2023-10-01 22:24:34
At this point in his political career, Republican Kevin McCarthy does not know if he is Hamlet in eternal doubt or King Lear in the midst of family conflict. He does not know if he has crossed the Rubicon, the point from which there is no return, or the river Lethe, that of the dark night of the soul that precedes the cemetery and the land of oblivion. If he is a hero or a villain or both at the same time.
In the background the “Que sera, sera” sounds in the voice of Doris Day, in Alfred Hitchcock’s extraordinary film The Man Who Knew Too Much.
Matt Gaetz, leader of the Trumpists, announces the start of the procedures this week
Everything confirms that McCarthy, the president (speaker) of the Lower House of the United States Congress, was fully aware that he was opening the canopy of thunder in his own ranks when he presented for approval a proposal to extend the 45-day deadline to the closing of the US Administration
The Government avoided the closure almost to the limit, late on Saturday, when the deadline expired. It was achieved with a provisional budget draft formulated by McCarthy that was voted en masse by the Democrats. There was only one no. But there were also 90 negative votes from dissident conservatives in the Lower House and nine in the Senate.
Matt Gaetz, spokesperson for the far-right legislators, walked around the television sets yesterday to announce his willingness to “force a motion” to remove the gavel from McCarthy. We must not forget that Gaetz already forced fifteen votes in January before the California Republican won office.
“We have to rip off the band-aid. We need leadership that is trustworthy,” Gaetz repeated yesterday. His bet requires 218 votes. The speaker is only saved if the Democrats do not vote against him. “If McCarthy is still in office next Sunday, he will be serving at the pleasure of the Democrats, he will be working for them, he will only continue if the Democrats bail him out,” he said.
Progressives, however, have doubts. Especially after McCarthy satisfied the ultras with the opening of an impeachment process against President Biden without having evidence. Nancy Pelosi did not want to speak out this Sunday and limited herself to responding that “we have to follow the leader,” who is Hakeem Jeffries, head of the Democratic minority in the House. Her colleague Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did not hesitate and decided to vote against McCarthy. She even suggested the idea that, in the absence of Republican leadership, Jeffries would be elected.
All this comes after two hectic days. After on Friday twenty-one ultra legislators like Gaetz, Trumpists of the MAGA movement, knocked down a very conservative provisional budget project, unviable in a Senate controlled by progressives, the speaker took a radical turn on Saturday by proposing an extension until November 17 , with a plan tailored to Democratic wishes.
The project included a waiver for each side. There was no aid for Ukraine, one of the liberals’ banners, nor reinforcement for the repression on the border with Mexico, a conservative banner. “I like to bet,” McCarthy stressed when, before the vote, he was questioned about this initiative that could cost him his position. “If someone tries to eliminate me because I want to be the adult in the meeting, go ahead,” he replied.
“If I have to risk my job to defend Americans, I will do it,” he said.
Donald Trump did not express any satisfaction with the result: he had advocated sowing chaos. But President Joe Biden thanked McCarthy on Saturday and appeared before the nation this Sunday to ask, in addition to not interrupting the aid to Ukraine previously agreed with McCarthy, to end the practice of governing through manufactured crises. by the Republican extremists, whom he holds responsible for what happened and describes them as losers.
The ultras cried out for revenge. Legislator Andy Biggs made a post on X that anticipates what is to come. “Instead of standing with his party, Kevin McCarthy has aligned himself with 209 Democrats,” he wrote. “He has allowed the single party of DC [Washington] win again: Should he continue as speaker of the House?”
The answer was offered by his colleague Gaetz. “This agreement that he has made with the Democrats is the straw that breaks the camel’s back,” he stressed about the speaker’s initiative. “And overnight we know that he has a secret deal with the Democrats on Ukraine,” he said.
McCarthy, who was defended by several colleagues, confessed that he was not worried. “Gaetz is more interested in giving interviews than doing anything,” he insisted. And he resorted to an expression, this time not from Doris Day, but from Gloria Gaynor: “I will survive.”
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