SMRs and AMRs

Thursday, October 08, 2015

Kevin McCarthy falls to a conservative coup

By Dana Milbank Opinion writer October 8 at 7:24 PM, WashPost

The chaos on Capitol Hill would be entertaining if the consequences weren’t so serious.

The speaker of the House is second in line to the presidency, and since the founding of the Republic the position has been one of the most important in government, key to national security and domestic tranquility.

Now a band of about three dozen conservative hardliners, exploiting the partisan divide, has essentially hijacked the chamber, reducing the speaker’s role to that of a figurehead subservient to their wishes.

This isn’t a leadership battle; it’s a coup.

The real question, then, is not why Kevin McCarthy withdrew from the race. It is why anybody would want the thankless job in the first place.

John Boehner, after finally getting the prize he desired, spent the next 4-1/2 years in misery, perpetually badmouthed and badgered by the “Freedom Caucus” and other conservative malcontents. When he finally announced his retirement last month, he did it singing “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah.”

(More here.)

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