Once, Twice, Three Times Humiliated ‘Never Kevin’ McCarthy Schemes To Rig The Next Vote

Well that was fun for politics geeks. “Never Kevin” McCarthy was humiliated by his own party not once, not twice, but three times by the GQP House Freedom (sic) Caucus – more accurately described as the GQP House Fascist Caucus – formerly known as the Tea Party Caucus. They are concurrently the Sedition Caucus and the Pro-Putin Caucus. The caucus is comprised of nihilists, insurrectionists and internet trolls who are far right influencers (grifters) on social media.

The lazy media villagers have for years loved to use the alliteration “Dems in disarray,” but on Tuesday the Dems stood united as the GQP House Fascist Caucus pulled the pin from the hand grenade and just held it until it blew up “Never Kevin” McCarthy’s chances of becoming Speaker, and demonstrated to the world that the GQP is a chaos party of nihilists unfit to govern.

“Never Kevin” McCarthy, who is driven solely by his all consuming desire to hold the time of Speaker of the House, refuses to accept the fact that his own dysfunctional party does not love him (“It’s not me, it”s you baby.”)

An Aside: McCarthy apparently prematurely moved his things into the Speakers office yesterday, only to have to remove his things after losing the vote, three times. Pile on the humiliation.

GOP Leader McCarthy has moved into the speakers suite but if he fails to secure 218 he will have to move all his stuff back out ⁦@AllieRaffa⁩ pic.twitter.com/Lb2swMgQ2p

— Haley Talbot (@haleytalbotcnn) January 2, 2023

The power hungry “Never Kevin” McCarthy is not giving up. He is plotting a plan to rig the next vote today.

From The Hill’s Morning Report — House GOP is stuck and in disarray:

Washington’s question this morning is not just what happens next to Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who failed during three ballots on Tuesday in his bid to be Speaker, but what his plight says about the Republican Party, which at the start of the 118th Congress handed House Democrats a chance to appear united as the minority.

McCarthy (R-Calif.) lost 19 GOP votes on the first two ballots and 20 on the third ballot, leaving the narrow new majority in a stalemate about how to proceed. He huddled in his office with allies late Tuesday, searching for a strategy that could halt the bloodletting and corral determined renegades who seek concessions while also berating McCarthy for that same willingness to give ground.

“This can’t be about that you are going to leverage somebody for your own personal gain inside Congress,” McCarthy told reporters early in the evening. “This has to be about the country.”

Are you effin’ kidding me? This is  a man without principles or a soul. He will do anything to hold the title of Speaker of the House – it is all about “his own personal gain inside Congress.”  So his plan is to rig the next vote.

McCarthy later emerged from strategy meetings to suggest he could win a majority of those voting for a nominated candidate because lawmakers who opt to vote “present” do not count. The contest for Speaker does not hinge on getting support from a majority of the entire membership of the House.

“You’re sitting at 202 votes, so you need technically just 11 more votes to win,” McCarthy said. “Democrats have 212 votes [with nominee Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.)]. You get 213 votes, and the others don’t say another name, that’s how you can win. You can win with 218. You could win with 222,” he told reporters. It is unclear, however, how McCarthy could persuade 11 holdouts to cast ballots for him or get a sufficient number of colleagues to not vote for any specific candidate by voting “present” or being absent, which would lower his threshold.

The House, which cannot administer oaths of office to new members or get down to business without first finding a majority to back a Speaker, is set to return on Wednesday at noon for a fourth ballot. It has been a century since the House needed more than one such vote.

The Hill adds, McCarthy floats path to Speakership with lower vote threshold:

House GOP Speaker nominee Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) expressed optimism about winning the gavel Tuesday night as he emerged from meetings with allied members following three failed ballots, floating the possibility of winning the post with fewer than 218 votes.

“You’re sitting at 202 votes, so you need technically just 11 more votes to win,” McCarthy said.

“Democrats have 212 votes. You get 213 votes, and the others don’t say another name, that’s how you can win. You can win with 218. You could win with 222. But if you want to look at how you have to go about doing it,” McCarthy said.

A House Speaker is elected by a majority of all those voting for a specific Speaker candidate, not necessarily all members. Those voting “present” and those who are absent do not count toward that total, lowering the threshold.

Former House Speakers Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and John Boehner (R-Ohio) each won the Speakership with just 216 votes in 2021 and 2015, respectively.

In the three Tuesday votes, all 434 members voted in all ballots, putting the majority threshold at 218. In the first and second ballots, McCarthy got 203 votes, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) got 212, and 19 McCarthy opponents voted for other candidates. In the third vote, a 20th member joined the detractors, putting McCarthy at 202.

It is not clear, however, how McCarthy could not only win over 11 in the group to vote for him, but get the other nine to not vote for a candidate.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) dismissed the strategy of McCarthy getting across the line with “present” votes outside a separate meeting in the Capitol with McCarthy allies and detractors in the office of House GOP Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.).

“If he’s literally trying to patchwork votes together, to scrape together the votes by trying to carve out ‘present’ votes in hopes that people don’t show up or something, I just don’t see that as the right path to a strong leadership position,” Roy said.

Roy also cast strong doubts on the notion that any of the 20 Republicans who opposed McCarthy would play ball and vote “present” on Wednesday.

“I definitely don’t see it,” he said.

McCarthy is also not ruling out trying to get to the 218 votes.

“If we want to get to 218, we have to keep talking,” McCarthy said.

He said that most of the rules change and priority issues with the mostly hard-right House Freedom [sic] Caucus group have been settled, and that the issue of compromising on the “motion to vacate” – a move to force a vote on ousting the Speaker – was “done with.” McCarthy agreed to lower the threshold to just five members to bring up the move, down from a majority of the conference.

Wait, so McCarthy gives away the store to the GQP House Fascist Caucus to get elected Speaker, only to empower them to remove him as Speaker at their first opportunity? This guy is pathetic to the nth degree.

McCarthy is remaining defiant in the face of the opposition, saying multiple times that there is not a scenario in which he pulls out of the race for Speaker.

“It’s a little growth period that we have, but at the end of the day, all of this that we go through will make us stronger,” McCarthy said.

If McCarthy’s plot to rig the vote today on the fourth ballot fails, it is time for the powers that be in the GQP to tell him to “Stop! No more. You must step aside.” The Republican majority must then negotiate with Democrats to crush the dreams of the nihilists in the GQP House Fascist Caucus by finding a consensus candidate – probably an outsider who is not a current member of Congress – to be Speaker. If “This has to be about the country,” then Republicans must actually demonstrate it by negotiating with Democrats to find a consensus candidate. Otherwise the GQP House Fascist Caucus – about ten percent of the GQP – will continue to hold the country hostage. The last thing Republicans should do is to concede to the demands of these domestic terrorists. It is time to crush the dreams of the GQP House Fascist Caucus.

It is long past time for Americans to vote them all out office.