I've thought about the unfathomable Tea Party drive to topple John Boehner as House Speaker and replace him with the squishier House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and the only possibility I can come up with is that it's thought that McCarthy would actually have a chance of knocking Boehner over given his elevated position and close proximity. Something along the lines of, "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer". Still doesn't make any rational sense, but if the idea is to get rid of Boehner at all costs and damn the consequences, then McCarthy would probably be their guy.
Problem is, TPers might have been better-advised to get the Majority Leader on board with the plan before launching it:
The #2 House Republican and the chairman of the powerful Ways and Means committee are putting the hex on any conservative coup to topple House Speaker John Boehner – and calling for an end to palace-like "intrigue" and GOP infighting.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Ways and Means head Paul Ryan – "the only two viable potential replacements" for the "embattled" Ohio Republican, now in his third term as House Speaker, Politico reports – say they'll oppose any effort to oust him.
"I support John Boehner as speaker," McCarthy said in a statement, Politico reports. "We should be spending all of our time and energy confronting this administration’s disastrous policies. The intrigue and fighting amongst ourselves only makes it harder to get that done. It ought to stop immediately.”
Added Ryan: "The best person to lead the conference right now is John Boehner, and any attempt to remove him would be counterproductive," Politico reports.
I know what you're going to say, my Tea Party friends: "WHAT 'confronting this administration's disastrous policies'?" Which as a retort isn't entirely inaccurate but has to be understood in a political context that TPers don't want to acknowledge. Courage and will-power and "Fight! Fight! Fight!" are part of the victory formula, but far from all of it. The "establishment" y'all detest understands that, and you don't. And they also understand that we're all in this together, and that it's pointless and futile "intrigue and infighting" that is, indeed, counterproductive, since John Boehner is not, in fact, going anywhere, at least for another year and a half.
As I wrote yesterday, Kevin McCarthy would be a step in the wrong direction based upon the Tea Party's own priorities. How appropriate that it falls to the House Majority Leader to put the kibosh on this latest round of TP foolishness.
But there'll always be the next one. Oh, yes.
No comments:
Post a Comment