I think Democrats were probably right to refuse to bail out McCarthy. The main reason is that this will likely prolong the current shitshow being staged by the House Republicans, which will help Democrats in 2024 by reminding voters just how crazy and exhausting the Republicans are. The Republicans can’t do this often enough. The fact that McCarthy lied is a reason to oppose him, but a less weighty reason – what is the chance that his replacement will lie less than he did? A reasonable case can be made that his lying was mostly situational. Given the position he was in – right wingers threatening to depose him for not defunding large swaths of the government or causing a debt default or a government shutdown – what was he supposed to do? His
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Eric Kramer considers the following as important: lying, McCarthy, politics
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I think Democrats were probably right to refuse to bail out McCarthy. The main reason is that this will likely prolong the current shitshow being staged by the House Republicans, which will help Democrats in 2024 by reminding voters just how crazy and exhausting the Republicans are. The Republicans can’t do this often enough.
The fact that McCarthy lied is a reason to oppose him, but a less weighty reason – what is the chance that his replacement will lie less than he did? A reasonable case can be made that his lying was mostly situational. Given the position he was in – right wingers threatening to depose him for not defunding large swaths of the government or causing a debt default or a government shutdown – what was he supposed to do? His replacement may be more trustworthy, but if so it will likely be because the Democrats negotiate better procedural protections or the new Speaker successfully resists demands to let the Freedom Caucus end his or her term on a whim.
There is a view that McCarthy embarrassed himself by his oh-so-evident inability to lead his caucus. I dislike the guy, but I’m not really persuaded by this. You can argue he should have refused the Speaker job without more power to operate independently and get support from Democrats on key legislation. We will see if someone else does better negotiating with the Freedom Caucus. But given where he ended up, what’s so embarrassing? Pelosi was obviously going to be a hard act to follow, but for all the drama he avoided a debt default and then a shutdown, both of which would have greatly damaged his party, and very possibly the country.
In any event, good riddance, don’t let the door hit you on the way out . . . and let’s just hope his replacement isn’t worse.