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No, Democrats shouldn’t have helped Kevin McCarthy

Published on 88 Comments on No, Democrats shouldn’t have helped Kevin McCarthy

Should Democrats have provided Kevin McCarthy with the votes he needed to stay on as Speaker of the House? After all, it's not as if they're likely to get someone better in his place. I think Matt Yglesias has the right read on this:

Not only did McCarthy offer them nothing, he explicitly said he didn't expect their help. Under the circumstances—and given the serial betrayals they've endured from him—it's hard to see why they'd break tradition and vote for him.

Nonetheless, apparently McCarthy's supporters in the House are furious at Nancy Pelosi for not doing more to help him out. Patrick McHenry is the new acting Speaker and he's already hard at work:

What a dick.

In other news, Steve Scalise, the #2 Republican in the House, has announced that he'll be running for Speaker. I fully support his candidacy. It's about time that people with multiple myeloma had some representation in our nation's highest offices.

88 thoughts on “No, Democrats shouldn’t have helped Kevin McCarthy”

  1. D_Ohrk_E1

    DeLong: https://braddelong.substack.com/p/briefly-noted-for-2023-10-04-we

    "The explanation that has come closest to convincing me and think is the most likely is that Kevin McCarthy miscalculated twice: (a) he thought that the Democrats in the House would vote against his clean-but-no-Ukraine surprise snap continuing resolution, and (b) he thought that House Democrats would not vote to vacate the chair because they would believe the “I’m lying to my caucus: ultimately I’ll cut the deal you want with you” pitch he made to them, and thus acquiesce in his continued Speakership."

    So it is as I thought it was from the start -- the intention was always to shut the gov't down. Now, with McCarthy out of the way, it seems even more evident that they're going to shut the gov't down in 41 days.

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