House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was once a far-right member of the GOP. Now? He may be on the way out:
As recently as Sunday, Rep. Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Fox News, “I think Kevin is in very good shape…. I can tell you, the support in the conference is very strong for him, and this is a little Beltway bubble blip, if you will. I don’t think it’s going to have any long-term consequences.”
But in the days that followed, the party has seen and heard more of what McCarthy had to say early last year, and while practically zero GOP lawmakers criticized the minority leader on the record last week, that’s starting to change.
Republican Rep. Andy Biggs, for example, told a conservative media outlet yesterday that McCarthy is facing “a huge trust issue“ in the wake of the latest revelations. The Arizonan, who led the far-right House Freedom Caucus, added that the GOP leader has “undermined the conference.”
Last night, Gaetz issued a written statement deriding McCarthy and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise as having engaged in “the behavior of weak men, not leaders.” Around the same time, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, a prominent voice in Republican politics, told his viewers that if McCarthy becomes House Speaker next year, “we would have a Republican Congress led by a puppet of the Democratic Party.” [Steve Benen, Maddowblog]
Next will come the accusations of McCarthy being a RINO, and out he’ll go. He might even be primaried this fall, as they say.
This is what happens when the metric for your position in the Party is extremism. McCarthy, a few years back, stripped then Rep Steve King (R-IA) of his committee assignments for remarks which appeared to be racist, and King was bounced in the following primary.
But when Reps Gaetz, Biggs, Gosar, Gohmert, Greene, and others have engaged in remarks of extremist nature more recently, McCarthy has done nothing. The monster, emboldened, is now looking to nip its trophy, and right in the nuts.
I’m not sure McCarthy will be the Speaker of the House, if the Democrats are so foolish as to allow the party of insurrection beat them. He may not even BE in Congress. And wouldn’t that be a shock?
No principles, no position – eventually.
