Throwing red meat to fanged terriers

Embattled Speaker McCarthy suggests we not underestimate him; You find it hard to estimate him less than you already do

Springing from his attempts to mollify the likes of Fla. Rep. Matt “Where’s Nestor?” Gaetz, U.S. Speaker of the House Kevin “Mr. 15 Times” (OK, I’m all out of names to call) McCarthy recently launched an impeachment inquiry into Pres. Joe Biden, because that’s what Where’s Nestor (I suppose I’m not, in fact, done calling names) and his fellows wanted.

Tellingly (and as of this writing), TFG is not weighing in on the inquiry, which is a gross departure of (a lack of) character for him.

Then, too, TFG appears to be pretty dedicated to saving his own hide, so let’s move on.

None of this should be a surprise. McCarthy became Speaker of the House based on promises he made to some of the more rabid members of his caucus. It’s the tyranny of the minority, as authors Stephen Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt write in their new book of the same name. (They also wrote the book, “How Democracies Die.” I’m reading the former, and highly recommend the latter.) According to “Tyranny,” any one dedicated to democracy must adhere to three principles (from the above link):

To be a party committed to democracy, you have to do three very simple things. Number one, you have to accept election losses, win or lose. Number two, you have to not use violence to gain or to hold onto power. And then, number three, most critically, in some sense, for mainstream political parties is, you have to distance yourself and be explicit and open about condemning anybody who's an ally of your party that commits any of those first two types of acts.

About that caucus:

One was recently booted from a theater because she misbehaved (groped her seat mate, vaped), and then she lied about it. She has since apologized, sort-of. This is not the entirety of her questionable behavior — only the most recent example of it — but let’s stay focused on her acts of sedition.

One claimed 2020 presidential election fraud and then he began arguing against it. But let’s stay focused on his obstructionism.

One ignored complaints of sexual abuse made by college students who were in his care. But let’s stay focused on his disdain for the Constitution.

One has been caught lying about her past — well, more than one has been accused of that, but let’s stay focused on her tit-for-tat politics with nary a policy discussion to be had.

The siblings of one still dislike his politics. He hit back as one would expect, but let’s stay focused on his inability to think or legislate, but instead spends his time in the spotlight taking pot-shots that land nowhere.

So these are the people to whom Speaker McCarthy owes allegiance. These are the big hammers in the party, and these are the people who will continue to shred our political landscape until 1) their constituents decline to send them back to the seat of power, or 2) they get caught in their own turpitude. May either of those events happen soon and I am perfectly happy if it happens all at once, for all of them.