The Wall Street Journal: "House Speaker Kevin McCarthy faced a direct threat to his leadership ... as his most prominent Republican critic said he would seek to oust him from the post....
McCarthy, having gotten Democrats to support after Democrats saved his hide by supporting his short-term funding bill, may need their help again to remain in his post."
"'Bring it on,' McCarthy said Sunday on CBS, predicting he would survive the challenge from Gaetz. 'If he’s upset because he tried to push us in a shutdown and I" — again, make that "Democrats" — "made sure government didn’t shut down, then let’s have that fight.'"
Gaetz countered that blow with what was, for him, a singular haymaker of truth: "The one thing everybody has in common is that nobody trusts Kevin McCarthy."
Still, McCarthy has one bigly thing going for him. In all of Washington, D.C. and its accompanying 50 states, only one person is more incompetent than Kevin McCarthy — and usefully for Kevin, it's Matt Gaetz.
To retain his job, such as it is, McCarthy will need 218 favorable votes. I may be wrong but I have no doubt that some — just enough — Democrats will cross over to vote for the always grateful speaker.
In part, it's a "Devil you know" kind of thing. The other part is that for Democrats it's better to have a proven, inveterate botcher and blunderer in the opposition's speaker's chair than a Republican Nancy Pelosi or Sam Rayburn. (Thankfully, one doesn't exist; hasn't since "Uncle Joe" Cannon.)
So Kevin can be sort of cocky. The Democrats have his back, not to worry.
In my previous post I urged the Dems not to help him again. But the act of McCarthy-preservation helps them, not him. Indeed it's rather sadistic. With Democrats' help, Kevin willl have to go on suffering his Matt Gaetzes.