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Bring it on!

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I thought the Democrats might save Kevin McCarthy's hide by voting present during the snap vote on Wednesday but they let him hang.  Can't say I feel sorry for Kevin but I have to wonder if that was the wisest move given the next Republican speaker will be even more belligerent given the early choices.  Maybe the Dems have an alternative?  After all they only need 6 Republican votes to have a speaker of their own choosing.  However it is very unlikely that any Republican would be willing to serve as a Democratic proxy given the current political climate.

McCarthy sealed his own fate when he conceded to the MAGA Republicans the ability to call a snap vote at any time during his tenure.  He probably thought no one would do it, but when all these indictments against Trump began rolling up this summer you knew the MAGAts would go to any lengths to try to close down the Justice Department.  Enter Matt Gaetz, a man who apparently bragged to his colleagues that he used Viagra and Red Bull to have sex all night long with his teenage girlfriends.  Republicans are so angry he pulled this stunt that they are releasing all kinds of raunchy sex stories that he related to them on Newsmax and other conservative outlets.  

The amazing part is that it only took 8 Republicans to topple McCarthy.  He got absolutely no support from Democrats, which he was counting on when he shouted "Bring it on" in the chamber after Gaetz made his motion to vacate the Speaker on Monday.  Gaetz just smiled as he knew the Democrats wouldn't bail Kevin out.  McCarthy had earned their ire by caving into the MAGA Republicans on the spending bill, turning to the Democrats at the last minute and then bragging how he had negotiated the stop-gap spending bill.  Kevin had also allowed the nonsensical impeachment hearing on Biden to proceed without a floor vote.  As AOC said, "my job is not to put pool noodles around hard corners."  All Matt needed was a handful of Republicans to join him and that would be that.

I just don't like how Gaetz is getting so much mileage out of this.  Even Jake Tapeworm, I mean Tapper, interviewed him on CNN, giving the Florida representative plenty of room to gloat over his accomplishment.  Pelosi scolded Jake afterward for wasting time on Gaetz, but the human tapeworm (Tapper in this case) just gave his usual cynical frown.  He's one of these journalists who thrives off the chaos MAGA Republicans have created, growing inside your belly like a tapeworm until you can't stand it anymore and try to throw it all up.

Sadly, Gaetz does have just enough sway in the House to turn things on its ear, even if it has made him a pariah.  No matter as far as he is concerned.  He has the Northwest Florida first district sewn up and is now thinking about running for governor in 2026.  He will be around for years to come as there appears to be no headway being made on the charges of underage sex trafficking that were brought against him in 2021.  However, angry Republicans might use it to expel him from Congress.  He's such a darling among MAGA voters that it will only increase his notoriety.

In the end no one really liked McCarthy.  He was just seen as the only guy who could hold this motley crew of Republicans together.  That was until he decided to sleep with the Democrats.  Trump railed against him on Truth Social and apparently is even considering the Speaker position himself, as he was nominated by Troy Nehls of Texas.  Wouldn't that be a hoot!

It would have been better to have Gaetz and McCarthy fight it out in an Octagon rather than go through this ugly ordeal as it effectively shuts the government down for weeks if not the next year and a half as nothing will get through the House during this time.  It is exactly what these MAGA Republicans want.  They were never interested in any kind of spending bill.  Their aim remains to shutdown government by any means necessary.

In the meantime, Democrats have to find a way to work with so-called moderate Republicans if they want to keep the programs they authored the first half of Biden's tenure moving.  Not to mention funding for the Ukraine war, which the White House was hoping to get in the temporary spending bill that was approved last week. There are limits to his executive authority.  The Democrats' only alternative at this point is to find a relatively sympathetic Republican Speaker who will be willing to work with them on spending resolutions.  Scalise and Jordan, the two frontrunners, would never do so.  The only question is whether such a moderate will come forward?

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