Republicans Flirt with Self-Destruction

[Toro]

Excellent editorial from the WSJ.

Kevin McCarthy suddenly quit his bid to succeed John Boehner as House Speaker on Thursday, amid an increasingly toxic crack-up inside the Republican conference. At 247 Members, the GOP enjoys its largest House majority since the 71st Congress of 1929-30—but a minority may squander it with ultimatums and self-sabotage. ...

The rebels don’t have nearly enough support to stand up their own man, but they can blow up all House business and decapitate the leadership of their own party. The danger is that having deposed Mr. Boehner and now Mr. McCarthy, they will refuse to back anyone who won’t meet their demands. ...

We share most of the Freedom Caucus’s policy goals. But what they haven’t offered is a realistic or even remotely plausible strategy to achieve what these conservatives say they want until there is a GOP President. Their demands on Mr. McCarthy included electing one of their Members as Majority Leader when not one of them can get the votes himself. Some are also demanding that protectionist Members be put on Ways and Means to blow up the Pacific trade deal.

The GOP Congress could slip into chaos that cedes the agenda to Democrats or is unable to do even the most basic work of government. GOP approval ratings, already low, will sink further and let Democrats run against a reckless Congress. Add Mr. Trump as the presidential nominee, and the GOP could lose the House, Senate and White House in 2016. ...

Paul Ryan’s colleagues are already imploring him to stand as the only potential Speaker who could consolidate the GOP’s factions. He’s said repeatedly he doesn’t want the job, and no wonder. If the only way to become and remain Speaker is to capitulate to the impossible demands of a rump minority, then you’re being set up to fail.

Then again, Mr. Ryan may be the only Republican with the national standing and conservative credentials to defy the Cruz ultimatums. He’d be assailed with the usual sellout and surrender epithets, any future presidential ambitions might suffer, and he’d have less time for his young children. But he could save the House majority from self-destruction. ...​

The Republican Crack-Up

What about Paul Ryan?

I'd support him.

 

[Toro]

Here's another interesting article.

The party establishment has only itself to blame. From the moment President Obama took office, Republicans in Congress have been selling the base a bill of goods. They demonized Obamacare and cynically swore to repeal it, knowing they could not. They balked at sensible immigration reform, deciding instead to do nothing. They engaged in Pyrrhic brinkmanship over the budget and the debt ceiling, fully aware that in the end they would have to back down.

Promising to do the impossible was an effective short-term strategy for raising money and winning midterm elections. But if you keep firing up your supporters and letting them down, they become disillusioned. They begin to think the problem might not be Obama and the Democrats. It might be you.

That same dynamic is happening in the House, where Boehner’s decision to walk away has emboldened, not chastened, the ultraconservative revolutionaries in the GOP ranks. Look at the way they chased out hapless Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who on Thursday abandoned his bid to succeed Boehner because of opposition from the radical Freedom Caucus.

If he chooses, Boehner can use his remaining weeks in office to keep his party from further injuring itself by shutting down the government or playing chicken with the debt ceiling. But it will only be a matter of time before the next speaker has to quell some far-right tantrum.

In the Democratic Party, the conflict is ideological -- left vs. center-left. In the GOP, the struggle looks existential.​

House GOP Turmoil; 2016 Interactive Widget; Oil Glut Perils; the Allure of "Annabel Lee" | RealClearPolitics

 

[BluesLegend]

You libs are slow on the uptake, it was reported yesterday that McCarthy bailed because he got caught banging some chic who was not his wife. So much for your manifesto size conspiracy theory.

 

[NLT]

Excellent editorial from the WSJ.

Kevin McCarthy suddenly quit his bid to succeed John Boehner as House Speaker on Thursday, amid an increasingly toxic crack-up inside the Republican conference. At 247 Members, the GOP enjoys its largest House majority since the 71st Congress of 1929-30—but a minority may squander it with ultimatums and self-sabotage. ...

The rebels don’t have nearly enough support to stand up their own man, but they can blow up all House business and decapitate the leadership of their own party. The danger is that having deposed Mr. Boehner and now Mr. McCarthy, they will refuse to back anyone who won’t meet their demands. ...

We share most of the Freedom Caucus’s policy goals. But what they haven’t offered is a realistic or even remotely plausible strategy to achieve what these conservatives say they want until there is a GOP President. Their demands on Mr. McCarthy included electing one of their Members as Majority Leader when not one of them can get the votes himself. Some are also demanding that protectionist Members be put on Ways and Means to blow up the Pacific trade deal.

The GOP Congress could slip into chaos that cedes the agenda to Democrats or is unable to do even the most basic work of government. GOP approval ratings, already low, will sink further and let Democrats run against a reckless Congress. Add Mr. Trump as the presidential nominee, and the GOP could lose the House, Senate and White House in 2016. ...

Paul Ryan’s colleagues are already imploring him to stand as the only potential Speaker who could consolidate the GOP’s factions. He’s said repeatedly he doesn’t want the job, and no wonder. If the only way to become and remain Speaker is to capitulate to the impossible demands of a rump minority, then you’re being set up to fail.

Then again, Mr. Ryan may be the only Republican with the national standing and conservative credentials to defy the Cruz ultimatums. He’d be assailed with the usual sellout and surrender epithets, any future presidential ambitions might suffer, and he’d have less time for his young children. But he could save the House majority from self-destruction. ...​

The Republican Crack-Up

What about Paul Ryan?

I'd support him.

Ryan doesn't want it.
Gowdy doesn't want it

 

[Derideo_Te]

In politics when your opponent is digging a hole for himself the smart move is to stand back and hand him another shovel if he needs one.

The reality is that there is no longer a single party on the right side of the aisle but instead 2 separate and distinct parties. The old establishment GOP and the rebel extremist rightwing faction known as the Tea Party. The former are afraid of the latter, with good reason, and the latter hate the former and everything they stand for. So there is no longer any viable "common ground".

If I was Ryan I would make some demands before I would accept putting my name forward for Speaker. First and foremost I would state that anyone who won't support my Speakership is no longer a member of the GOP and won't be entitled to any committee seats, let alone chairs. Secondly I would demand that they cease and desist from threats to "primary" anyone who doesn't align with the extremist rightwing agenda. Then I would strike a deal with the Dems to run a bipartisan Congress until 2016 and basically neuter the extremist rightwing crazies.

If that means being the Speaker for only a short period then sobeit but at least Ryan would retain his integrity and be an effective Speaker who got things done. Yes, he will have to compromise with the Dems and give them some of what they want but that is what politics are all about. The advantages are that he no longer needs to worry about appeasing the extremist rightwingers and he will leave it up to the voters to decide what ultimately happens to the party. Best of all it allows the House to operate as near to normal as possible.

That approach has it's problems but the upside is that it takes the focus off the House and puts it back on the primaries.

 

[nuhuh]

In politics when your opponent is digging a hole for himself the smart move is to stand back and hand him another shovel if he needs one.

The reality is that there is no longer a single party on the right side of the aisle but instead 2 separate and distinct parties. The old establishment GOP and the rebel extremist rightwing faction known as the Tea Party. The former are afraid of the latter, with good reason, and the latter hate the former and everything they stand for. So there is no longer any viable "common ground".

If I was Ryan I would make some demands before I would accept putting my name forward for Speaker. First and foremost I would state that anyone who won't support my Speakership is no longer a member of the GOP and won't be entitled to any committee seats, let alone chairs. Secondly I would demand that they cease and desist from threats to "primary" anyone who doesn't align with the extremist rightwing agenda. Then I would strike a deal with the Dems to run a bipartisan Congress until 2016 and basically neuter the extremist rightwing crazies.

If that means being the Speaker for only a short period then sobeit but at least Ryan would retain his integrity and be an effective Speaker who got things done. Yes, he will have to compromise with the Dems and give them some of what they want but that is what politics are all about. The advantages are that he no longer needs to worry about appeasing the extremist rightwingers and he will leave it up to the voters to decide what ultimately happens to the party. Best of all it allows the House to operate as near to normal as possible.

That approach has it's problems but the upside is that it takes the focus off the House and puts it back on the primaries.

I can only add how does one primary someone who comes from a gerrymandered district? Seems to me the GOP isn't getting rid of anyone and even might have the reality of gerrymandering spitting in its face.

 

[Derideo_Te]

In politics when your opponent is digging a hole for himself the smart move is to stand back and hand him another shovel if he needs one.

The reality is that there is no longer a single party on the right side of the aisle but instead 2 separate and distinct parties. The old establishment GOP and the rebel extremist rightwing faction known as the Tea Party. The former are afraid of the latter, with good reason, and the latter hate the former and everything they stand for. So there is no longer any viable "common ground".

If I was Ryan I would make some demands before I would accept putting my name forward for Speaker. First and foremost I would state that anyone who won't support my Speakership is no longer a member of the GOP and won't be entitled to any committee seats, let alone chairs. Secondly I would demand that they cease and desist from threats to "primary" anyone who doesn't align with the extremist rightwing agenda. Then I would strike a deal with the Dems to run a bipartisan Congress until 2016 and basically neuter the extremist rightwing crazies.

If that means being the Speaker for only a short period then sobeit but at least Ryan would retain his integrity and be an effective Speaker who got things done. Yes, he will have to compromise with the Dems and give them some of what they want but that is what politics are all about. The advantages are that he no longer needs to worry about appeasing the extremist rightwingers and he will leave it up to the voters to decide what ultimately happens to the party. Best of all it allows the House to operate as near to normal as possible.

That approach has it's problems but the upside is that it takes the focus off the House and puts it back on the primaries.

I can only add how does one primary someone who comes from a gerrymandered district? Seems to me the GOP isn't getting rid of anyone and even might have the reality of gerrymandering spitting in its face.

Certainly that is a problem for the establishment GOP since the gerrymandered districts have primarily gone to the BSC extremist rightwankers. In that respect gerrymandering has caused them more problems than it solved. They believed that it would give them a lock on the House for the foreseeable future but instead it opened the door to allow in the crazies.

Having competitive districts means that you have to have viable sane rational candidates who can appeal to a majority that resembles America rather than a bizarre caricature of what it once was.

There is no doubt whatsoever that the political wounds that the GOP is currently suffering from are all entirely self inflicted by a shortsighted power grab.

 

[Soggy in NOLA]

McCarthy was Boner's hand picked successor... that alone tells me no fucking way.

 

[NightFox]

Republicans Flirt with Self-Destruction
.

*YAWN* They flirt with self destruction all the time, the problem is the bastages never actually decide to go to bed with it.

This too shall pass, some poor yokel will get roped into the speakership and then regret every single minute of that shitty job.

 

[Siete]

where are all those "I want to run the country" tea party dolts ?

 

[Toro]

David Brooks weighs in. Accurately.

The House Republican caucus is close to ungovernable these days. How did this situation come about?

This was not just the work of the Freedom Caucus or Ted Cruz or one month’s activity. The Republican Party’s capacity for effective self-governance degraded slowly, over the course of a long chain of rhetorical excesses, mental corruptions and philosophical betrayals. Basically, the party abandoned traditional conservatism for right-wing radicalism. Republicans came to see themselves as insurgents and revolutionaries, and every revolution tends toward anarchy and ends up devouring its own.

By traditional definitions, conservatism stands for intellectual humility, a belief in steady, incremental change, a preference for reform rather than revolution, a respect for hierarchy, precedence, balance and order, and a tone of voice that is prudent, measured and responsible. ...

All of this has been overturned in dangerous parts of the Republican Party. Over the past 30 years, or at least since Rush Limbaugh came on the scene, the Republican rhetorical tone has grown ever more bombastic, hyperbolic and imbalanced. Public figures are prisoners of their own prose styles, and Republicans from Newt Gingrich through Ben Carson have become addicted to a crisis mentality. Civilization was always on the brink of collapse. Every setback, like the passage of Obamacare, became the ruination of the republic. Comparisons to Nazi Germany became a staple. ...

this new Republican faction regards the messy business of politics as soiled and impure. Compromise is corruption. Inconvenient facts are ignored. Countrymen with different views are regarded as aliens. Political identity became a sort of ethnic identity, and any compromise was regarded as a blood betrayal. ...

This anti-political political ethos produced elected leaders of jaw-dropping incompetence. Running a government is a craft, like carpentry. But the new Republican officials did not believe in government and so did not respect its traditions, its disciplines and its craftsmanship. They do not accept the hierarchical structures of authority inherent in political activity. ...

have we ever seen bumbling on this scale, people at once so cynical and so naïve, so willfully ignorant in using levers of power to produce some tangible if incremental good? These insurgents can’t even acknowledge democracy’s legitimacy — if you can’t persuade a majority of your colleagues, maybe you should accept their position. You might be wrong! ...​

[url=http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/13/opinion/the-republicans-incompetence-caucus.html?rref=collection/column/david-brooks&action=click&contentCollection=opinion&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection]
The Republicans’ Incompetence Caucus[/URL]

Cue the Crazies to label Brooks a "RINO!"