source: La Presse
author: Richard Hétu
translation: BingTranslate/doxa-louise
Kevin McCarthy: is this the end of a torment or the beginning of an ordeal?
Republican Kevin McCarthy managed Friday to win the presidency of the House of Representatives.
Kevin McCarthy's ordeal ended after 4 days, 15 ballots and a multitude of concessions likely to doom him to impotence.
Humiliated since the beginning of the week by a series of unsuccessful votes for the post of speaker of the House of Representatives, the elected Republican from California ended up rallying to his cause a sufficient number of rebels to realize the dream of his political career at the end of a Friday night marked by unprecedented twists and turns.
In a 14th ballot held after 10 p.m. and an adjournment of several hours, Kevin McCarthy saw the election slip away from him by a single vote, that of one of the leaders of the revolt, Matt Gaetz. A few hours earlier, he had said he was certain to have enough votes to succeed Nancy Pelosi.
At the end of this election, his face frozen in an expression of anger, McCarthy went to Gaetz to urge him to change his vote. As the Florida representative stood his ground, the House soon after began a vote to adjourn the election until Monday.
Republican Representative Matt Gaetz during his exchange with Kevin McCarthy (right)
At the same time, however, Matt Gaetz received the call from his mentor, Donald Trump, who convinced him to end the rebellion. In the15th ballot, the Florida representative voted "present," as did five other rebels.
And Kevin McCarthy was elected by 216 votes to 212 for New York Democratic Representative Hakeem Jeffries.
"I'm glad it's over," the new House Speaker said after the15th vote.
But his election may be only the beginning of his ordeal.
"Assuming the position of speaker of the House with the current culture of the Republican Party is almost political suicide," said Mark Martinez, a political scientist at California State University in Bakersfield, the agricultural and oil town where Kevin McCarthy was born 57 years ago.
"These people are not just nihilists; they are crazy comedians in a kabuki theater," he added, referring to Republican rebels who rendered the lower house of Congress inoperative for more than four days, unseen since the second half of thenineteenth century.
Professor Martinez's judgment of the Republican rebels is no harsher than that of some of Kevin McCarthy's allies.
"We can't let the terrorists win," Texas Republican Representative Dan Crenshaw, a former Navy Seal who lost an eye in Afghanistan, said earlier this week.
His Nebraska Republican colleague Don Bacon, another veteran, called the recalcitrant Republicans, whose number rose to 20 after the second election, "Taliban".
Sword of Damocles
Yet it is to win these same representatives to his cause that Kevin McCarthy has multiplied the concessions in recent days. Concessions that risk reducing his power as Speaker of the House to almost nothing and strengthening the influence of the same radicals who humiliated him.
"It's clear that he offered the sun, moon and stars to each of these individuals," said Norm Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based conservative think tank. "And I suspect he assured some of the recalcitrants that they will not be subject to serious ethical investigation for attempting to overthrow the government in 2020."
As luck would have it, the fourth day of the election of the Speaker of the House falls on the second anniversary of the storming of the United States Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump.
One of the concessions granted by Kevin McCarthy will bring back a rule that forced John Boehner, the penultimate Republican speaker of the House, to resign. This rule will allow a single representative to call for a vote at any time to remove the Speaker of the House from office.
In other words, Kevin McCarthy will always have a sword of Damocles hanging over his head.
The many clashes between John Boehner and the Freedom Caucus of his time could be a harbinger of what awaits Kevin McCarthy. In 2013, despite Boehner's opposition, the most radical Republican representatives had precipitated a 16-day paralysis of the US state in the vain hope of forcing Barack Obama to delay the entry into force of his health insurance law by one year.
The image of House Republicans had suffered from this confrontation that had cost the US economy $24 billion. After his resignation, John Boehner called the Freedom Caucus members' approach "legislative terrorism." He also called one of the group's leaders, Ohio Representative Jim Jordan, a "terrorist" and a "moron."
Under Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan will chair the important House Judiciary Committee. In particular, he intends to investigate the FBI and the Department of Justice.
Threat of paralysis
Another important concession by Kevin McCarthy will secure the Freedom Caucus more seats on the House Rules Committee. As its name suggests, this committee dictates the rules by which bills are introduced in the House.
"We will have the weakest Speaker of the House in modern history," Ornstein said. Even without McCarthy's extremely important concessions, the most radical of its members would have had all the power because of the narrowness of the Republican majority. And they are prepared to exercise those powers. »
'We are going to have a chaotic chamber and real threats of state paralysis and default.'
Norm Ornstein, Congress Specialist, American Enterprise Institute
The threat of default is linked to the increase in the debt ceiling, which will be needed at an as yet undetermined date in 2023. But McCarthy has promised the most extreme of its members that raising the debt ceiling will be conditional on deep cuts in government spending. If he keeps his promise, the Democrats will not fail to denounce a "blackmail" that could lead the United States to default, which has never happened in the history of the country.
A default could cause a national and even international financial crisis.
Under pressure from criticism of U.S. support for Ukraine, McCarthy also said he favored cutting military spending by $75 billion in 2023.
"This chaotic process to elect a speaker of the House is unprecedented and dangerous," said Connecticut Democratic Representative Rosa DeLauro. "I really hope that these rumors of cuts in critical funding are false. We cannot have a future Speaker of the House who exchanges funds that help communities and protect our national security for personal gain. »
No comments:
Post a Comment