Only in the Republican Party could the losers — the hardest of the hard right; the faction almost universally rejected in the 2022 midterms — take control of the institution, dictate its future, and unilaterally set a course for national devastation.
Said Rep. Kat Cammack of Florida: "Are we going to be the party of the radical 2 percent? Because that’s what it comes down to, the 2 percent that are being the most vocal" — as well as the most powerful, notwithstanding their thrashing in November.
Ms. Cammack was a bit off statistically. The incorrigibale 2 percent are actually the intransigent 10 percent; 20 overcaffeinated members of the GOP's House majority of 222 are being immensely loud and reprehensibly unbearable, which is both a joy to watch and a frightful portent to ponder.
The radicals detest Kevin McCarthy, which in itself is nothing to decry. But their immovable detestation of the probable next speaker suggests they'll be just as immovable when the government requires its debt ceiling to be lifted, spending bills to be passed, and other basics of running the country to be accomplished.
What then? As the NY Times' Carl Husle rightly notes in a news analysis: "Their agenda is mostly to defund, disrupt and dismantle government, not to participate in it." Speaker McCarthy or some other poor schumck of a House leader will confront an implacable, ungovernable Gang of 20 when presenting any essential measure.
A kind of organized anarchy will result. High-calibre crackpots who for years have dreamed of bringing down the government — they nearly succeeded 24 months ago — and establishing star chambers in its place will also have the last, deranged say in august affairs of the state.
The GOP's fresh voices of lucidity now include ... Marjorie Taylor Greene. "[Twenty] Republicans voting against McCarthy are playing Russian roulette with our hard-earned Republican majority right now,” she wrote on Twitter.
Among the 20 is Florida's Anna Paulina Luna, a freshman congresswoman who, while battling Mr. McCarthy, is taking legal action against onetime potential primary opponent Michael Tito, who said on "The Bubba the Love Sponge" radio show last fall that she slept with Rep. Matt Gaetz and practices witchcraft. "She puts spells on people," said Tito. Luna, in turn, once claimed her accuser conspired to kill her.
Such is a class, quality and general background of the Gang of 20. To another member — Michael Cloud, of the Freedom Caucus and Texas — hardcore conservative and fellow Texan Dan Crenshaw "demanded to know why Freedom Caucus members are considered more conservative than him," reports The Washington Post."I’m not f---ing joking!" yelled Crenshaw, who had had enough of the anti-McCarthyites who preen about their singular purity.
Said Republican strategist John Feehery: "The rebels just don’t like McCarthy." And "they lack a legislative maturity to understand it can’t be personal," he added. But personal it is, because the Freedom Caucusers are children. "[McCarthy] has 90 percent of the House Republican support. That is a slam-dunk nomination for any position," said Rep. Patrick McHenry.
Still, 90 percent of 222 is desperaely short of 218 — as 90 percent will be when it comes to future, absolutely requite legislation, again, such as raising the debt ceiling. Voting on these necessary measures will be an accused witch who suspects homicidal plots against her and adolescent "conservative" grandstanders who see neofascistic anarchy as the GOP's apotheosis.
They want chaos, they're crazy and they are in charge of the United States House of Representatives. The only House member crazier they they is Kevin McCarthy for wanting to drive this herd of stampeding lunatics, and the only people in more trouble than McCarthy are 330 million Americans.