The Chickens Come Home To Roost
Oh, lordy there are tapes!
And lots of them.
Now, of course, it would have been much better for the health of our democracy had The New York Times' Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns revealed this treasure trove of gossipy goodness fifteen months ago, but as LL and I talk about frequently, that ship has sailed. Instead, what we are left with are the juicy bits of their upcoming book This Will Not Pass, being slowly and methodically leaked to the press exactly one week before the book's release. While any self-respecting American will refuse to purchase their book and reward the authors for their withholding of critical information, we can't help but appreciate the fact that these tapes show the GOP in a tailspin in the immediate aftermath of January 6th. From the latest leak, released late Tuesday:
Mr. Brooks and Mr. Gaetz were the prime offenders in the eyes of G.O.P. leaders. Mr. Brooks addressed the Jan. 6 rally on the National Mall, which preceded the Capitol riot, using incendiary language. After Jan. 6, Mr. Gaetz went on television to attack multiple Republicans who had criticized Mr. Trump, including Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, a member of the leadership team.
Those comments by Mr. Gaetz alarmed Mr. McCarthy and his colleagues in leadership — particularly the reference to Ms. Cheney, who was already the target of threats and public abuse from Mr. Trump’s faction in the party because of her criticism of the defeated president.
Mr. McCarthy considered remarks made by Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida a threat to the security of other lawmakers and the Capitol complex.
Mr. McCarthy considered remarks made by Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida a threat to the security of other lawmakers and the Capitol complex.
“He’s putting people in jeopardy,” Mr. McCarthy said of Mr. Gaetz. “And he doesn’t need to be doing this. We saw what people would do in the Capitol, you know, and these people came prepared with rope, with everything else.”
Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 House Republican, suggested that Mr. Gaetz might be crossing a legal boundary.
“It’s potentially illegal what he’s doing,” Mr. Scalise said.
On Tuesday night, Mr. Gaetz responded with a blistering statement, castigating the two House Republican leaders as “weak men.”
“While I was protecting President Trump from impeachment, they were protecting Liz Cheney from criticism,” he said.
(Maniacal laughter)
Upon hearing all this, I have one thing to say:
Good.
It may have taken fifteen months but the knives are finally out on the Republican side. They held it together as long as they good but the slow, methodical burn of the Biden presidency has finally worn them out. Like little kids on Christmas morning, Republicans could only hold off for so long before giving into their uncontrollable urges. This time around, it was their urge for power in the aftermath of January 6th. While Steve Kevin McCarthy was privately saying all the right things about wanting to talk to Trump and wanting Mo Brooks and Matt Gaetz to tone it down, publicly he went and kneeled on the altar of Donald Trump, attempting to simultaneously do the right thing and also be subservient to Dear Leader.
But as we have seen throughout his lifetime, Trump and doing the right thing are mutually exclusive. Everything Trump Touches Dies, or ETTD. This includes steaks, vodkas, casinos, airlines, NFL ownership bids, competent offspring, and political careers. Kevin McCarthy tried to avoid this but in doing so he made enemies. Enemies that would seemingly stoop so low as to record him speaking ill of Cheeto Mussolini and the other most extremist members of the party. I personally find it uniquely amusing that a party that insists that the Trump campaign was spied on actively conspired to spy on their own House leader by secretly recording his calls. As a famous horror movie trope once stated, "The call is coming from inside the house" and now Kevin McCarthy is the one in the house being surrounded by evildoers, due to him accidentally speaking the truth.
More revelations are likely to come in the Martin/Burns leaked audio extravaganza but what we're seeing is the craven core of the modern-day Republican Party. With aspirations of retaking control of the House in November, it's now an all-out war to take down existing House leadership. While we don't know who recorded all these McCarthy calls with House Whip Steve Scalise, let's just say that House number three and Trump toady Elise Stefanik has been, how should we say, oddly removed from the drama unfolding. What better place to be when this news drops than at the U.S.-Mexico border, because we all know how border security is the top priority for her constituents in upstate New York. It is Stefanik who would benefit most from the downfall of McCarthy and for a party that still worships at the altar of Trump, she would be an ideal Speaker of the House and she is likely doing everything, both ethically and unethically, behind the scenes to make that happen.
The thing about authoritarianism is that it's predicated one one person attaining and maintaining power. It is not a meritocracy. Therefore those wanting to get in on a piece of the action must be in the authoritarian's good graces. Kevin McCarthy played that game and he played it well. But behind every yes man is a dozen more waiting, silently stalking, for their shot at the limelight. Honestly is a weakness in today's Republican Party. Whoever *cough Elise* made those recordings made them specifically to weaponize McCarthy's private words about the situation, knowing that his sincerity in the moment would isolate him from the rest of the party. Because while 95% of Republicans agree with what he said, they are too far down the rabbit hole to admit that. When you've created a rabid base of 74 million supporters who can no longer tell truth from lies it is a mortal sin to tell them the truth. Kevin McCarthy's biggest mistake? Being truthful about the events of January 6th to his fellow Republicans.
A mistake for which he may very well pay for with his political career.