One of the concerns held by conservatives and Republicans — they’re not the same thing — about Kevin McCarthy becoming the GOP leader in the House was that he was too much like one of his predecessors, John Boehner. Unfortunately, his pathetic performance and his Trumpism has proven him to be worse than Boehner.
When he was still “serving” the people of Ohio as a member of Congress, John Boehner was a master at selling out conservative values to Barack Obama’s agenda, and he routinely punished those within his party if they dared to put principles ahead of politics.
Boehner’s capitulating cowardice in favor of Obama and the Democrats became so blatant that a movement began in 2014 to kick his progressive posterior to the curb as House Speaker. The movement was unsuccessful due in large part to the retaliatory threats he leveled against those who dared to vote against his re-election for the job.
When another attempt to dump Boehner as Speaker was launched in the summer of 2015 — led by Mark Meadows before his eventual conversion to Trumpism — Boehner lacked the Republican votes to keep his leadership job but was saved when he picked up the endorsements of Democrats who were concerned that a TEA Party Republican might replace him.
When Boehner eventually resigned as Speaker later in 2015, Republicans settled on Paul Ryan, the man who reminded America of the song “Won’t Get Fooled Again” by The Who — meet the new boss, same as the old boss. However, another John Boehner clone being considered for the job at the time was Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the current “leader” of the Trumpist Republican Party in the House.
McCarthy was rejected in 2015 because he was just like Boehner, and he was his right-hand man when it came time to retaliate against members of the TEA Party and other conservative Republicans. The California congressman was also a volunteer in Boehner’s five-year sellout to Obama’s agenda.
After Democrats slaughtered Republicans in the 2018 midterm, McCarthy blamed conservatives for the party’s losses, and in one of his first actions after getting reelected as party leader, he doled out some political payback against Freedom Caucus members and others who voted against him.
Then-chairman of the Freedom Caucus, Mark Meadows (who voted FOR McCarthy), complained about the minority leader’s retaliatory actions, saying that “removing any member from a committee solely because they voted according to their constituents’ wishes is viewed very poorly by the general public and is the kind of punishment politics that the American people hate.”
Meadows’ complaints would ring hollow, however, after his and the House Freedom Caucus’ complete sellout to Trumpism, a sellout that later earned Meadows a gig working for Trump as his chief of staff.
As the Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy is just like John Boehner, but his Trumpism makes him worse!
In the aftermath of the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Kevin McCarthy spoke on the House floor and blamed Trump for the events of that day:
“The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters. He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding. These facts require immediate action by President Trump, (to) accept his share of responsibility, quell the brewing unrest and ensure President-elect Biden is able to successfully begin his term.”
As you might expect, Lord Trump was displeased with McCarthy’s speech, and that led to several face-to-face meetings between the California congressman and his master. In the end, McCarthy adopted Trump’s talking points about a “stolen” election, and he shifted blame for the insurrection from Trump to Nancy Pelosi.
That’s also when Trump and McCarthy went to work attacking Republicans who refused to worship at the altar of Trumpism, and one of their primary targets became Liz Cheney for her vote to impeach Donald Trump after the insurrection, and for her refusal to promote his “Big Lie” conspiracy theories about how the 2020 election was stolen.
This partnership eventually led to the ouster of Liz Cheney as the #3 Republican in the House.
After McCarthy tried to sabotage the Jan. 6 committee created to investigate the events of that day by trying to appoint a few fellow Trumpists to represent the Republican Party, Nancy Pelosi rejected his nominees and selected Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) to sit on the committee. McCarthy was not pleased.
In comments he made while attending an event recognizing the 31st anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act in the Rose Garden on Monday, McCarthy played his “Trump card” and resorted to name calling by referring to Cheney and Kinzinger as “Pelosi Republicans.”
When asked if he would punish Cheney and Kinzinger for accepting the job of investigating the Jan. 6 riots, McCarthy simply said: “We’ll see.”
Kevin McCarthy’s current batch of Trumpist henchmen may already be working on their punishment, including an attempt to “shun” the two rebel Republicans out of the party (via Washington Examiner):
Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs brought up a resolution during a House Republican conference meeting on Tuesday to expel immediately from the conference any person who sits on a committee that they were not appointed to by the Republican leader or the House Republican steering committee.
“The reality is, they’re now basically working with and for the Democrats, and so it’d be awkward for them to be sitting in our committee while we talk about policy, put, you know, strategy and how to stop bad policy from the Democrats and advance good policy from us. It’d be really awkward,” Biggs told the Washington Examiner.
For the record, Biggs was one of the Republicans McCarthy retaliated against for voting against him as Speaker in 2019. Weird, huh?
Kevin McCarthy’s track record as the Republican Party “leader” shows us that he’s just like John Boehner, but his track record in the Age of Trump and Trumpism shows us that he’s much, much worse!
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.
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