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Kevin McCarthy

Legitimate Political Discourse Anniversary

January 9, 2023
by Peter Feinman
Legitimate Political Discourse in Brazil (Reuters)

Two years ago, a group of patriots engaged in legitimate political discourse in the House chambers of the United States Capitol. They did so as part of an effort on behalf of President Donald Trump to steal the election. Ultimately their quest failed and many of them have been indicted and found guilty for that effort…. excluding the leaders who have not been held accountable.

Both realities recently were on display sometimes in split screen. On one side, the supporters of the legitimate political discourse were conducting their own anniversary commemoration by engaging in an historic Circus series of votes; on the other side, the people who put their lives on the line to defend the Capitol at the first legitimate political discourse were being honored with Presidential medals for their efforts. It is easy to imagine that split screen image as teaching tool in American history, politics, or civics classes.

Most of the public attention until now has been directed towards the criminal activity of the people engaged in legitimate political discourse on January 6, 2021. Less attention has been paid to the Representatives who subsequently returned to the House chambers and continued with the certification of the vote for Joe Biden for President. Now Republican Representatives decided to remind American people that January 6 is not only about the insurrectionists who stormed the Capital and were engaged in legitimate political discourse. It is also about the members of the House who planned, organized, and abetted those insurrectionists. They chose to do so through the mechanism of the election of the Speaker of the House. It turned out to be an historic 15-round match with Captain Chaos before order was achieved.

The actions of the Republicans in the thrilla in the Capitol Circus has now concluded. It is a part of American history, a part that is likely to make the history books for all the wrong reasons. All that was missing was actual fisticuffs although that came close to happening … and within the Republican Party itself!

What are the lessons to be learned from the legitimate political discourse by the Republican Representatives on the second anniversary of legitimate political discourse by the insurrections two years ago?

POLITICS MAKES FOR STRANGE BEDFELLOWS

 The people involved in this unusual gift to We the People on legitimate political discourse are an unusual group themselves. Below is a survey of some of them.

Matt Gaetz House frat boy – First the frat boy had been a Florida Bushite. Then he became a Trumpican. Then he went on tour with a more flamboyant and well-known Trumpican. Finally with the election of the Speaker of the House, he became the center of attention, exactly where he wants to be. He was able to get everything he wanted by dragging the process out for 15 rounds, everything except for a pardon.

His actions infuriated other Republicans, one of whom had to be restrained live on TV from physically punching him. That escapade, too, is likely to become another teaching tool for the generation raised in video games. These other Republicans who endured the 15-round event including being forced to return to the Capitol when personal and medical reasons drew them away are not likely to forget the antics of the House frat boy. It is too early to say what the ramifications of those antics will be.

Dueling Morons – Two of the dumbest Republicans in the House were on opposite sides of the Speaker vote. Apparently one thought if there was no Speaker then therefore was no House in session therefore the Federal Government had been shut down therefore she was reducing spending. This is the mindset that will be on full display when negotiations over the budget spending limits commence.

By contrast, the previously outcast moron was front and center in the effort to elect Kevin McCarthy speaker. She knows it is better to have a speaker she can dominate than to have no speaker at all. As proof of her bonafides she waived around her cell phone with the initials “DT” on it. She is no longer in the doghouse. Instead she will have a seat at the table and help call the shots.

Insurrection Organizers – At least two of the organizers of the January 6 insurrection in 2021 and who have declined to respond to House subpoenas also figured in the vote in 2023. Don’t you love hearing about accountability and transparency from them? Imagine what happens when the DOJ finally gets around to investigating the ring-leaders of the insurrection instead of just the low-hanging foot-soldiers.

In fact, dozens of people who voted on January 6, 2021, in support of the effort by Donald Trump to steal the election, participated in the very same room on January 6, 2023, to elect a Speaker. The very moment they were fleeing the legitimate political discourse two years ago, now was the time they were voting for a new Speaker so they could be sworn into office. What did they intend to do once in office? Launch an investigation into the very people who had investigated that event on the House Select Committee.

All America has watched the Clown Caucus in action. Even Foxhub has had difficulty containing itself. If first impressions are the ones that are imprinted on the voting public, then what are the ones that the American voting public will remember from this Republican Circus? And to top it off, the Republicans went through all this to immediately launch a witch hunt against Hunter Biden, obviously the number one issue for Americans today.

 

Officially, the Circus in now in town for two years. One can’t help but be impressed by the sustained and calm unity maintained by the Democrats during this fiasco while the Republicans made fools of themselves. As the minority Party it is easy to imagine it maintaining such unity throughout this Congressional session. The Democrats will be able to present themselves as Team Normal while the Republicans continue to engage in legitimate political discourse as the laughing-stock party.

Is America Ready for a Three Party System?

December 5, 2022
by Peter Feinman
Illustration by Greg Groesch/The Washington Times

The unsung 1824 Bicentennial is fast upon us. Soon it will be only a year away. The year has been a personal favorite of mine. It has been the subject of blogs since 2016.

The year marks the transition from the First Party System to the Second Party System. It was the end of the Virginian-dominated American Revolution era and start of the Jacksonian dominated one. The Federalists and the Republicans were out and the Whigs and Democrats would be in. The new system would last until the demise of the Whigs and the emergence of the Republicans under Lincoln. It also was a time of Senate giants like Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and Daniel Webster.

Putting aside all the talk about the Civil War today, the squabbling over the Speaker position in the House of Representatives suggests we may be in for a de facto three party system in the next session of Congress.

THREE-PARTY SYSTEM 

America is not designed for a three-party system. In Europe and Israel, multiple parties are par for the course. After every election, the jockeying for power begins by the various parties. Which one can form majority? That is not the American way where the two-party system is sacred.

Until now. Right now the House of Representatives beginning in January is divided into three groups:

213 Democrats
182 Republicans
40  Freedom Party.

No one of the groups has the magic 218 votes needed to form a majority and elect a speaker. There has been talk of multiple ballots in an unprecedented situation. Perhaps Kevin McCarthy will deal for the position he has coveted. Perhaps he will drop out when he realizes he cannot win and a host of new candidates will emerge. Perhaps cross-party deals will be made. We are in uncharted waters.

SUPPOSE MCCARTHY WINS

Suppose McCarthy wins, then what? Even if he can cobble together a winning coalition with 4 votes to spare, that will not be the end of his problems in holding together the Republicans and the Freedom Party.

Every subsequent vote will be a battle for him. There already is a 21 member faction that has openly expressed its displeasure with the Freedom Party shenanigans and its extreme agenda. Many Republicans ran on a platform of getting things done including reaching across the aisle. If you were elected in 2022 from a Congressional District that Joe Biden won in 2020, you don’t want to face the voters in 2024 with nothing to show except you shut down the government.

Consider the issues important to the voters as identified in surveys versus the ones propounded by the Freedom Party. Voters are concerned about jobs, inflation, the economy and the threat to democracy. By contrast the Freedom Party agenda consists of:

Relitigating the 2020 election
Investigating Hunter Biden
Investigating the House Select Committee
Impeaching Joe Biden.

None of these issues are on the radar of the Real Republicans. So if McCarthy does win the speaker vote, he is still going to have to deal with the agenda of Freedom Party which has limited support beyond its own Party. On the other hand, there will be plenty of real Republicans ready to deal with the issues Americans actually care about and willing to vote in a bipartisan manner. McCarthy will be walking a land mine field each and every vote.

THE INSURRECTION AND THE FREEDOM PARTY

Simultaneously, McCarthy is going to be forced to deal with the legal challenges to members of the Freedom Party. The House Select Committee may refer ethic charges be filed against the Representatives who did not comply its subpoenas. It may request the current House in its last few days ask the Department of Justice to pursue indictments against the January 6 conspirators who have refused to testify. The various options and scenarios still are to be played out. Suffice it to say some of the most vocal people in the Freedom Party are likely to be questioned by the DOJ at some point in the future about their role in the insurrection.

There is a human element in the insurrection that so far has been overlooked. The President of the United States was supposed to arrive at the Capitol Building and lead his followers both armed and unarmed into the House chambers. When Steve Bannon broadcasted to his listeners to strap in because what was going happen was not what they expected, he knew what had been decided. Roger Stone knew what had been decided in the War Room. Some Congressional Representatives knew what had been decided in the War Room, too. None of them have testified to the DOJ so far.

This means at some point the plan did not go as expected. The Secret Service declined to drive to the Capitol. No matter how vigorously the President objected, they returned to the White House and did not succumb to his wishes.

The question then to be asked is when did the co-conspirators in the House chambers realize the plan had failed and what did they do then? According to the War Room plans, the President of the United States was to lead his people into Chambers and intimidate the Vice President into disqualifying the vote of the states with the fake electors. The President was to force a delay in the certification until all the disputed votes could be resolved.

Instead there was a leaderless mob roaming the halls and offices of Congress seeking to hang Nancy Pelosi. That was not part of the War Room plan. The result of the collapse of the plan due to the failure of the President to lead his people into the House chambers was that the members of Congress had to scramble for their lives. Run Josh Run!

We have yet to hear the testimony what the War Room plan known to Steve Bannon was or how the congressional co-conspirators learned that it had failed and they were on their own now.  So while Jim Jordan may initiate an investigation of the House Select Committee, he and the other congressional co-conspirators (and Mark Meadows among others) will be called to testify about their own role in the January 6 insurrection. This is why Mar-a-Largogate will be prosecuted first. It is a more straightforward case whereas there still are many people to be subpoenaed by the DOJ before the full story is known.

DONALD TRUMP: OVERTHROW THE CONSTITUTION

In the meantime, the chief conspirator will be giving his rather astonishing marching orders to the new Speaker.

So now it comes out, conclusively, that the FBI BURIED THE HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP STORY BEFORE THE ELECTION knowing that, if they didn’t, “Trump would have easily won the 2020 Presidential Election.” This is massive FRAUD & ELECTION INTERFERENCE at a level never seen before in our Country. Remedy: Declare the rightful winner or, this would be the minimal solution, declare the 2020 Election irreparably compromised and have a new Election, immediately! (8/29/22)

Do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION? A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great ‘Founders’ did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections! (12/3/22)

While McCarthy is trying to bring order to his unruly House, the Loser will be continually fanning flames. Besides his partnering with anti-Semitic racists, he is continuing to up the stakes. The immature child with the emotional maturity of a three-year old has elevated his ranting and ravings to new levels. The person who has shown no loyalty to the Constitution when it prevented him from playing his game of “I am the President. Your loyalty is to me,” has called for the scrapping of the very document he swore to uphold.

Despite all the machinations of Pillow Head and Séance Sidney, he was not restored to the White House in 2021 nor is he going to be in 2022. He may even have doubts about 2024 now. Why he thinks a do-over election would be favorable to him is a mystery given the results of the recent election. Or in lieu of a new election, who is going to throw out the results of the 2020 election as he tried to do January 6 and declare him the winner? Is that what he expected the Vice President to do on January 6? Will he so testify under oath to the DOJ? Does he expect the new Speaker do so now?

Team Normal Republicans did not run on an agenda of overthrowing the Constitution. Even the Freedom Party pledges loyalty to it provided it is interpreted correctly. Meanwhile the Loser will ratchet up the expectations of what he wants his Speaker to do. He will do so secure in the belief that his base will never abandon him and is of sufficient size to prevent anyone else from grabbing the nomination. The more desperate he becomes, the far-fetched his texts will become and the more Speaker McCarthy will have to walk a fine line. As of this writing he remains silent about the head of his Party calling for the overthrow of the Constitution. Democrats are sure to ask him where he stands on this issue. In other words, even if McCarthy wins the battle to become Speaker, his problems are only just beginning.

Jim Jordan Does Not Have the Courage of His Convictions

April 30, 2022
by Peter Feinman
"I don't think about things I don't think about" Questioning Marjorie Taylor Greene under oath

Jim Jordan does not have the courage of his convictions. Nor do any of the conspirators who sought to steal the 2020 presidential election, overthrow the government, and replace the Constitution with the rule of Trump. Even now we are still learning new information about how extensive the conspiracy was in the White House, the House of Representatives, the Senate, the media, and the family of the loser President. Who knows how much more we will learn before the House Select Committee begins to tell the story in public sessions in June?

JOHN HANCOCK VERSUS JIM JORDAN

One of the iconic legacies of the American Revolution is the signing of the Declaration of Independence by John Hancock. He was the first person to sign. He did not merely sign the document, he signed in large “font” so there would be no doubt. His bold action immortalized him in American culture. “Put your John Hancock here” became a way of asking someone to sign a document the way he had when what was becoming the United States declared its independence from Great Britain. King George III had no doubt what the Americans had done.

Let us imagine for a moment that Jim Jordan or any of the conspirators had the courage of their convictions … assuming they had any convictions beyond “winning isn’t the only thing, it’s everything.” Suppose Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, or Jim Jordan was to say something like:

“The election was stolen. We have mountains of evidence to prove that the election was stolen. We have not had the opportunity to present the mountains of evidence to Congress which has been collected in Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the election was stolen.”

Then just as the Declaration itemizes 27 charges against King George III, the conspirators would produce a report that:

1. names the names of the people who voted multiple times
2. names the names of the people who voted for dead people
3. names the names of the people who voted in districts not their own
4. names the names of the people who voted who were not American citizens or eligible to vote
5. names the election workers who counted Biden votes more than once
6. names the election workers who did not count Trump voters
7. names the voting machine companies who rigged the counting process
8. names the countries of foreign entities which manipulated the vote.

Strangely enough, the conspirators have produced no such document. They have had every opportunity on their own to produce a report document. So far only Pillowhead has done so when he revealed the secret computer code that had been used. Of course, he is being sued for everything he’s got.

At this point it is safe to say that none of the conspirators will proudly state what they did in an attempt to save the country.

WHAT HAVE THE GUTLESS COWARDS DONE?

Instead of having the courage of their convictions, what have the conspirators done instead?

Jim Jordan – By now the videos of him responding to questions about his phone calls to the President have made him a laughingstock. On more than one occasion, he has been asked about the phone calls he made on January 6. His responses have been compiled and show him as a person with something to hide and not doing a good job doing it. It is no wonder he has the nickname Gutless Jim Jordan. When you hear the word “gutless,” think Jim Jordan.

Kevin McCarthy – The last week or so has not been kind to the would-be Speaker of the House. He already has been ridiculed for the comparison of what he said in the House of Representatives just after the failed insurrection attempt that threatened his own life and him kissing the ring of his master in Florida days later. It has been known that he was on the phone with the President as the assault was occurring. Now we have the record of what he was saying to his fellow Republican House leaders as well. These conversations included Liz Chaney back when he was in agreement with her and wondering how to implement the 25th Amendment to remove the President from office.

Truth be told, I cannot help but wonder if The New York Times set him up for the kill. First it released the claim of what McCarthy said. Second it allowed him time to refute the accusations. Third, it released the tape exposing him as a liar. Now he has been revealed in a double dose of seditious dishonesty. The result has been the charge that he is a traitor and a liar. So when you hear him referred to as Kevin McLiar, you know exactly who is meant and why.

Marjorie Taylor Greene – No review of the Trump contortionists would be complete without reference to the Representative already renowned before being an airhead. Under oath, she claimed not to remember almost as many times as Roger Stone pleaded the Fifth. She does not even remember when her life was on the line and she was pleading not the Fifth but for help!

In response to her testimony, I could not help but think of one of the great court room exchanges in cinematic history based on real court testimony. In Inherit the Wind, Clarence Darrow is questioning three-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan on his expertise on the Bible. During the exchange about the lack of any priests to officiate at the marriages of the pre-Flood patriarchs (Gen. 5), Darrow exposes that Bryan does not have an answer for the questions he is posing. The following exchange ensues:

Matthew Harrison Brady (Bryan):
I do not think about things I do not think about.

Henry Drummond (Darrow):
Do you ever think about things that you do think about?

The audience laughs at the nonsense their former hero for what he has just said. I have always assumed that no one other than Bryan himself could ever say something so stupid under oath. I underestimated the airhead mind. For a member of Congress to fake having Alzheimer is something no one could have anticipated. Instead of being Marjorie Taylor Airhead, she has become Marjorie Taylor Alzheimer.

The willingness of members of the House of Representatives to twist themselves into knots on behalf of their Lord and Savior is staggering to behold. Undoubtedly there is more to come.

On The Morning Joe Show, they like to talk about how Trump is a loser. They like to talk about how he lost the presidency, the Senate, and the House, a rare trifecta of defeat in America politics. They like to talk about how the Loser especially contributed to the loss of two Republican Senate seats in Georgia thereby giving the Democrats the majority in the Senate. They also like to talk about the poll results in that state. The loser of one of those Senate races and handpicked candidate by the Loser Kingmaker for the governor’s race on the issue of the stolen election is being trounced.

What you do not hear being talked about on The Morning Joe Show is that McLiar, Gutless, and Alzheimer will be running the House of Representatives in just eight months.

Kevin McCarthy and the Anti-VAXXer Who Gets COVID

February 2, 2022
by Peter Feinman
Shredding Government Documents (http://lewisperdue.com/archives/4052)

People who make non-medical decisions to not be vaccinated do so for many reasons. Some reasons may be legitimate from a fear of needles to a fear that the vaccine was rushed. Some may even be theological-based. There is also a longstanding American tradition of people who do not like being told what to do (Would the Dukes of Hazzard Be Vaccinated?). Perhaps that contributes to the country having such a poor record of vaccinations on the global level compared to other industrial countries.

But in this situation, there also are people who refuse to be vaccinated for political reasons. To be vaccinated is to accept the decree of the illegitimate President and they would rather die than do that. Sometimes the decision backfires. When media-prominent people die from COVID, the response may be one of great glee and truly nasty comments rained down upon that individual’s website. The schadenfreude is off the Richter scale!

Fortunately for the people who play Russian roulette with their lives, COVID is not that lethal compared to smallpox or bubonic plague. As a result, not being vaccinated can be a reasonable gamble. In addition, there are people with limited mental necessities who survive a mild case of COVID and then declare that it is no worse than the flu.

And then there is Kevin McCarthy’s decision not to have any Republicans on the House Select Committee investigating the attempted coup on January 6, 2021. The way things look right now, McCarthy is looking more and more like the anti-VAXXer who gets COVID and dies a painful death.

DELAY, DELAY, DELAY

The standard Trumpian playbook calls for delay, delay, delay, delay. Everyone knows about the Election Day deadline for the House Select Committee to complete its report before being disbanded by a future Trumpican House majority. That deadline was no secret. Therefore as one should reasonably have expected, the Committee will issue reports prior to that date. It will name names, identify crimes, and recommend action by the Department of Justice.

McCarthy had the opportunity to delay that report. The best way to have forestalled that scenario was to disrupt the proceedings of the Committee. By now we have all witnessed the defiant actions of people who are going to be named as conspirators despite their lack of cooperation. We can see that the people who have chosen not to comply with subpoenas or who have taken the 5th on virtually every single question have not succeeded in removing themselves from designation as conspirators. All they are really doing is admitting their guilt that they have something criminal to hide.

We know this because of the mountain of evidence which has been collected by the Committee. We know this from the hundreds of people who have been interviewed including from the office of the Vice President. We this from the troves of data which has been accumulated from those people, the recalcitrant Mark Meadows, and the National Archives. And McCarthy proudly declared he would nothing to prevent that accumulation of data.

For those of us who remember the great fuss over the acid-washed servers, the torn documents delivered to the National Archives from the President of the United States are both déjà vu and a possible criminal charge. Remember the shredded document scenes from the movie Argo?

In the movie, we watch breathlessly as the Islamic militants painstakingly sift through the piles of shredded paper. We do so because as the shreds are meticulously pieced together in the attempt to identify the American embassy staff who are fleeing Iran by air. The shifting scenes Hollywood-fashion leads to a final chase scene where naturally the plane takes off just in the nick of time as our hearts slowly return to their normal level of beating. It turns out the shredding incident was based on a Washington shredding incident and a book on the actual Washington scandal appeared as background in the movie.

The point of this rumination is to note that McCarthy chose not to be a disruptive force in the gathering of evidence to charge the Hitman with sedition. When the movie of the Committee’s work is made, there will be a scene of McCarthy self-righteously refusing to participate in the sham investigation witch hunt only to have the decision backfire on him. Think of how smoothly, harmoniously, and effectively the Committee has been able to work together devoid of any Trumpican interference. Thank you Kevin McCarthy.

THE JANUARY 6 TV SHOW

Because McCarthy forsook the opportunity to delay the work of the Committee, he instead will be treated to what is sure to be a blockbuster spring TV series. The show “How the Hitman Tried to Steal the Election and Overthrow the Constitution” will be riveting TV. It may even draw Rachel Maddow back from her hiatus. What cable news reporter not on Foxhub is going to want to miss the story of the millennium so far since 9/11?

Speaking of Foxhub, think of the cognitive dissonance the Trumpican viewers will experience if they dare to watch the hearings. Unless they have been watching CNN or MSNBC on the sly or reading The New York Times or Washington Post in secret, they have no idea of what the Committee has been doing. They may know all about Steve Bannon, Mark Meadows, Roger Stone and other lesser lights heroically resisting the House Select Committee just as they have been heroically resisting wearing a mask or being vaccinated. However, they are clueless about what has been happening.

Suddenly, live on TV day after day and night after day, there will be testimony documenting the Hitman’s attempt to steal the election and overthrow the Constitution. The evidence will come from Republicans. It will be Republican testimony, Republican texts, Republican emails, and Republican memos that will be on display. It will be shredded Trump documents, Trump family members, and the Hitman himself who will provide the evidence that will be shown to the country.

For people who have not been following the events, the TV shows will be shocking. I first wrote about political thrillers on January 3, 2021. Now we will see one not as a movie but live on TV. Thank you Kevin McCarthy.

OVERTURN THE ELECTION

One of the recurring comments made during the impeachments was that he should not be allowed to take the stand. His lawyers strenuously resisted his insistence that he wanted to testify. His vaunted negotiating skills that would save him under oath were exposed as bull-trump when his own lawyers questioned him in a mock session. For a person incapable of telling the truth except by chance, testifying live would be a nightmare. We have all seen how he walked away from the White House press corps when he could not handle the question. Imagine the setting where he does not have that option, where he will be held in contempt and possibly thrown in jail if he does.

Now we have seen in Texas how he can be the gift the keeps giving to the House Select Committee. No one expected that at a professional political wrestling arena campaign event, he would on his own accord and without any provocation openly acknowledge that he had tried to overturn the election. He still is mad at his Vice President for not doing so. How many times will those words come back to haunt him? Who knows what he will say next?

His throwing of Lindsay Graham under the bus is a sign of things to come. Yes, all the conspirators now expect to be pardoned if convicted and if he runs and if he is re-elected. They make take that gamble just as people do when they refuse to be vaccinated, just as Kevin McCarthy did when he refused to allow Republicans to disrupt the proceedings of the Committee. Do you think there will be any schadenfreude when the political grim reaper comes calling for them then?

What do Pence and McCarthy Have to Show for Selling their Souls?

November 22, 2021
by Peter Feinman
Soul-Selling in America

Selling one’s soul is a big deal. I am not referring to someone who is the spawn of Satan but to human beings who choose to sell their souls in return for some tangible benefit. After all, everything is transactional.

A classic expression of soul-selling in American mythology occurred in the short story “The Devil and Daniel Webster.” It is 20th century story with a 19th century figure and the values of the Puritan 17th century. It claims that all is not lost for a person who sells his soul. Even with a jury stacked with the world’s greatest collection of evil people, the great champion of oratory and the forceful power of reason can triumph over Satan and regain the soul that had been sold to him.

What about for Never-Will-Be-President Mike Pence and Never-Will-Be-Speaker Kevin McCarthy?

MIKE PENCE

For a long time, Mike Pence was the posterboy for soul-sellers. He publicly and repeatedly voiced his joyous acceptance of his actions. His exuberant cabinet-meeting declaration that he was grateful to share the same space-time continuum with his Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed Be his Name, Say Hallelujah will become part of American lore. People will be laughing at his abject expression of soul-selling for years to come.

Except is not always a laughing matter. Think of how many Americans are dead because we had an immature, inept, incompetent President when we needed an adult. Time and time again, Pence has had the opportunity to rise to the occasion and be the profile in courage the country needs. Time and time again, he has failed to do so. Possibly on 1/6 he acted responsibility but it was because he had no other choice. He knew the plan to have the Vice President steal the election would not work. If he had had any doubts he would have implemented it.

Never-Will-Be-President Pence will have one last chance to redeem himself. In this context, he would have to be his own Daniel Webster. At some point he may be asked to testify on two different events: the January 6 insurrection and the management of the Covid pandemic. What will he do then?

Based on precedent there is little reason to expected him to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth in either investigations. However if defying a subpoena means jail time even for a short interval, that fear might be enough to get him to appear. Such an appearance does not mean he would answer any questions in any meaningful way.

My position consistently stated over multiple blogs is that Never-Will-Be-President Pence never will rise to the occasion. His conduct since leaving office suggests he still thinks he has some sort of future in the Trumpican Party. It has yet to sink in to him that his only appearance at the 2024 Trumpican Party convention will be to be hanged in effigy. I do not know what it will take to get through to him that he has been thrown under the bus. There would seem to be no friends or family who can make him realize that he sold his soul for nothing.

KEVIN MCCARTHY

The situation for Never-will-be-Speaker McCarthy is slightly different. Pence did not get on the Trump List until the waning days of his Vice Presidency. His failure by being weak on 1/6 doomed him to be placed on the Trump List where he will remain forever. McCarthy joined him on the list shortly afterwards for his own conduct once the insurrection had started. He compounded his failure expressed in the phone call with a public expression of where he thought the fault for the insurrection belonged. He has been on the Trump List ever since.

Unlike Never-will-be-President Pence, Never-will-be-Speaker McCarthy is aware that he is on the Trump List. The embarrassment occurs in watching him try to remove himself from it. He is deluded and desperate enough to think that if he goes to Mar-a-Lago enough times and kisses whatever he has to, that his Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed Be his Name, Say Hallelujah will restore him to glory as a worthy soul-seller. He is so deluded and desperate that he even tortured America for more than 8 hours in a performance that will be contrasted with Jimmy Stewart for years to come.

The difference with Never-will-be-President Pence is that Never-will-be-Speaker McCarthy knows who his replacement will be. Marjorie Taylor Greene already has been designated as an upcoming star in the Republican Party. Since she is a true-believer she did not need to sell her soul. So even if the next speaker is not her, it will be someone with her blessing. As things stand now, she will continue to be the face of the Trumpican Party in the House of Representatives after the 2022 elections.

What will Never-will-be-Speaker McCarthy do when it is his turn to rise to the occasion and tell the truth? Gradually the list of subpoenaed people by the 1/6 Committee is working itself up the food chain. Will he defy the subpoena to testify and turn over documents to the House committee? Will he embrace the opportunity to go to prison as Bannon has? Will he jeopardize his own House seat by telling the truth? It will be too late to primary him at that point.

No one knows for sure what Never-will-be-Speaker McCarthy will do then. He well may realize that he has been thrown under the bus and has no future in the Trumpican Party. He may not be as delusional as Never-will-be-President Pence. So while I would not hold my breath that when the moment of truth comes that Never-will-be-Speaker McCarthy will be the profile in courage the country needs, it is more of a possibility then with Never-will-be-President Pence. We shall see.

DO REAL REPUBLICANS WANT TRUMP TO BE INDICTED?

Ironically, the House report issued late spring may provide the Brutus/Howard Baker moment so many people have been waiting for. The election in Virginia has shown the way to a post-Trump future. The refusal of some Republican governors to run for the Senate has exposed the difference between governors and representatives. Trumpicans are willing to be the party of potholes, the party of dilapidated bridges, and the party of tainted water; Republican governors are not. Legislators such as in Wisconsin are willing to continually relitigate the 2020 election; Republican governors are not. The January 6 report documenting the Hitman’s attempt to steal the election and overthrow the Constitution may be a bridge too far for the Republican governors to take…especially as the Hitman continues to seek to depose Republican governors who were not loyal to him.  At some point someone is going to say “enough is enough. We have more to gain by facing the future than by being trapped in the past with a traitor.” We shall see.