Outstanding article as usual. When I was in the Air Force all officers had to meet once a year with our Group Commander to review our long term career plans. Essentially a pep talk to retain us by exploring where our AF career could take us. The Colonel was not happy when I said I was not planning to make a career out of the Air Force but when my 4 year commitment was up I'd finish my Master's in Political Science and return home to do something involving politics or State government. He made a comment to the effect that politics was "dirty business" best to be avoided. I was offended at the time but came to realize that he may have been right about that dirty business comment. (This was before Watergate, Ian Contra, Clinton impeachment, Gulf War I, Gulf War II and of course Trump.)
Good article. You're right, McCarthy was doomed the moment he took the gavel to this kind of fate. Like I mentioned in the last article, it's monkey's paw politics. There's no leverage over the "true believers" of the freedom caucus. Pork is gone so you can't use a carrot, and at least in the house the districts are so mangled that those seats are safe and you can't use a stick. The national party's coffers aren't as valuable as they used to be- Thanks to Citizen's United, you can go get a sugar daddy billionaire to fund you. Thanks to Trump (and Bernie if we're being completely frank), if you can't find a sugar daddy you can throw enough red meat at masses of people to do some significant low amount contributions to YOLO your election efforts.
When your motivating factor is "political prestige at any cost", there's going to be some payday loan politics with an 8000% APY attached to the gavel that McCarthy wanted so bad.
Actually I like that better than monkey's paw. Payday Loan Politics. The longer the obligation goes on, the more exponentially things get worse. McCarthy took out a payday loan from the Freedom Caucus.
Payday Loan really is the perfect metaphor for this. He might even be able to borrow enough to cover his ass this time, but the price just gets higher and eventually he's gonna get got
Looks like McCarthy's payday loan is defaulting a little faster than he thought. The Democrats apparently aren't going to help him stay in power. I frankly don't blame them. I forgot who it was that said that the Democrats aren't going to be a "cheap date" and help McCarthy out without significant concessions, but also at the same time, he has a severe trust issue.
Now the clown show starts up again. The house can't do any business until it gets a new speaker, and that speaker *immediately* gets to go into negotiations for the imminent closure of the government because we still haven't passed our appropriations bills.
If the Freedom Caucus insists on keeping it's no confidence vote rule, and at this point there's blood in the water so I'd be surprised if they didn't (unless it is a nutjob who gets the gavel, in which case they may back off) then whoever is in that position is hard-wiring a political shotgun to their foreheads.
Outstanding article as usual. When I was in the Air Force all officers had to meet once a year with our Group Commander to review our long term career plans. Essentially a pep talk to retain us by exploring where our AF career could take us. The Colonel was not happy when I said I was not planning to make a career out of the Air Force but when my 4 year commitment was up I'd finish my Master's in Political Science and return home to do something involving politics or State government. He made a comment to the effect that politics was "dirty business" best to be avoided. I was offended at the time but came to realize that he may have been right about that dirty business comment. (This was before Watergate, Ian Contra, Clinton impeachment, Gulf War I, Gulf War II and of course Trump.)
Dirty jobs need doin' too!
(it's been a pretty filthy few decades)
Good article. You're right, McCarthy was doomed the moment he took the gavel to this kind of fate. Like I mentioned in the last article, it's monkey's paw politics. There's no leverage over the "true believers" of the freedom caucus. Pork is gone so you can't use a carrot, and at least in the house the districts are so mangled that those seats are safe and you can't use a stick. The national party's coffers aren't as valuable as they used to be- Thanks to Citizen's United, you can go get a sugar daddy billionaire to fund you. Thanks to Trump (and Bernie if we're being completely frank), if you can't find a sugar daddy you can throw enough red meat at masses of people to do some significant low amount contributions to YOLO your election efforts.
When your motivating factor is "political prestige at any cost", there's going to be some payday loan politics with an 8000% APY attached to the gavel that McCarthy wanted so bad.
Actually I like that better than monkey's paw. Payday Loan Politics. The longer the obligation goes on, the more exponentially things get worse. McCarthy took out a payday loan from the Freedom Caucus.
Payday Loan really is the perfect metaphor for this. He might even be able to borrow enough to cover his ass this time, but the price just gets higher and eventually he's gonna get got
Looks like McCarthy's payday loan is defaulting a little faster than he thought. The Democrats apparently aren't going to help him stay in power. I frankly don't blame them. I forgot who it was that said that the Democrats aren't going to be a "cheap date" and help McCarthy out without significant concessions, but also at the same time, he has a severe trust issue.
Aaaand there it is. McCarthy is out
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/matt-gaetz-kevin-mccarthy-house-speakership-10-03-23/index.html
Now the clown show starts up again. The house can't do any business until it gets a new speaker, and that speaker *immediately* gets to go into negotiations for the imminent closure of the government because we still haven't passed our appropriations bills.
If the Freedom Caucus insists on keeping it's no confidence vote rule, and at this point there's blood in the water so I'd be surprised if they didn't (unless it is a nutjob who gets the gavel, in which case they may back off) then whoever is in that position is hard-wiring a political shotgun to their foreheads.
We'll see who takes the next payday loan.