We at CSGOPOTD decided to escort House Majority Leader
Kevin McCarthy, the U.S. House Representative for California’s 23rd District since 2007, quickly to the front of our queue for doing something so politically relevant, yet stupid, that may have altered the momentum from the 2016 Presidential Race, in spite of the fact that he's not even in the race. For those who missed it, about a month ago, House Speaker
John Boehner abruptly announced his resignation. Prior to 2014, when Boehner pictured himself retiring, he wanted former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor to be his heir apparent. Well, Cantor lost to current House Rep.
Dave Brat in the primary for his House seat, so that plan went out the window. In classic lazy "cut and paste" style, Boehner and the Republican establishment just figured Rep. McCarthy would be a shoe-in to be the new House Speaker, just like he was the best option for House Majority leader.
There were just three problems with that... the first being, as some pundits noted, that Kevin McCarthy was running for House Speaker when if there is one thing he seems to be terrible at, is PUBLIC SPEAKING. There were several instances where McCarthy botched speeches, not even able to string together sentences in a coherent matter over the past five years (documented well in this super-cut from the Rachel Maddow Show). McCarthy would also have been the least qualified member of Congress to receive the appointment since 1891. But the bigger obstacle was the colossal "own-goal" McCarthy made when he touted himself for the job and thoughtlessly admitted in a FOX News interview that the Benghazi Select Committee was designed to drive down the poll numbers of Hillary Clinton during her campaign for president.
Less than a week into having the national spotlight, Kevin McCarthy done goofed up that big. And public opinion about the Benghazi hearings withered. Hillary Clinton, between a respectable performance in the first Democratic debate and his admission, saw a surge in the polls in both the Democratic primary, as well as against GOP challengers. By the time she walked about of her 11 hour testimony in front of the Benghazi Select Committee, she looked as formidable as ever. And she had the sitting Republican House Majority Leader to thank for it.
McCarthy was barely challenged in the primary for his seat in 2014, where Republican Mike Biglay only received 157 votes, and then beat Democrat Raul Garcia by almost 50 points in the general election. This was, of course, before his gaffe-of-the-year, which people are already attributing to being potentially the most relevant moment of the 2016 presidential race. He might not fare as well in 2016, when Republicans in the primary could turn against him for his failure.
But let's be honest, this isn't the only dumb thing on Kevin McCarthy's record:
-July 31st, 2007: McCarthy votes against the Equal Pay Bill.
-October 25th, 2007: Kevin McCarthy votes against the reauthorization of the Children's Health Insurance Program, denying health insurance to millions of children.
-November 7th, 2007: Rep. McCarthy votes against ENDA, helping to continue to allow businesses to discriminate against the LGBT community in the workplace.
-December 7th, 2007: McCarthy enlists in Fox News’ annual “War on Christmas” and does his part in the fight by co-sponsoring legislation to recognize the importance of Christmas and Christianity. It's not like there's a separation of church and state for a reason guaranteed by the First Amendment or anything, right guys?
-January 27th, 2009: Kevin McCarthy votes against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
-April 29th, 2009: McCarthy votes against the Hate Crimes Expansion.
-September 17th, 2009: Based on manufactured outrage over the "undercover sting" videos by journalistic fraud James O'Keefe, Rep. McCarthy votes to defund ACORN.
-March 21st, 2010: Kevin McCarthy votes against the Affordable Care Act.
http://votesmart.org/...
-June 30th, 2010: McCarthy votes against Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform, feeling that nothing should be done to prevent banking giants from continuing the same risky behaviors that caused the greatest economic collapse since the Great Depression.
-December 8th, 2010: McCarthy votes against the DREAM Act.
-December 15th, 2010: The anti-gay hate group, the Family Research Council, announces a list of Republicans who have signed on to a letter of theirs that stands in solidarity with them in barring gay candidates from office, and seeing homosexuality outlawed. Among the names on the list? Congressman Kevin McCarthy.
-January 5th, 2011: McCarthy co-sponsors the first attempt by Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act. He has voted for every attempt to do so since.
-February 18th, 2011: Kevin McCarthy votes to defund Planned Parenthood, on the very same day his "smaller government principles" compelled him to vote to continue funding taxpayer dollars towards NASCAR sponsorships.
-March 17th, 2011: Rep. McCarthy votes to end funding to National Public Radio.
-May 31st, 2011: Kevin McCarthy votes against raising the Debt Ceiling limit, which if not lifted, economists warn could lead to the collapse of not just the American economy, but the global economy. Worse yet, even the Republicans' threatening to hold it hostage during this time led to the United States' having its credit rating decreased by Standard and Poor's for the first time in its history a few months later.
-September 15th, 2012: McCarthy votes for the "No More Solyndras Act".
-June 19th, 2013: McCarthy votes against restoring $20.5 billion towards the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program.
-September 30th, 2013: Rep. McCarthy voted for the 2013 Government Shutdown.
-Feb 26th, 2014: Kevin McCarthy goes "all in" on the faux-scandal surrounding the IRS researching SuperPACs by co-sponsoring and voting for the "Stop the Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act".
-July 10th, 2014: McCarthy votes for House Amendment 1040, to prevent the implementation of the dreaded United Nations Agenda 21 Treaty, that in spite of just being recommended climate change guidelines, have many conspiracy theorists within the extreme right convinced it’s a plot for global domination.
-August 15th, 2014: Kevin McCarthy and his wife, Judy, are interviewed by David Brody, where they discuss how people "don't want them to have their right to be a Christian" in America today.
-January 22nd, 2015: an anti-abortion bill, HR 7, was moving through the House, and was halted because even some members of the GOP were put off by the language in the bill regarding its definition of rape. Kevin McCarthy, however, had no problem with that, and voted for it anyway. Hell, he co-sponsored it.
-May 13th, 2015: Rep. McCarthy voted for HR 36, a ban on abortion at 20 weeks.
-On September 11th, 2015: Kevin McCarthy votes against the United States' nuclear treaty with Iran.
-September 18th, 2015: McCarthy votes with most House Republicans to defund Planned Parenthood, based on highly edited “sting” videos submitted by a Pro-Life advocacy group that have been repeatedly debunked by investigators.
-October 23rd, 2015: Rep. McCarthy votes for HR 3762, the GOP's 61st attempt in the past five years at repealing the Affordable Care Act (which is still working better than experts predicted).
Now, here's the amazing thing... it might not have been Kevin McCarthy's Benghazi gaffe that torpedoed his chances of being the next Speaker of the House... there are rumors floating around that he dropped out for entirely different reasons. House Rep. Walter Jones released a cryptic statement in the wake of John Boehner's resignation that leadership candidates should withdraw from the position "if there are any misdeeds he has committed since joining Congress that will embarrass himself". Several conservative blogs had already begun rumors that McCarthy had been involved in an extra-marital affair. But it wasn't just one Republican in Congress involved in this supposed sex scandal, it was two. Rep. Renee Ellmers of North Carolina was rumored to be the "other woman" in McCarthy's life, and she went on record to say the rumors were "bats*** crazy".
At this point, Kevin McCarthy's name is more associated with failure with anything else, and that's not a good look for anyone. Whether or not it costs him in the 2016 primary or general elections... well, that would be a hell of an upset. But hey, it wouldn't be the first time a House Majority Leader went down in flames recently, would it?
One year ago on this date, we looked at former Tennessee state legislator Stacey Campfield, who once accused the Black caucus of the state legislature for being more racist for the KKK for not letting him join (because he's not African American), wanted to pass a law requiring death certificates be printed for aborted fetuses, repeatedly tried to pass laws to make it illegal to even say "gay" let alone be gay, blamed the spread of AIDS on a gay flight attendant having sex with an African monkey (which is insane), and compared Democrats touting the number of people signing up for the Affordable Care Act to "Nazis bragging about train rides for Jews". Yes, he's that charming. It seems that he's gone off the rails psychologically enough that he's unelectable even in a state with as many nutters as Tennessee has in its state government, so we'll forgo giving him an update to discuss another Republican... (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 402-12, since this was established in July 2014.)
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