Kevin McCarthy, we hardly knew ye...and we prefer it that way
How many different ways can one say, "No, I don't think I'll miss the lying scumbag who possessed the integrity of Spiro Agnew."
The difference between my darkness and your darkness is that I can look at my own badness in the face and accept its existence while you are busy covering your mirror with a white linen sheet. The difference between my sins and your sins is that when I sin I know I'm sinning while you have actually fallen prey to your own fabricated illusions. I am a siren, a mermaid; I know that I am beautiful while basking on the ocean's waves and I know that I can eat flesh and bones at the bottom of the sea. You are a white witch, a wizard; your spells are manipulations and your cauldron from hell yet you wrap yourself in white and wear a silver wig.
C. JoyBell C.
Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), is many things to many people…which is precisely the problem that led to his downfall. Possessed of zero integrity and even fewer principles, McCarthy seldom passed on an opportunity to leap in front of a camera and lie his ass off.
In a sense, his demise was almost preordained. In a body that too often represented the moderation iteration of the conflict between the Montagues and the Capulets, lying is the mother’s milk that greases the gears of the GOP Republican Caucus. With the varied agendas in the House, from the almost reasonable to the kill-’em-and-grill-’em intransigence of the Freedumb Caucus, there wasn’t enough honesty for the players to know where anyone else stood.
Self-preservation became the order of the day, which helps to explain why this Congress has been the least productive since the Civil War. I think I read somewhere (and I don’t care enough about the actual number to fact-check it) that this Republican Congress has passed something like one piece of legislation. Maybe two. Whatever the exact number is, it’s a ridiculous statement on the ineptitude and incompetence of a body more concerned about getting even than doing the job it was elected to do.
True to the spirit of this Congress, McCarthy’s decision not to run looks like a vindictive “fuck your buddy” move. No one should be shocked by the pettiness or the immaturity of it because McCarthy is every bit of both.
Kevin McCarthy's announced exit from the House of Representatives is a strategic decision meant to politically hurt Speaker Mike Johnson, says former Donald Trump aide Alyssa Farrah Griffin.
McCarthy said Wednesday in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that he is not running for reelection in 2024 and will exit the House by the end of this year. The California conservative needed 15 rollcall votes to become speaker earlier this year only for his own conference to vote him out in early October.
His abrupt announcement further ties the hands of the House GOP, which in November 2022 barely attained the majority and is now hanging by a thread less than one year out from the next major election cycle. Between McCarthy's decision, the upcoming retirement of Representative Bill Johnson, and the recent expulsion of George Santos, the GOP currently has a three-vote margin over House Democrats. House Republicans will enter next year with 220 votes.
Griffin, now a co-host on The View, said on the show Thursday that McCarthy fully realizes the political implications of his decision.
"Kevin McCarthy is petty," Griffin said, emphasizing the word. "He wants to make Mike Johnson's life harder. So, by him stepping down, that gives him only two votes to get anything by because he wants people to miss him. He wants them to be, like, yes, it was better under Kevin."
Petty. Vindictive. Egotistical. Immature. Self-interested. There are a few other choice adjectives one could use to describe Kevin McCarthy, but that’s a good start. He’s known for overestimating his value and utility, and his belief that Congressional Republicans will miss him is almost certain to be far off the mark.
Sure, new Speaker Mike Johnson’s life will be more complicated, but that has more to do with him being an American Taliban wackjob than anything McCarthy or may not have done.
McCarthy’s decision to leave Congress likely had more to do with his inability to deal with his diminished political circumstances since being ousted as Speaker.
McCarthy announced his decision days before the state’s deadline to file to run again for his Bakersfield-based seat — and just nine weeks after bitter infighting among House Republicans led to his historic Oct. 3 ouster from the leadership post. His departure opens the door for what could become a contested House race in California’s heavily Republican Central Valley.
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, McCarthy lauded his record: serving as his party’s whip, majority leader and speaker and diversifying the House GOP conference. “It is in this spirit that I have decided to depart the House at the end of this year to serve America in new ways,” he wrote. “I know my work is only getting started.”
“My story is the story of America. For me, every moment came with a great deal of devotion and responsibility,” McCarthy said in a video announcement. “Giving my best to all of you has been my greatest honor.”
McCarthy’s retirement from Congress continues the steep decline of California’s political power in Washington, where just a handful of lawmakers from the state remain in leadership posts.
In McCarthy’s case, his retirement from Congress had more to do with his inability to keep track of his lies. He made promises he either couldn’t keep, had no intention of keeping, or didn’t know how to fulfill, all to obtain the Speaker’s gavel he coveted.
The agreement he cobbled together that allowed him to finally ascend to the Speakership allowed him to be put to a recall vote on the say-so of ONE Congressperson, a dangerous thing in a body of 435 often massive egos. This is especially true when one of those ALWAYS massive egos is Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), one of McCarthy’s numerous mortal enemies.
Under these circumstances, McCarthy’s tenure as Speaker was always doomed to end, soon and badly.
It’s been said that power corrupts, and while that’s often true, I’ve always believed that power reveals who a person is. If one is a kind, decent person with a solid moral center, power won’t change that. But if a person is lazy, selfish, dishonest, and amoral, power removes the ethical guardrails and allows that person to be who they truly are.
Power allowed us to see who Kevin McCarthy is, and the portrait isn’t pretty. When you sit at the top of the mountain, there’s no way to hide dishonesty, immaturity, and lack of integrity. Those things stand out like ruby red lipstick on a beautiful woman with creamy white skin; you can’t ignore them.
Those of us outside Congress saw McCarthy for what those inside the halls had seen him as for years- petty, deceitful, self-interested, and more concerned with power for power’s sake. There were no core principles, no greater good he worked for, and no ways he hoped to make America a better place.
Kevin McCarthy was never about making Congress, or America, a better place for his having been there. He’ll no doubt land a well-paying gig with a Right-wing think tank and will make bank off his connections and experience with the legislative process.
But it’s doubtful that he’ll be missed in the halls of Congress nearly as much as he believes he will.
Once a miserable lying asshole, always a miserable lying asshole.
Bye, Felicia….
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It always amused me the people, both in Congress and the media, who blamed McCarthy's failure(s) on the Democrats.