I’ve been thinking a lot about this. Apparently, McCarthy on the Sunday shows blaming democrats for the near shut down and insistence he would give the dems nothing was his end. I think the dems basically decided that having McCarthy in place didn’t make funding the government any more likely and he’s been an untrustworthy partner. I suspect if they thought the senate bills and original debt ceiling limit had any chance with him there and he’d be willing to work with democratic votes to get that done, he would have sailed through.

@manton McCarthy pushed to give Democrats more of a say in the legislative process, though.

It’s not about saving McCarthy. It’s about deciding whether they want to have a functioning legislative chamber, and the Democrats decided against it.

Whether that’s good or bad is up to the voter, but they need to hold their representatives accountable for that decision.

@manton Seems like one of those “what’s the end game?” questions. What good would saving him do anyway? It’s not clear to me that there’d be any deals to be made that wouldn’t just enable more right-wing nonsense.

I wonder if he even wants to be saved all that bad anyway. Nothing about trying to wrangle those nuts seems gratifying.

@manton I thought the same thing. Perhaps they think there’s a chance they can get someone more moderate if they need Dem votes to pick a new speaker?

It does feel that way! But honestly I think the Democrats view it as a one-step-back-to-take-two-steps-forward situation. The concessions McCarthy made to the far right were untenable and so allowing this chaos now will hopefully lead to more stability in the future

@manton I’m not American, I know nothing, but do listen to Pod Save America. I think, maybe they thought they can blame all the caused chaos on the reps. It’s a rep speaker, the reps are voting him out, let the reps take the rap. Maybe.

@manton I think there was a point where he could have actually decided to govern, and reached across the aisle.
But instead, he groveled to the MAGA wingnuts.
The Biden impeachment nonsense was the final nail in his coffin when it came to any possibility of Democrat support.
(Disclaimer: I’m probably clueless about the actual House politics!) 😊
#politics #USPolitics

@donm

McCarthy’s removal was set in motion when he DID reach across the aisle instead of groveling to MAGA wingnuts.

Here’s that fateful rollcall vote:
https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2023513?Page=2

@manton

@manton the problem is that by magnifying the influence of the GOP extremists like this, the Democrats have set the stage for a speaker significantly worse for them than McCarthy.

Maybe Democrats expect to spin the situation in their political favor in the country, but they’re really making it harder to get decent legislation going in the House.