The New Kevin McCarthyism

On Sunday, Kevin McCarthy told Fox "News" that he vowed to keep his promise to remove major Democratic voices – Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell – from having committee assignments, as well as Ilhan Omar, clear retribution for when Democrats voted to keep Marjorie Taylor Green from serving on committees.  Of course, McCarthy is a bit premature since he has to convince his own GOP caucus to actually vote him Speaker first (likely, though no sure thing), but that’s just a pesky detail.  And then, with Republicans holding only a tiny margin in the Houses, he’ll have to convince virtually the entire Republican caucus to support kicking these three Democrats off committees.  Possible, but no sure thing.  To put this in perspective and show the vast difference between the two circumstances, when Democrats blocked Greene, she was so deeply toxic that they actually got 11 Republicans to agree and vote with them.  Should McCarthy get a chance to do as he promised, I feel certain, as in 100% certain and will take any bet for any amount, that he will get zero Democratic votes.

"I'll keep that promise," McCarthy said. "I will not allow [Swalwell] to be on Intel. You have Adam Schiff who had lied to the American public time and time again. We will not allow him to be on the Intel Committee either."

Well…that’s sure not an especially compelling argument for doing something so historically drastic.  Offering specifics of what he means by “lying time and time again” would help.  But to make things easier for McCarthy, I’m not even suggesting he provide examples of “lying” -- time and time again -- that are so egregious it deserves being removed from all committee assignments.  But it would be cool if he would give (or could give) examples of any “lying to the American public time and time again.” 

Of course, the added problem for McCarthy is that, putting aside these three Democrats, if he's now making the case that not “lying” is his new standard for a House member to serve on a committee, then House committees are going to be pretty barren places.  Most especially with Republican election deniers flooding the halls for the past two  years.

(A bit of history reminder:  Republicans were upset with Schiff, who led the first of two Trump impeachment trials, when they cried he had lied in describing what was said on Trump’s blackmailing call to Ukraine president Zelensky.  However, given that Schiff himself said very clearly that he would not be giving “the exact transcribed version of the call” (since there is, in fact, no transcript of the call, so it is near-impossible to actually quote it exactly) and instead said specifically he would only be explaining “the essence of what the president communicates" to Zelensky -- in no reality is that by any definition “lying.”  Let alone “lying time and time again.”  Was there hyperbole and exaggeration in what Rep. Schiff then related?  Probably.  Was it “the essence” of what Trump said?  Most assuredly, because it's on the record and even Republicans don’t refute it.  And it’s for this that Kevin McCarthy claims that Adam Schiff not only “lied,” but “lied to the American public time and time again.”  And wants to keep him off all committees for it.)

Why in the world McCarthy wants to kick Eric Swalwell off is anybody’s guess, other than petulance and not liking the guy.  Or the reason is "just because."  Or it's okay in the fascist playbook.

As for removing Ilan Omar from committees, McCarthy suggested that she was too antisemitic to serve on the Foreign Affairs Committee.  I would suggest that if Kevin McCarthy wants to keep an elected U.S. representative off a committee because of suggested “anti-Semitism,” he instead had better start providing a list of actual examples to prove his issue, rather than just hint (wink-wink) at something, so that people who hate her can smarmily draw their own conclusion to support their hatred.

(By the way, I think she is too relentlessly critical of Israel. But that isn’t anti-Semitism.  Nor is she wrong all the time about her criticism.)

Most surprising, though, is that McCarthy would want to go on the record saying that House Republicans considered anti-Semitism a negative.  This not only would likely come as a huge surprise to many House Republicans.

But most important of all is to understand that because McCarthy's "vow" is retribution for Democrats -- and 11 Republicans -- having voted to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene from committees, there were very real, very public, very specific and very many reasons for that action.  She wasn’t kicked off for “lying time and time again.”  She wasn't kicked off for lying at all.  She wasn’t kicked off because Democrats didn’t like her (though they abhor her).  She was removed from all her committees because of her detailed and documented -- as NPR described it -- “history of trafficking in racism, anti-Semitism and baseless conspiracy theories, along with her support for online comments encouraging violence against Democratic officials prior to taking office.”

And again, 11 Republicans joined Democrats in voting to remove her committee assignments.  And they all, from both parties, did so because of a long and specific history of racism, crazy and dangerous conspiracy theories and…and…and advocating violence against Democrats!!

That is the extensive standard Democrats required before  kicking an out-of-control member of Congress off her committees.  Including, y’know, like encouraging violence against fellow members.

By the way, if Kevin McCarthy does get enough votes to become House Speaker and if he does put forth this proposal to kick all three Democrats off committees, I would suggest – with the razor thin margin Republicans will have – it’s not at all a sure thing that he will be able to hold the GOP caucus together and get enough votes to take away committee assignments from Democratic leaders Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, but also not just an easy target to Republicans like Ilhan Omar.  Not just knowing how respected Schiff and Swalwell especially are, but knowing that it risks serious payback against any of them.

But there’s also an even larger issue here.

If Republicans go ahead and kick Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell and Ilhan Omar off committee assignments, it will only serve to add cyclonic spins of the death spiral the Republican Party is currently going through, pulling them down into a deep, dark hole in the bowels of the earth.  The Republican fascist base may love it, but this is the sort of anti-democratic thing pretty much the rest of the country gets aghast at. 

Indeed, even if there were some independents on general principle who didn’t want Marjorie Taylor Greene to be removed from committees, I’m sure that they at least understand why it was done, knowing what her history of outlandish, crazed, conspiracy theory, QAnon-supporting, racist, violence-promoting actions were.  But I'm sure they will have absolutely no idea why Republicans would be kicking off Schiff, Swalwell and Ohan.  They will see it for what it is – a fascist, political effort to undermine democracy, trying to discredit your political opponents…in the midst of Republican efforts to impeach President Biden, Vice-President Harris, Attorney General Garland, Secretary of State Blinken and investigate the FBI, DOJ, Dr. Anthony Fauci and the president’s private citizen son.  And now add that just yesterday, Republican Jim Jordan (R-OH) suggested that they might want to investigate the just-named Special Counsel Jack Smith – who hasn’t even started his job yet, so he couldn’t possibly have done anything to investigate, other than be the internationally-admired, leading prosecutor for the World Court of war criminals.  Which, for all I know, Republicans today are against.

This will not go over well with the American public.  After all, we saw how disastrously it went over in the Midterms when extremists were unilaterally defeated.  When the GOP’s expected “red wave” turned into a trickle, on the verge of even losing seats in the Senate.  And Republicans saw it to.  Yet they are not just doubling down or tripling down on that debacle, including still pushing abortion bans, but throwing the entire deck on the table and going all in – on a hand that doesn’t even have as much as a pair of deuces.  With all those cards turned face side up for everyone to see.

Even if Kevin McCarthy (assuming he actually does become House Speaker, and then is able to keep the position) only proposes this action but it goes nowhere, it will be deeply problematic for Republicans because it will show further – and on the record – what their leadership wants in its efforts to undermine democracy.  And it will add weight to how the public sees all their fascist actions, while doing absolutely nothing to actually deal with inflation, crime, the environment and all issues they cried about during the Midterms that truly affect America’s daily lives.

But further, even if McCarthy backs off from cooler, wiser, saner heads and doesn’t ultimately propose such a lamebrained scheme, knowing how it will be perceived and deeply backfire, he will then anger his support among the extremist-right in Congress for going back on his “vow.”

And so the GOP death spiral continues.  Round and round it goes, sucking the party down in the dark bowels of the earth.