Did McCarthy move into the Speaker's Office prematurely?...
Looks like it.
Hello, Ari here — Happy new year! Below is my new piece on this remarkable beginning to this new Congress, and a digest of a few other items.
And welcome to new people who signed up for this newsletter — this article is available to everyone, and if you want to read all the entries and join my annual zoom call with readers, you may choose to sign up as a full subscriber here:
Moving In, But Not Up
Rep. Kevin McCarthy moved boxes of belongings into the office of the Speaker of the House on Monday. Then he was defeated for that job, ten times in a row, over the next three days.
It was a public rebuke from defectors in his own party, which has not happened on the House floor in century.
This parliamentary debacle matters, and there are many factors driving it. I count three big ones:
The Republican hijackers are in charge and chaos is not their “leverage;” it’s their goal.
The hijackers care more about performance and “content” than governing. That sounds like a criticism but it’s what they openly admit.
The “Red Wave” fizzled so McCarthy is stuck with a tiny margin, unlike past Republican Leaders who faced down similar hijackers, but with a margin that could afford to lose many votes. (John Boehner was elected Speaker with 24 Republican dissenters, for example.)
Those are the structural factors, which also drive the attacks on democracy and Jan. 6 accountability within the same hijacker caucus. It’s all fed this slow-motion humiliation for McCarthy.
Planting Seeds… or Ice
The challenge goes deeper than McCarthy, or Trump, and links with something I actually discussed in an impromptu conversation with Nicolle Wallace this week…
Republicans were facing a chaos and anti-governing extremism that the party had nurtured for a long time, I told Nicolle, citing some lines from The Grateful Dead:
Some come to laugh their past away,
Some come to make it just one more day,
Whichever way your pleasure tends,
If you plant ice, you're gonna harvest wind…
The wind is now blowing, not only against McCarthy, but against any good faith commitment to governing itself. Nicolle recounted how many Republicans had debased themselves and past “principles” to bow to Trump, and this week’s debacle was another step in that direction.
The point is not, of course, that “swiftly electing a Speaker” is so vital to democracy. (They can fight this out for longer, and that’s okay.)
The point is that the defectors don’t even claim to stand for some policy, or goal for the public; that their chaos is the objective; and that delegitimizing and weakening the entire House is the goal — coming off an election where many of the same Republicans voted to overthrow the results even after the violent attack of January 6, 2020.
Upsides?
If there is an upside here, it’s the transparency. This is all out in the open.
Most Americans who don’t follow congressional news are getting a crash course in Right Wing GOP politics. It’s not pretty. The usual GOP allies on Fox News are thrashing the defectors. And the public is seeing both the priorities and the competence of this newly elected Republican House. They say “buyer beware,” well this is “buyer be informed.”
Lighter Notes (Digest)
Those are some of my thoughts, and this is one of those unpredictable, rolling stories that is interesting to cover in the newsroom. But as you probably know, I try to avoid a “one note” somber mode… even in this business.
So, here are a few other items I wanted to share with you to start the year!…
Deadheads unite!
An MSNBC viewer tweeted this response to my exchange with Nicolle:
This ain’t “news,” but I have long been a big Dead fan. In fact, one of my earliest concert memories was seeing The Grateful Dead play several shows in Seattle in 1994. My brother Jonathan got me into their music. It was amazing to walk into our typical downtown arena, Memorial Stadium, and find it transformed into a freewheeling, creative commune.
The place was suffused with an energy, a creative spirit, and an open-minded freedom -- and that was before the music even started! If you know, you know.
#1 on The Bestseller List
This week the New York Times released its bestseller list and thanks to many of you, my Harper Collins edition of the January 6 Report is #1 on the list.
Two other editions of the report cracked the top ten, showing major interest in that important evidence (even with everything else going on). The Guardian also wrote a solid review my coup essay, and since this was all a first for me, it’s neat to see the impact and I’m very thankful for all of your support, whether you grabbed a copy or read this newsletter or watch The Beat.
Shoutout to Prof. Murray
NYU Law Professor Melissa Murray is a fantastic legal scholar, and she has a new post pulling back the curtain on her TV analysis and guest hosting. Since we so appreciate her work, I am sharing her piece with you all, in case it’s of interest.
Thanks for reading, you can become a full subscriber below, and let me know in the comments, do you think McCarthy moved into the office prematurely? That was the big question today : )
Also, do you think this week’s debacle is showing a new side of the GOP to many Americans?
P.S. Here is our latest report on the Speaker race and the road here, if you want to watch:
You gotta love The Dead.. great association Ari.
When will the responsible, sane Republicans realize that all they have to do is stay away for one vote. Jeffries has almost half already. The House could then act as a governing body with a loyal opposition and lead.