"The House GOP is a mess right now—a complete and utter mess. Don’t count on them to rally around anyone anytime soon." ~ Punchbowl
Nancy Pelosi is the definition of gravitas. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was a very effective leader in his first real test. And Kevin McCarthy’s promises to everyone finally caught up with him when the bill came due.
New York Times:
McCarthy’s Extraordinary Downfall Reflects an Ungovernable G.O.P.
The glib Californian made many promises and paid a price when he was unable to fulfill them. But his demise also reflected the challenge of wielding a Republican majority that refuses to be governed.
In between, the gregarious Californian, previously known more as a backslapper and prolific fund-raiser than a legislative wizard, narrowly pulled the country back from the brink of crisis — twice. But he took many other actions, and said many things, that antagonized hard-line Republicans, Democrats and the White House. When the critical moment came, no one was willing to race to his rescue.
And he failed to master the art of corralling a deeply divided Republican majority that could never quite bring itself to rally behind him when it came time to choose normalcy over chaos. With the G.O.P. base increasingly hungry for insurgency and confrontation, Mr. McCarthy found himself out of step, a problem that is likely to plague any candidate who tries to succeed him.
This is a fine write-up, but we sorely need the Beltway folks to write this way about Kevin McCarthy and the GOP every day and not just on extraordinary days.
Politico:
McHenry named as acting speaker
The North Carolina Republican was hand-picked by Kevin McCarthy, put on a list back when the Californian was elected speaker in January.
Rep. Patrick McHenry is now the acting speaker, the House Clerk announced after Kevin McCarthy was stripped of the gavel in a historic House vote.
The speaker pro tempore is imbued with all the powers of an elected speaker of the House. McCarthy hand-picked McHenry (R-N.C.) for this role when he was elected speaker in January. The pro tempore is kept as a secret, held by the clerk of the House, until a speaker is removed or incapacitated, a process designed after Sept. 11, 2001, to ensure continuity of government.
However, as acting speaker, he is not in the line of succession. After Vice President Kamala Harris, it’s Patty Murray (Senate president pro tempore).
What happens now? Unclear. Meanwhile ...
Matt Glassman on X/Twitter via Threadreader App:
If the resolution was offered from the floor as a Question of Privilege, it would be eligible for immediate consideration. Indeed, a Question of Privilege is one of the few ways an individual Member can unilaterally bring something to the floor.
Daniel Nichanian/Bolts:
The Five States Where Trifectas Are At Play in November
Parties are battling over governorships and legislatures in Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Virginia, with the future of abortion and voting rights in the balance.
Most of these elections are playing out in the South, where Republicans could secure three more trifectas than they currently have—that is, control of the governorship and both chambers of their state legislature.
The biggest and most suspenseful battle is taking place in Virginia. Despite Democrats’ gains in the state since the 2000s, the GOP just needs to flip a couple of seats in the state Senate to grab full control of state government. Republicans are also aiming to gain control of Kentucky and Louisiana, in each case by flipping the governor’s mansion. All three states currently have divided governments.
In Mississippi, the GOP is defending its existing trifecta.
Associated Press with a reminder:
Here’s where all the cases against Trump stand as he campaigns for a return to the White House
The civil fraud trial that kicked off against Donald Trump this week in a New York courtroom is just one of many legal problems facing the former president as he campaigns for a return to the White House.
The judge overseeing the case, Arthur Engoron, resolved the lawsuit’s top claim before the trial even began, ruling that Trump routinely deceived banks, insurers and others by exaggerating the value of assets on paperwork used in making deals and securing loans. Engoron will decide on six remaining claims in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit, including allegations of conspiracy, falsifying business records and insurance fraud.
Trump is also facing 91 felony counts in four criminal cases in Washington, New York, Florida and Georgia and could potentially be looking at years in prison if convicted.
Aaron Blake/Washington Post:
How the right’s elevation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could now backfire
Democrats never particularly liked Kennedy, despite what you might have been led to believe. But he’s gone from 14 points underwater (more unfavorable than favorable) with them in mid-June, to 23 points underwater in late June, to 26 points in July, to 31 points in August, and now to 43 points underwater.
Lisa Rubin on X/Twitter via Threadreader App:
But it’s more than that. The remedies the AG is seeking — which Trump himself acknowledges constitutes a sort of “corporate death penalty” — are the only ones he can’t campaign away. If restored to the presidency, he can pardon himself for his alleged federal crimes.
He can also arguably force the Manhattan and Fulton County DAs, who might not be able to try their cases against him before the election, to stop on the ground that prosecuting a sitting president is constitutionally verboten.
But the only way out of Tish James’s civil suit is through (and then appeals). And before then, the court could impose serious penalties: bars on acquiring NY real property, borrowing from any NY-registered lender, or serving as an officer or director of any NY company.
Jason Wilson/The Guardian:
‘Red Caesarism’ is rightwing code – and some Republicans are listening
Argument for a ‘red Caesar’ to rule US may seem esoteric but conservative thinktank behind idea has connections to Trump
In June, rightwing academic Kevin Slack published a book-length polemic claiming that ideas that had emerged from what he called the radical left were now so dominant that the US republic its founders envisioned was effectively at an end.
Slack, a politics professor at the conservative Hillsdale College in Michigan, made conspiratorial and extreme arguments now common on the antidemocratic right, that “transgenderism, anti-white racism, censorship, cronyism … are now the policies of an entire cosmopolitan class that includes much of the entrenched bureaucracy, the military, the media, and government-sponsored corporations”.
In a discussion of possible responses to this conspiracy theory, he wrote that the “New Right now often discusses a Red Caesar, by which it means a leader whose post-Constitutional rule will restore the strength of his people”.
From Cliff Schecter: