Gaetz Arrogance

[Steve R.]

Gaetz, as a personal vendetta, successfully manipulated the legislative process in a dishonorable manner (in the name of honor) to remove McCarthy as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. This post is about the tactical mistake that Gaetz has made. It's not about the validity of Gaetz personal vendetta against McCarthy. Gaetz essentially made a deal with the "devil" (Democrats) to obtain the necessary votes to remove McCarthy. This has given the Democrats an unearned opportunity to obstruct the Republican agenda (which hurts Gaetz too).

Gingrich:

“Well, think about what we saw today, 4%, 4% decided they were so morally superior, so intellectually pure, so patriotically better that they would side with the Democrats, and that’s what they did in order to defeat the entire Republican House caucus, 96% of the Republicans voted for McCarthy, 4% voted against him.

The Republicans have an extremely narrow majority. The small faction of Republicans supporting Gaetz, are denigrated by the Democrats as the scum of the earth, yet the Democrats, voted in lockstep, to support Gaetz and his cohorts. Clearly the Democrats saw this as an prime opportunity to cripple the Republicans. This lockstep vote by Democrats also demonstrates that Democrats do not thinking independently but vote in line with party dictates. Compared to Gaetz, McCarthy would seem to be more likely to comprise with Democrats to get things done. Moreover, it seems that Gaetz has made a "deal" with those who would never support any legislation he would propose. Why grovel to seek the help of an adversary who would stab you in the back given the opportunity? So Gaetz gets a pryrhic victory at the cost of undermining the Republican agenda. (The Democrats are even using the power-of-the-state to arrest or otherwise cripple oppoinents, one of whom is Gaetz.) Republicans in the House are once again disorganized. Democrats are cheering!

 

[Pat Hartman]

I was against McCarty from the beginning. He is not as bad as Paul Ryan but he is still a RINO.

Gatz and his cohorts were wrong to force his hand this way, especially without a viable replacement. I happen to agree that the House has to change the way bills are formulated. They have to go to zero based budgeting. No more of this "last year's overspending + whatever percent increase the Democrats want". Bills need to be limited to one subject also. The entire Constitution plus all the amendments fit in a 38 page booklet. How can every bill take thousands of pages that NO ONE EVER READS?????? Plus end up with thousands of pages of "rules" written by unelected bureaucrats to implement them. The people "representing" us vote based on talking points rather than reality. This is very bad for all of us. The reason that most members don't want to change the bills to "one" subject is because their favorite pork projects can't be passed on straight up votes.

This will cost Gatz any chance he might have had at the governorship being vacated by DeSantis.

 

[Mike Krailo]

McCarthy made an agreement with Gaetz, and he didn't uphold his side of the bargin. Now Gaetz is collecting on the contingency. McCarthy called his bluff and lost. Move on from here and don't allow any silly agreements in the future.

 

[AccessBlaster]

I judge Matt Gaetz by who hates him. Maybe ten people in all of congress supports him. That tells me he's messing with the swamp.

Congress wants spending as usual, with omnibus and continual resolutions. Nobody is reading these 1000's pages, and Gatez is pointing this out. The last time the budget was passed without gimmicks was in the 90's.

 

[Steve R.]

McCarthy made an agreement with Gaetz, and he didn't uphold his side of the bargin. Now Gaetz is collecting on the contingency.

Congress wants spending as usual, with omnibus and continual resolutions. Nobody is reading these 1000's pages, and Gatez is pointing this out.

Valid concerns (especially massive deficit spending and the lack of a valid budget), but they neglect the concern that Gaetz gave the Democrats a propaganda bonanza. Democrats run on optics. Democrats will now start pumping out misleading videos that Republicans are involved in damaging internecine warfare and consequently can't govern. (Look at how well and efficiently Pelosi ran the Democratic House. (sarcasm)) By creating this boondoggle (even if it was justifiable by some definition) Gaetz has inadvertently undermined the Republican agenda. (Some commentators have brought up the issue the Republican agenda is stalled until a new speaker is elected. All the investigations into the Biden administration's corruption are stalled for the time beaning.) Moreover, Gaetz's "victory" can be expected to hurt him politically going forward.

 

[Mike Krailo]

Nah, if anything, he's more of a hero. Just get a new speaker and lets move on. There is an opportunity here, but there is also a slight chance things blow up if they can't get their act together. I think it will work out though.

 

[Steve R.]

Nah, if anything, he's more of a hero. Just get a new speaker and lets move on. There is an opportunity here, but there is also a slight chance things blow up if they can't get their act together. I think it will work out though.

One can only hope.
Based on Gaetz's deplorable actions being a personal vendetta having negative nationwide repercussions, I would not consider him to be a "hero".
The country does not have to much time left to reverse the current downhill trajectory.

 

[Steve R.]

If you have the time (30 minutes), Doug Collins has an excellent podcast commentary concerning the implications of the removal of McCarthy as Speaker of the House. As the briefest summary possible; the actions of Gaetz have paralyzed the ability of Republicans to govern since legislative work cannot be accomplished in the House without having a Speaker of the House.

Thunderstruck: Kevin McCarthy removed as Speaker of the House​

 

[AccessBlaster]

If you get Jim Jordan or Steve Scalise as a new speaker that's a win.

 

[Steve R.]

Like Jordan. Know nothing about Scalise.

 

[Pat Hartman]

I judge Matt Gaetz by who hates him. Maybe ten people in all of congress supports him. That tells me he's messing with the swamp.

Good point.

If you get Jim Jordan or Steve Scalise as a new speaker that's a win.

Steve Scalise has cancer. I'm not sure how debilitating it is currently but he may not be well enough to take on such a demanding position.

Jim Jordan could have had the position in January. He wants to do what he is currently doing.

I love the idea of Trump being speaker for a while just because of his take no prisoners attitude. There is soooooooooo much wrong with the way the legislative process runs that it is destroying our liberty. Just limiting every bill to a single topic and 50 pages would mean that the legislators might actually read and understand what they were voting for or against. As it stands, they have no freaking clue what is in any bills they vote on. All they ever know is the "talking points".

It is too close to the election though. He's already got his hands full with all the bogus lawsuits which are specifically intended to interfere with campaigning in addition to costing him millions of dollars. I really hate it when talking heads say that Trump is the one causing the chaos. They are just proving how stupid they are. It is the never-Trumpers who are causing the chaos. They're the ones bad mouthing him 24/7 and bringing all the bogus lawsuits. If the talking heads had half a brain among them all, they might come to the conclusion that allowing the attackers to force Trump to stop running to stop the chaos means that they won and guess what. The next time someone they are afraid of runs, they will use the exact same tactic. It beats the h*** out of trying to win an election. Just beat the crap out of anyone you are afraid of with lawsuits and lies. Then you don't have to manufacture ballots and sneak them into the counting room or drop boxes in the dead of night.

 

[Steve R.]

Byron Donalds name has been mentioned as a possible candidate for House Speaker. Unfortunately, I do not know anything about him.

 

[AccessBlaster]

I like Byron, he would make a good speaker.