By Eric Blair
The current internal turmoil plaguing the Republican Party on the House side of the U.S. Capitol is as entertaining as a symphony played on a chalkboard by fingernails as the orchestra. Democrats would be wise to keep the popcorn in the pantry and resist any reflexive schadenfreude or hopes of redemption from what will be a brutal, toxic gauntlet to the midterms next November.
At first blush, the word indiscipline, would appear an apt description for the House GOP Caucus. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has supplanted her equally media thirsty colleague, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) for this week’s outrageous GOP’er. Boebert, whose non-apology to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) for Islamophobic remarks based on an incident inside a House office building elevator, escaped any public condemnation or rebuke from most of her party peers, and certainly met a similar silence from House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).
Ever ready to twiddle her thumbs on Twitter, Greene demonstrated an unflinching, unsurprising allegiance to fellow zealot Boebert by endorsing her defiance in apologizing for Boebert’s anti-Muslim comments, and even found time to throw under the bus a fellow Republican sister, Rep. Nancy Mace. The latter’s crime? Daring to criticize Boebert’s blatant bigotry. Greene, too, has stayed clear of McCarthy’s reproval, despite the now cannibalistic display of Republican-on-Republican crime. Perhaps Oscar Wilde would comment by saying that to ignore slurs against a Dem would be seen as forgivable; to ignore slurs against one’s own party member would be sheer cowardice. But why the fear for the man who aspires to be speaker of the House?
Ronald Reagan is attributed with the GOP’s 11th Commandment: Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican. But Bonzo has been put to bed, and the 12th Commandment is now: Thou Shalt Worship at the Altar of Mar-a-Lago.
McCarthy realizes that former President Donald Trump is the Republican Party, and all roads lead through West Palm Beach. Thus, his frequent sojourns to kiss the ring – and body parts -- of 45. All hope that Kevin McCarthy had experienced an epiphany on January 6, 2021, when he emphatically blamed Trump for encouraging and instigating the treasonous insurrection is long gone. The Svengali in silk tie holds the strings over McCarthy in ways Don Corleone could only fantasize. Could the House minority leader be kowtowing to Trump to do his bidding if 45 tries for 47 in 2024? Or is he worried Trump might run for speaker himself, an idea intimated by some of Trump’s staunchest Stygians in claiming that McCarthy lacks the votes to be Speaker if the Republicans retake the House in 2022?
It is doubtful that the Greenes and Boeberts can hold hostage enough seats to prevent McCarthy from becoming Speaker, as no GOPer would ever want to give Pelosi another two years with the gavel. But the anxiety that McCarthy has in upsetting Trump or his Congressional peons is real and reified by an ironic lack of leadership and concern for the integrity of the institution.
As the GOP lurches further and further toward fascism and the cult of Trump, Dems cannot rely upon disillusioned Republicans staying home or coming over to the Blue Side come November. A party that professes inclusiveness is having enough of a time securing its own purported big tent, as recent debates around the infrastructure bill have indicated. If Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) wishes to stay Speaker, she needs to tighten the messaging, both of her own caucus as well as what the Democratic Party really represents and how that could appeal to Republicans who are soft on party affiliation and strong on good policy and platform.
No one respects a cuckold, especially one who aspires to be the speaker of the House of Representatives, third in line of succession to the presidency of the most powerful country in the world. But McCarthy is playing with fire and Democrats would be deluded into thinking they have the extinguisher in their hands. His apparent impotence is not enough for the House Dems to think they can stay in power beyond 2022. They must be prepared for, and driven by the fear of, two doomsday scenarios: Trump as House speaker himself or McCarthy as speaker geisha beholden to the man from Mar-a-Lago.