but I already blew that speculation out of the water.

And now, a year later, Tea Partiers want to get rid of a MORE conservative House Speaker and replace him with a LESS conservative House Speaker.

Does this make any sense by the Tea Party's own lights? I don't get it.

- Me, two weeks ago


And once again, Tea Partiers look to be getting their perverse, self-defeating wish:

California-23 Representative Kevin McCarthy is almost certain to be the next speaker of the U.S. House, two Republican representatives said on Sunday.

House Republicans could vote internally as early as this week on who will replace current Speaker John Boehner, who unexpectedly announced he would resign on Friday in the midst of difficult budget negotiations. McCarthy, who currently holds the #2 position in the Republican leadership, will likely move up, Representatives Mick Mulvaney and Tom Cole said on Fox News Sunday.

“I don’t think there’s much doubt Kevin will be the next Speaker of the House, and he should be,” Cole, of Oklahoma, said on the show.

Cole, a close Boehner ally, said he hopes internal House Republican elections for a new speaker and other leadership posts will be held quickly.

Thus locking in a less conservative, more "establishmentarian" House GOP leadership than currently exists.

Other Republicans are urging a delay so that the party can debate its priorities and so potential McCarthy challengers can consolidate support.

Thus guaranteeing House GOP leadership chaos that will effectively cede control of the lower house of Congress to Nancy Pelosi, after which will eventually emerge....a less conservative, more "establishmentarian" House GOP leadership than currently exists.

“The important question is, will things change? Will they change for the better or we simply replace Mr. Boehner with somebody else who do the same thing?” said Mulvaney, a South Carolina conservative who had criticized Boehner’s leadership.

I'd say that's a transparently rhetorical question, wouldn't all of you?

But, by all means, congratulations to the House Tea Party caucus in finally slaying (so they will convince themselves, if they haven't already) the Boehner beast and moving the House GOP hierarchy to the Left in the process.  It's monumentally abysmal strategy if the idea is to advance conservative/constitutionalist interests forward instead of staggeringly backwards, but as a means of pointless emotional catharsis and keeping Tea Party anger and rage stoked to a high-rolling boil, recent developments on this front over the past week have been and will be a grand slam home run.

And y'all wonder why I sometimes can't help feeling like the last sane man on Earth.


UPDATE: Hey, everybody, how about bringing Newt out of retirement?