Gilead
Speaker of the House of Representatives
Fig. 1. Photograph credited to Office of Congressman Kevin McCarthy, date inconsistent with title but given as November 9, 2022, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Tara Palmeri has decided that Kevin McCarthy might win the speakership after all. With all the concessions he’s made,[1] it will be—I doubt there’s any serious dispute on this point—a pyrrhic victory.[2]
The stalemate is critical. What has become porn for Democrats and MAGA truthers is an exercise in outlasting the opposition. Despite 15 “no” voters throwing a lifeline to [Kevin] McCarthy today by flipping to “yes,” six die-hard, scalp-hungry antagonistes are still on the floor shooting him down. That leaves just two votes that he needs to break off, and maybe fewer if he can lower the majority threshold via some technicality. One Democrat is out for surgery, but so are a few Republicans. Would enough Democrats have emergencies to get off the floor? Unlikely. This is too rich for them. . . .
Increasingly, it looks like McCarthy might be able to squirrel away the votes and grab the gavel. This quote from [Matt] Gaetz is pretty telling about the direction these negotiations are going in: “I said there’s two ways this ends. And it was either the defeat of McCarthy or it was going to be the rules and personnel paradigm that gave us a functional straightjacket. And we’re working our way to one of those outcomes.”[3]
(I’m pretty sure Matt Gaetz means ‘straitjacket.’)
As for me, I’m calling this the same way I am a prosecution of Donald Trump: I’ll believe it when I see it and not one millisecond before.[4] That said, McCarthy has achieved the first part of this:
[Kevin] McCarthy’s camp is hoping that if they can winnow down his opposition from 20 to a half-dozen or so, the pressure on the remaining holdouts will be so great that enough would cave. McCarthy has also floated that if he can flip enough “no” votes into his column, he could convince others to vote “present,” helping him by lowering the number of total votes he needs to win.[5]
Only time will tell if this works. We’re down or at least very close to being down to the the hardcore “Never Kevin” crowd now and the question is whether he can get two more votes or win on a technicality that lowers the threshold.[6]
Natalie Andrews and Eliza Collins, “Kevin McCarthy Falls Short of House Speaker Win in Three Rounds of Voting,” Wall Street Journal, January 3, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/house-prepares-to-vote-for-speaker-as-kevin-mccarthy-tries-to-rally-support-11672750973
Aaron Blake, “McCarthy’s big concession — and how it could hamstring a GOP speaker,” Washington Post, January 3, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/03/motion-vacate-house-speaker/
John Cassidy, “Behind the Humiliation of Kevin McCarthy,” New Yorker, January 3, 2023, https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/behind-the-humiliation-of-kevin-mccarthy
Clare Foran et al., “House adjourns after chaotic day without electing a speaker as McCarthy fails to lock down votes,” CNN, January 3, 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/03/politics/house-speaker-vote-mccarthy/index.html
Tara Palmeri, “We Need to Talk About Kevin, ” Puck News, January 3, 2023, https://puck.news/we-need-to-talk-about-kevin/
Clare Foran et al., “House adjourns for second day without electing a speaker with McCarthy’s bid in peril,” CNN, January 4, 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/04/politics/kevin-mccarthy-speaker-vote/index.html
Molly Jong-Fast, “The Kevin McCarthy Mess Is Peak Trumpism,” Vanity Fair, January 4, 2023, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/01/kevin-mccarthy-speaker-vote-gop-trumpism
Nolan D. McCaskill, “Deadlocked House adjourns until evening after Kevin McCarthy racks up yet another defeat,” Los Angeles Times, January 4, 2023, https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2023-01-04/trump-mccarthy-speaker-votes
Tara Palmeri, “Scalise Smoke Signals,” Puck News, January 4, 2023, https://puck.news/scalise-smoke-signals/
Ashley Parker and Josh Dawsey, “The House hard-liners blocking McCarthy aren’t listening to Trump,” Washington Post, January 4, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/04/trump-mccarthy-speaker/
Dan Zak and Ben Terris, “Does the House even exist right now?” Washington Post, January 4, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/01/04/house-of-representatives-in-purgatory-without-speaker/
Olivia Beavers et al., “McCarthy nears tentative deal with conservatives after days of stalemate,” Politico, January 5, 2023, https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/05/mccarthy-bid-00076520
Aaron Blake, “What McCarthy’s concessions could cost him — and the GOP,” Washington Post, January 5, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/05/mccarthy-concessions-gop/
Bess Levin, “Kevin McCarthy Debases Himself in Hopes of Finally Winning Speaker Vote, Then Loses Again (And Again, And Again),” Vanity Fair, January 5, 2023, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/01/kevin-mccarthy-speaker-vote-concessions
Eric Levitz, “The GOP Is More Ungovernable Than Ever Before,” New York, January 5, 2023, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/01/the-gop-is-more-ungovernable-than-ever-before.html
Nolan D. McCaskill, “House adjourns for night after McCarthy amasses 11 speaker vote losses,” Los Angeles Times, January 5, 2023, https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2023-01-05/mccarthy-speaker-thursday-votes
Tina Nguyen, “McCarthy’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold,” Puck News, January 5, 2023, https://puck.news/mccarthys-chronicle-of-a-death-foretold/
Jenavieve Hatch, Gillian Brassil, and David Lightman, “California GOP on McCarthy Speaker bid: ‘The Republican Party is entirely dependent on him,’” Sacramento Bee, January 6, 2023, https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article270831322.html
Tara Palmeri, “The McCarthy-Scalise Detente,” Puck News, January 6, 2023, https://puck.news/the-mccarthy-scalise-detente/
Right-wing militias
Fig. 1. “ODF militiamen Frank Delollis, right, signals for a patrol party to turn around while searching the Old Roseville Prison property in Roseville, Ohio for enemy combatants during the Ohio Defense Force’s annual FTX on Aug. 21, 2010.” Photograph by Ty Cacek, August 21, 2010, via Time Magazine,[7] fair use.
Michael Korsh and Mike Wereschagin, “How the Oath Keepers turned Pennsylvania into a far-right militia recruiting hotbed,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 6, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2023/01/06/oath-keepers-pennsylvania-capitol-riot/stories/202301060080
Military
Fig. 1. Image of unstated origin and unknown date posted to Quora by Karl Burkhalter,[8] fair use.
Michael Korsh and Mike Wereschagin, “How the Oath Keepers turned Pennsylvania into a far-right militia recruiting hotbed,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 6, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2023/01/06/oath-keepers-pennsylvania-capitol-riot/stories/202301060080
Police White supremacist gangs
Fig. 1. Image credited to Darnella Frazier, made from a video posted to Facebook, of Minneapolis white supremacist gangster Derek Chauvin’s knee on George Floyd’s neck, May 25, 2020, via ABC News,[9] fair use.
Michael Korsh and Mike Wereschagin, “How the Oath Keepers turned Pennsylvania into a far-right militia recruiting hotbed,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 6, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2023/01/06/oath-keepers-pennsylvania-capitol-riot/stories/202301060080
Donald Trump
Coup attempt
Fig. 1. “Jake Angeli (Qanon Shaman), seen holding a Qanon sign at the intersection of Bell Rd and 75th Ave in Peoria, Arizona, on 2020 October 15.” Photography by TheUnseen011101 [pseud.], October 15, 2020, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Michael Korsh and Mike Wereschagin, “How the Oath Keepers turned Pennsylvania into a far-right militia recruiting hotbed,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 6, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2023/01/06/oath-keepers-pennsylvania-capitol-riot/stories/202301060080
- [1]Olivia Beavers et al., “McCarthy nears tentative deal with conservatives after days of stalemate,” Politico, January 5, 2023, https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/05/mccarthy-bid-00076520; Aaron Blake, “McCarthy’s big concession — and how it could hamstring a GOP speaker,” Washington Post, January 3, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/03/motion-vacate-house-speaker/; Aaron Blake, “What McCarthy’s concessions could cost him — and the GOP,” Washington Post, January 5, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/05/mccarthy-concessions-gop/; Bess Levin, “Kevin McCarthy Debases Himself in Hopes of Finally Winning Speaker Vote, Then Loses Again (And Again, And Again),” Vanity Fair, January 5, 2023, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/01/kevin-mccarthy-speaker-vote-concessions; Tara Palmeri, “The McCarthy-Scalise Detente,” Puck News, January 6, 2023, https://puck.news/the-mccarthy-scalise-detente/↩
- [2]Tara Palmeri, “The McCarthy-Scalise Detente,” Puck News, January 6, 2023, https://puck.news/the-mccarthy-scalise-detente/↩
- [3]Tara Palmeri, “The McCarthy-Scalise Detente,” Puck News, January 6, 2023, https://puck.news/the-mccarthy-scalise-detente/↩
- [4]David Benfell, “It is now even more urgently orange jumpsuit time,” Not Housebroken, November 18, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/08/24/it-is-now-even-more-urgently-orange-jumpsuit-time/↩
- [5]Olivia Beavers et al., “McCarthy nears tentative deal with conservatives after days of stalemate,” Politico, January 5, 2023, https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/05/mccarthy-bid-00076520↩
- [6]Tara Palmeri, “The McCarthy-Scalise Detente,” Puck News, January 6, 2023, https://puck.news/the-mccarthy-scalise-detente/↩
- [7]Barton Gellman, “The Secret World of Extreme Militias,” Time, September 30, 2010, http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2022636,00.html↩
- [8]Quora, “Do you agree with the Marine Corps’ decision to ban the public display of the Confederate flag?” n.d., https://www.quora.com/Do-you-agree-with-the-Marine-Corps-decision-to-ban-the-public-display-of-the-Confederate-flag↩
- [9]Catherine Thorbecke, “Derek Chauvin had his knee on George Floyd’s neck for nearly 9 minutes, complaint says,” ABC News, May 29, 2020, https://abcnews.go.com/US/derek-chauvin-knee-george-floyds-neck-minutes-complaint/story?id=70961042↩