McCarthy 0-11, What's He Thinking?
Jan. 5th, 2023 11:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerRepresentative-elect Kevin McCarthy has been trying to get elected Speaker of the House of Representatives. He's now pushed through 11 rounds of voting... and lost all of them. There were three rounds on Tuesday, three more on Wednesday, and a whopping five on Thursday. I posted on Wednesday afternoon after round 5 when I thought they'd take a break for the day. Nope, they went for round 6. And earlier today I posted after round 9, figuring they were keeping a pace of only 3 failed attempts per day.... Nope! They went for round 10... then round 11!
BTW, this is part of why I rarely blog about political current events on this platform. Politics today moves at the speed of Twitter. Sadly it also moves at the depth of Twitter. Do something to go viral, and for fucks' sake fit it in 280 characters or nobody'll pay attention.
Among the core of McCarthy's opposition are several Twitter-optimized Congresspeople. They've structured their whole political personas around generating maximum headlines. Matt Gaetz, for example, is said to have made more appearances as a TV guest on Fox than in committee hearings last season. The few bits of legislation he's bothered with in the past few years have been headline-grabbing stunts. Then there's gun-toting Lauren Boebert. She uses her office mostly for trolling.
This really makes me wonder why McCarthy and other leaders are engaging in a standoff with these opponents. They've put McCarthy forward 11 times now (and counting!) expecting the other side to blink first. Who's supposed to blink first? The people who blink first would be those who care most about finishing the selection of Speaker so the whole Congress can get to its main job, legislating. (Congress literally can't do anything else until its Speaker is selected. Those are the rules.) But the lunatic fringe extremists opposing McCarthy don't care about legislating; they never have! McCarthy and his supporters have badly misread their fellow party members. ...Which is doubly pathetic because those nuts haven't been secretive about it; they've been doing what they've been doing very loudly & out in the open.
BTW, this is part of why I rarely blog about political current events on this platform. Politics today moves at the speed of Twitter. Sadly it also moves at the depth of Twitter. Do something to go viral, and for fucks' sake fit it in 280 characters or nobody'll pay attention.
Among the core of McCarthy's opposition are several Twitter-optimized Congresspeople. They've structured their whole political personas around generating maximum headlines. Matt Gaetz, for example, is said to have made more appearances as a TV guest on Fox than in committee hearings last season. The few bits of legislation he's bothered with in the past few years have been headline-grabbing stunts. Then there's gun-toting Lauren Boebert. She uses her office mostly for trolling.
This really makes me wonder why McCarthy and other leaders are engaging in a standoff with these opponents. They've put McCarthy forward 11 times now (and counting!) expecting the other side to blink first. Who's supposed to blink first? The people who blink first would be those who care most about finishing the selection of Speaker so the whole Congress can get to its main job, legislating. (Congress literally can't do anything else until its Speaker is selected. Those are the rules.) But the lunatic fringe extremists opposing McCarthy don't care about legislating; they never have! McCarthy and his supporters have badly misread their fellow party members. ...Which is doubly pathetic because those nuts haven't been secretive about it; they've been doing what they've been doing very loudly & out in the open.
