Kevin McCarthy Feels The Pain, Fails To Refrain
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., speaks to reporters as he returns to the Capitol from a bipartisan meeting with President Donald Trump about border security and ending the partial government shutdown, in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2019. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Normally, to get this much repetitive “na-na-na-na”-ing from a McCarthy you’d have to put the 10 hour YouTube version of the Beatle’s “Hey Jude” on. But to be fair, House Minority Leader and wannabe Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) only went on, and on, and on, for eight and a half hours last night.
The California Republican broke Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s record for the longest House floor speech, clocking in at more than eight-and-a-half hours in opposition to the Democrats’ $1.7 trillion Build Back Better Act. McCarthy stretched the “magic minute” afforded to congressional leaders to its extreme. McCarthy’s staff has been planning this for some time, but kept it secret from everyone.
McCarthy finally yielded the floor at 5:11 a.m. The House will be back in session at 8 a.m., with Pelosi set to speak. There will be a procedural motion to recommit and then a vote on final passage of the BBB.
“I don’t know that this speech is going to make a difference,” McCarthy said just after 3 a.m. Of course it won’t. The BBB looks like it is going to pass at some point this morning. Rep. Jared Golden of Maine is the only Democrat who has publicly declared their opposition at this point.
Yet standing on the floor all night, railing against a major piece of legislation being pushed by President Joe Biden and Pelosi, is a solid way to grab national attention. It’s good “member management” for McCarthy too, who can now say he fought against a bill that he can’t stop. Remember, one of the chief complaints from the right is that their leaders — other than former President Donald Trump — don’t fight hard enough. McCarthy is essentially saying “Here’s the fight.” Will this change the politics around the bill? No, probably not. But alas.
Remember: Pelosi spoke for eight straight hours in 2018 when she was in the minority, trying futilely to convince Republicans to pass immigration legislation. GOP lawmakers rolled their eyes at the move. Democrats are rolling their eyes now. McCarthy beat Pelosi’s record just before 5 a.m.
Speaking for this long allowed McCarthy to push out a lot of partisan talking points and razz Democrats for hours on end.
“Could she be the speaker in modern history — one of the few to lose the House twice and lose the most seats? I don’t know,” McCarthy said of Pelosi at one point. McCarthy reminded anyone listening that Pelosi went to Europe three times during the last several months even while trying to pass the BBB.
“This is not Pelosi’s House, this is the people’s House,” McCarthy said at 3:38 a.m.
These are just some of the digs he got in. The members sitting behind him — including Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), who seemed to have a wad of chewing tobacco in his mouth, spitting into a GNC bottle — applauded enthusiastically.
So, in sum, McCarthy is no longer speaking. And Democrats will push through the BBB later today.
This eye-rolling bit of performative theater has everything to do with McCarthy being thiiiiiiis close to being the Speaker of the House. He was denied that position once before, when the late Walter Jones and others kneecapped him over scandal accusations and the GOP went begging to Paul Ryan to take the job instead. Now, with a looming midterm and the historical trends that come with it, coupled with redistricting, the Republican Party is favored to retake the House of Representatives in 2022.
But Kevin McCarthy isn’t stupid. The in-frame for the cameras cheerleading by Rep. Cawthorn isn’t an accident, nor was Leader McCarthy’s public pronouncements yesterday that Madison’s fellow Trump hardliners Reps. Paul Gosar (AZ) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA) will get their stripped committee assignments back when/if he becomes Speaker. Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is feeling that there are plenty of others that would rather he not become Speaker McCarthy, and he senses — probably correctly — that the most ardently pro-Trump folks might have their own designs that don’t include his baggage. There is also plenty of personal ambition to go around before the Speaker vote to decide who would swing the gavel. Rep. Steve Scalise (LA) might want to move up from GOP number 2, and Elise Stefanik (NY) didn’t go all in on a personal rebrand just for the number three leadership position.
Kevin McCarthy has been in congress a long time, has made plenty of enemies, and doesn’t appear to have made many friends. He certainly doesn’t seem to have wide respect in the caucus. Most importantly, Kevin McCarthy knows this better than anyone, and his actions show it. He’s sooooo close to getting what he’s always wanted, what was denied to him before, what will make all the trials and tribulations of the last few years all better.
If…
If Kevin McCarthy can rail for 8 straight hours, then surly the Senate can go back to talking only filibusters . . . .Report
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This is amusing but is kind of the bow on top of the bigger news which is that the Dems have passed their initial bid on the BBB bill and have done so with some remarkable unit (IIRC only one Dem didn’t vote for it). Over all it’s a big omnibus and a bit of a kludge but kludges are basically the only way to do anything in the current partisan climate so kludge it is.
I don’t think it’s a terrible batch of policy over all except for messing with the SALT deductions. That said the inside money thinks that the Senate will strip out or water down the SALT giveaway to wealthy coasters and send it back. If the Senate does so I would expect that Speaker Pelosi will find the votes to pass it without SALT and those congresscritters who forced SALT’s inclusion will reluctantly support it while being able to tell their constituents they “fought hard” for it.
Another big step towards getting stuff done. If BBB passes Biden and Dem leadership will have overseen one of the most productive congressional sessions in ages. I wouldn’t place any bets that passing BBB will assure the Dems of triumph in the next election but policy is the reason politicians are supposed to go to DC. If the Dems move policy, then lose a cycle to the GOP who in turn spend their time ineffectually flailing around (as they have since, what, Bush II blew out on Social Security reform?) then that’ll be a trade that is to the lefts advantage.
And you never know- maybe they’ll message better this time and actually get rewarded for their accomplishments. Stranger things have happened.Report
One of the things that I hope for out of infrastructure week is infrastructure.
If part of the results include improved infrastructure, the Dems should be able to ride on that. Put signs up. “MDOT is working on this infrastructure thanks to the BBB Bill!”
(Like, there was a “pothole tax” passed in 2015. It resulted in a lot of potholes being filled. Also: Bike lanes. I know that I am pleased that the pothole tax passed… they fixed the roads that I spend the most time on. But if I lived on one of the roads that they haven’t gotten around to yet, I’d be infuriated every time I saw a bike lane. If BBB fixes the potholes, it’s a victory. Even if there are bike lanes in safe districts.)Report
Well BBB is separate from the bipartisan Infrastructure bill. The two were initially bound at the hip (primarily by suspicious progressives who feared that Moderates would bail on BBB if the infrastructure bill passed first) but after a bunch of intraparty negotiations the progressives showed laudable pragmatic flexibility and let the infrastructure bill pass first.
I agree that the Dems should message the fish out of it. Apparently the GOP’s individual reps are busy trying to claim credit for things in the bill they voted against so surely the people who actually passed the bill should be able to get credit too. But the big take away is the BBB (Build Back Better) is the companion bill to the infrastructure bill which is commonly called the BIF (Big/Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill).Report
Oh jeez. They were attached at the hip in my head.
If the potholes get fixed due to the BIF, the BBB will likely get some of the credit as well. If the BIF doesn’t fix the potholes, the BBB will likely get blamed for that.
I’m basing that on extrapolating my mistake to the set of “everybody”.Report
You’re probably more right about that than I’d like to admit.Report
in this case that’s actually pretty reasonable, and points back to the larger problem Dems seems to have messaging their successes.Report
Indeed they are. My Trumpian Congress critter has tried to claim all the benefits of the BIF, and has been publicly (well on facebook anyway) derided by hundreds of his constituents for voting against it. He did the same thing today messaging on the BBB, and again got slammed 4 to 1 with pointing out he didn’t vote for bills he claims will bring benefits.
No idea yet if that translates into electoral changes at the ballot box next year, but its fun to watch.Report
I am content with the party simply getting things done. I’d LOVE it if they got things done AND got electorally rewarded but if I had to choose I’d prefer my party to be the one that, however imperfectly, moves things forward.Report
There will still be interesting decisions. BBB is a reconciliation bill. Speculation is that some of the provisions in the House bill will be rejected by the Senate Parliamentarian for violating the Byrd Rule. If the House and Senate pass different versions, it goes to a conference committee. The resulting compromise — assuming one — cannot be amended in the House, and the only amendments allowed in the Senate are removing Byrd Rule violations. If such violations are removed by the Senate, the House’s choices then are that bill or nothing.
Anyone want to offer odds that neither Manchin nor Sinema will be included in a conference committee? And conference committees tend to be very secretive about their efforts.Report
Oh yeah it’s nowhere near the finish line but it’s unlikely that the bill would have been passed through with this margin of unanimity if the Dems didn’t think the general contours would be acceptable to Sinema, Manchin and the Senate writ large. No doubt it’ll be booted about a bit by the parliamentarians and other interested parties but it’s advancing. It’ll be fun/disgusting to watch as the sausage continues to be made.Report