Former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy announced his retirement in a Wall Street Journal op-ed:
It is in this spirit that I have decided to depart the House at the end of this year to serve America in new ways. I know my work is only getting started.
I will continue to recruit our country’s best and brightest to run for elected office. The Republican Party is expanding every day, and I am committed to lending my experience to support the next generation of leaders.
It often seems that the more Washington does, the worse America gets. I started my career as a small-business owner, and I look forward to helping entrepreneurs and risk-takers reach their full potential. The challenges we face are more likely to be solved by innovation than legislation.
(Weird how he chose a publication with a paywall. I’m trying to make it accessible to you guys, but it’s not working at Archive.is or me making it a permalink.)
You know what caught my eye? This part: “It often seems that the more Washington does, the worse America gets.”
Then shrink the government. It’s so crazy, I know.
Again, maybe you and those in your party in the House should have shrunk the government, making it easier for us normies to succeed.
Can you tell I cannot stand politicians? Blech.
McCarthy bragged about the “positives” during his time as party leader and his short stint as speaker. But we all know he is as “big government” as the next politician.
McCarthy thinks he’s taking the high road, but by not finishing his term and leaving right after his ouster, to me at least, he comes off as a whining toddler because he didn’t get his way.
Our Founders wanted gridlock. They wanted to make it as difficult as possible for the central government to *do* anything. Let’s get back to that.
These positions were never meant to be a full-time job or a career. I’m going to look and see if McCarthy made the majority of his money while in Congress like Pelosi and others.
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This is why the Republicans replaced him as speaker. This act will narrow the Republican majority even more. With the loss of Santos and McCarthy’s seats, the Democrats will come very close to a majority, something that would make congressional oversight an impossibility.
This is McCarthy’s revenge for voting to replace him.
I think McCarthy’s district is a safe Republican seat. I’ll double-check.
Uh huh. Even if a safe seat, and hard to say these days especially in CA, the punk McCarthy leaves at the end of the year and the special election to replace him occurs when?
Away from urban areas, lots of the land you gotta flee is pretty redneck
Ok but his seat, and vote, are absent until special election. And that won’t happen in time for budget negotiations.
A long time. CA allows 126-140 days, and the only way to cut it short is if a single person wins more than 50% in the special primary.
Who cares that he said in October that he would finish out his term.. Constituents don’t matter. Who offered him a job?
Sounds like a coward running away from a fight. What happened to “I’ll never stop fighting for the American People” like he said in September? I didn’t agree with the decision to remove him as speaker in September, but Matt Gaetz obviously knew the man better than the public did.
Most ex-speakers leave. Hard to remain in the House as just another member once you’ve been the Speaker.
It’s the worst high profile job in politics IMO. You either stay SOTH for a long time, move back to Maj leader when your party is out of power, or leave.
Almost no one moves up or over to the Senate from that job.
No, because the Senate has its own entrenched politicos. Doing the exact same thing.
Gaetz 1 – McCarthy 0
Then why is Nancy Pelosi still there?
Nancy Pelosi
Pelsoi sees this as a good omen. “Hey! I’m one step closer to getting my gavel back!”
Only proving that the SOTH job is primarily filled by back stabbers and go along to get along types.
Pelosi – back stabber
McCarthy – get along
Ryan – go along
Boehner – go along
So much more. But if PissLousy gets the gavel again, you can rest assured that her back stabbing ways will arise.
If it’s the other moron, another back stabber. I don’t care enough for him to remember his name.
Only Republicans feel it’s necessary to ask the Democrats what they should do, effectively giving the Democrats control of the house no matter who is in the majority.
One more RINO down. Oodles more to go.
We could control the fedgov beast if we had 100 committed constitutionalists in the House. The House controls the spending.
I mean, he literally admitted the problem in his op-ed: “The more Washington does, the worse America gets.” I’m screaming DUH. Our Founders wanted gridlock to make it harder for the central gov to *do* stuff.
Don’t just do something, stand there!
was actually the goal.
McCarthy did not think he would be able to cash out for another 12-15 years.
McCarthy was a Trump endorsement….just a reminder.
I don’t think I ever saw him rescind that but I could be mistaken.
Trump should renounce the endorsement. This move was a total bitch move.
I agree total bitch move to endorse him for Speaker.
SOP lose the power position and I’m taking my ball and going home.
Except Pelosi. She always had her eyes on the gavel, even in the minority.
Because she never lost power within her party.
She still owns Republicans too.
I wonder how many would be leaving if they couldn’t collect their retirement / pension checks until age 66, with steep reductions for early retirement and more reductions if they secured another income from a different place.
Call me crazy. I know I am anyways.
Remember when McCarthy was running for SOTH?
He wanted it so badly! It was like Gollum after his preciousssss. So many times he was rejected but he kept trying again and again. And the GOPe backed him.
He wanted it sooo badly, like a life or death thing. It had to be McCarthy or else! He was on a mission.
Soooo. A mission.
And apparently he failed and now he is being punished. I doubt he made the decision to retire all by himself. He was likely “encouraged” by those who assigned him his mission in the first place.
And the rest of us, we can like or not like Matt Gaetz and Co., but I think the day will come when we realize that we need to thank them for it.
Call me crazy. I don’t care.
I thanked him with some FRNs.
I don’t respond to beg letters from pols saying things like “I’m about to file charges against Biden and I need money.” That’s your JOB, we already pay you for that.
But I do respond to people who actually ACHIEVE some results. Gaetz leapt that bar.
If McCarthy truly cared about our country, and the self-inflicted decline imposed upon us by his colleagues, he would ensure that a solid republican replacement candidate would be fully funded and ready to campaign for his seat.
Politicians leave office bemoaning the present condition of nebulous things – sometimes specific things. Eisenhower left office decrying the “military industrial complex,” yet he had eight damn years to do something about it, but didn’t.
Good riddance, you won’t be missed. You can take list of failures under your leadership back to Frank Luntz fake oval office and pretend to be in charge.
The only better news would be if he were doing it on a rail.
While we the people wear tricorne hats and sing “I’m Shipping Up To Boston.”
Jus wish i could post a pic of powers boothe from Tombstone
From Ace of Spades Ace.Mu.Nu – if gop doesn’t have the majority in 2025, we could lose the presidency:
Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) said a Republican majority in the House in 2025 would be a “threat,” particularly if the 2024 election heads to the lower chamber for a vote.
Cheney said in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who voted against certifying the 2020 election in two states, cannot remain in the role if the 2024 election comes before the House, particularly if the Republican nominee is former President Donald Trump.
“We’re facing a situation with respect to the 2024 election where it’s an existential crisis, and we have to ensure that we don’t have a situation where an election that might be thrown into the House of Representatives is overseen by a Republican majority,” Cheney said.
The process Cheney refers to is a “contingent election.” Under the 12th Amendment, if no candidate earns a majority of 270 delegates during the general election, the House would vote on a president, and the Senate would vote on a vice president — giving the party that holds a majority in one or both chambers a significant advantage.
When asked if she would prefer a Democratic majority in the House in 2025, Cheney drew comparisons to her morals as a Republican and how she thinks the party is behaving now.
“I believe very strongly in those principles and ideals that have defined the Republican Party. But the Republican Party of today has made a choice, and they haven’t chosen the Constitution,” the former congresswoman said. “And so I do think it presents a threat if the Republicans are in the majority in January 2025.”
There will probably be a contingent election in 2025 because RFK will win a lot of electoral votes, but short of 270.
Electoral college. In what state do you think a majority of voters will vote for an independent candidate for President?
The electoral college makes majorities out of pluralities. It’s pretty unlikely that RFK jr can get even one state running as a third party candidate. The last contingent election was in 1837, and that was only for Vice President, because several of Martin Van Buren’s electors split with their party on the VP vote.
Even in 1860, with the Democratic party divided and four serious candidates, the electoral college turned Lincoln’s 40% of the popular vote into a 59% majority in the electoral college. Although Stephen Douglas (northern Democratic Party) got the second highest popular vote, he only won in Missouri, plus getting a 3-4 split in New Jersey. Lincoln wasn’t even on the ballot in 10 slave states, but he won all 18 free states, which was more than half the country.
Huh. As I understand it, voting to certify electoral college votes goes by States — that is, all the reps from California get together and cast one vote while the single rep from Wyoming casts one vote.
Republicans have a strong majority counting that way.
Unless the Speaker can work procedural shenanigans to prevent such a vote from taking place… which is entirely possible.
Not all states. I believe Maine and Iowa(?) have a proportional delegate system. Not saying it’s Constitutional but the courts haven’t prohibited it…..yet.
Damn. Nebraska NOT Iowa
Good riddance. He deserves the boot just for reneging on his commitment to release all of the J6 tapes.
Exactly as predicted. After being exposed as the one tanking all of the Speaker nominees under the belief he could get back in as the ‘compromise’ candidate if he got enough others to publicly fail, he orchestrated the removal of Santos despite the fact that he hasn’t been convicted of anything, just to screw conservatives in a petty tantrum on his way out the door.
I will bet money on the fact that hrs lined up a couple more RINO losers to ‘retire’ and intentionally throw the House to the Democrat.
The fact that this pathetic weasel and Luz Cheney were ever ‘leaders’ of the Republican party demonstrates what a joke the party is.
And note he never took any real action against her
Lemmie just pull the pin on this idea and lob it out there. What if he’s replacing the GOP fundraising chair, Ronna Mcdaniel? She’s proven to be ineffective, he’s been a good fundraiser. All he needs is a simple mea culpa about the J6 tapes and slide right in there, since the district seems to be fairly safe for Republicans. Cash drives campaigns, after all, and he has no end of contacts.
Buh-bye.
“It often seems that the more Washington does, the worse America gets.”
Pretty much describes McCarthy’s career in congress. I am sure he has a job lined up as a commentator for CNN or MSLSD.
There were some people in the comments section who mouthed off in support for this guy when Matt Gaetz put up the vote to have him removed. Tell me, do you still want to mouth off support for this guy? This quitter who said he wasn’t going to quit, and now makes the GOP control of the House even more precarious?
Good riddance to this tool and supporters of his can sod off.
Of course he made millions while he was in office. That’s the way of 99.9% of the politicians.
And it will be interesting what he does afterwards. Bet it’s not to be a small businessman in California