Kevin McCarthy just unwittingly handed us a huge gift
Although there’s been a lot more handwringing than usual from our side about the Jan 6 commission that Republicans are refusing to give way on, there’s going to be an investigation of what happened one way or another. Filibustering this commission in the Senate would only make them look even more stupid than they make themselves look on a daily basis, but there’s one big distinction between Senate Republicans and House Republicans: Mitch McConnell can control the former rather easily. Kevin McCarthy, on the other hand, looks like a hapless idiot at every turn, trying to manage a party that’s spiraling further and further out of control by the day, flip flopping between opposition for the commission and just pretending he didn’t hear the question.
The odds of survival for Republican House Speakers is getting considerably lower – John Boehner hung it up after five years of failed negotiations, and Paul Ryan announced retirement rather than deal with the humiliation of losing the House to Democrats and staying on in the capacity of minority leader. McCarthy is even visibly weaker than those two were on their worst day, and we should be doing all we can to keep him from taking over. That task may have just gotten easier – with Lauren Boebert’s open declaration that she wants to be House Speaker. It’s not just wishful thinking, either – with fellow wingnut Matt Gaetz openly supporting her. Even a dingbat like Boebert should want to run from a Gaetz endorsement – but here we are.
There’s fairly remote odds that this would ever happen – but – Republicans down the ballot will likely have to take a position on whether or not they would support Boebert for speaker – and have to say why not. It just became that much easier to tie Republican candidates to one of the most demented candidates 2020 had to offer. Instead of the hand wringing that’s never won us a single vote (and sometimes subtracted a few), this is a gift we’ve been given and we’d be foolish not to use it.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making