Here's How to Get a Speaker of the House by Noon

Kevin McCarthy has lost three votes for Speaker of the House.

On the third vote, the opposition grew.

Who is being unreasonable now? The GOP could have a Speaker by noon today so long as it is not McCarthy.

Scalise? He could get the votes.

Jordan? He could get the votes.

Don Bacon? Okay, maybe he could not after the Taliban comment, but he’d still be better than McCarthy. I like Don a lot. I just disagree with him on McCarthy. By the way, when comparing the conservatives to the Taliban, it is worth noting the Taliban won.

And therein lies the rub.

There is an evident NeverKevin contingent. They’ll kill off his nomination in votes today. But they are entirely open to others and probably without even making the would-be Speaker yield to extraordinary concessions.

This has always been about stopping Kevin McCarthy. The House of Representatives needs real reform. It needs to stop forcing crises and then rushing through leadership-written legislative packages. It needs to let the House work as the House is designed — a process that worked fine until the early two thousands.

We did not use to careen towards government shutdowns and debt ceiling increases. We did not because the House and Senate worked. Now, leaders, including McCarthy, wait until the crisis is at the point of exploding and force multi-thousand-page bills on members who have no time to read them.

McCarthy does not want to give that up, and even if he did, there is no trust in him in the process.

For all the Republicans yelling about these recalcitrant conservatives, who is recalcitrant now? McCarthy has failed on three votes. He will fail on the fourth as well.

Get a new nominee for Speaker.

It is very telling that some of McCarthy’s friends openly say they will collaborate with progressives. After accusing conservatives of being fine with a Democrat Speaker, it is McCarthy’s friends who are willing to cut the deals and elevate the left.

The GOP should reject him. If they do, they can get a new Speaker by noon.

NeverKevin has the votes to stop Kevin McCarthy. The rest of the GOP and their media echo chamber must now decide if they want only Kevin McCarthy or do they want a Republican Speaker today. The latter is doable.

And Now A Word for CNN and Fox News

From Fox News to CNN to MSNBC, the major talking heads and anchors are back in the pre-Trump era of attacking the conservatives, claiming it is all nihilism, theater, and ego, and not actually honestly articulating the issue with fairness to the conservatives.

The bottom line is actually very easy to understand despite the pro-McCarthy and Establishment GOP spin. This is about ending Kevin McCarthy's Speakership. Some things really are that simple.

Sure, there are some rule changes the conservatives want too. You know, we didn't use to rush into debt ceiling and government shutdown crises. Now, leadership lets the crises fester till they can rush through sight-unseen, multi-thousand-page pieces of legislation.

The conservatives want to end that and go back to regular order, which was done until about fifteen years ago.

But really, this is about ending McCarthy's chance to be Speaker. If you're saying it is nihilism, ego, theater, a stunt, self-aggrandizement, etc., you're projecting your contempt for the ringleaders of the opposition, not actually accurately stating what is happening. I don’t care for Matt Gaetz either. I don’t particularly like being lined up about him. But he was right, and McCarthy was wrong on the McCarthy whip count, and he is right to want to stop McCarthy.

I’m really disappointed in the bias of the coverage towards not the truth but towards the McCarthy spin that makes this sound like a nihilistic, destructive endeavor of whiners.

You may positively hate Andy Biggs et al. But you are not appreciating what is happening. They’ve managed to get twenty of their colleagues together to stop McCarthy.

He was stopped when Boehner got ousted. They’re hell-bent on stopping him again regardless of what panels on Fox and CNN say their motivation is. You can disagree with them, but please understand this is not actually about their agenda. It is about stopping McCarthy. Period.

And also, it is nice to have a small number of Republicans willing to stand up for what is right even as Fox News, CNN, the conservative press and op-ed pages, etc. bully them. It’s back to like it was in the sequestration fight when Republicans accused conservatives of being hostage-taking terrorists only to claim credit for sequestration after the conservatives got it done.