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Thanks for the endorsement, Robert! Replacing Kevin McCarthy with a Speaker who owes nothing to the extremist faction would be a stinging and enormously consequential defeat for MAGA.
In answer to your question "...if McCarthy is removed, who can -- or will -- replace him?", please see this post from May 18: jerryweiss.substack.com…
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Thanks for the endorsement, Robert! Replacing Kevin McCarthy with a Speaker who owes nothing to the extremist faction would be a stinging and enormously consequential defeat for MAGA.
In answer to your question "...if McCarthy is removed, who can -- or will -- replace him?", please see this post from May 18: https://jerryweiss.substack.com/p/if-mccarthys-out-whos-in
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It would give me great joy and some amount of comfort to see Kevin McCarthy turned out by the House and one of the 4 Republicans you discussed in your article voted in to the Speaker's Chair. McCarthy has for far too long exhibited a a callous ambition so naked it reminds me of.....Trump.
Oh how fully I share that feeling, Swbv!
There is a difference though, between McCarthy and Trump regarding naked and callous ambition.
Kevin McCarthy is a calculating politician who routinely trades away his political capital in exchange for votes. In the end that leaves him powerless, indebted to those who have supported him.
Trump, on the other hand, never concedes power to anyone. Rather than solicit support from others, he uses his power to threaten and punish those who don't support him. In the end that leaves him still powerful, despite being indicted for criminal behavior.
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Thank-you very much, Mr. Weiss for providing us with this most informative link. Any one of the 4 Republicans that you wrote about would make a far better House Speaker than the divisive Kevin McCarthy.We need our House of Representatives to be a legislative body again and as long as McCarthy is in charge, this just ain't happening.
Right you are, Victoria.
Replacing Kevin McCarthy as Speaker disempowers the MAGA extremists who have no interest in being part of a normally functioning legislature.
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I read the sub stack post with interest, it's nice to know that there are some some thoughtful Republicans. However, I am very skeptical that the representatives as a whole would vote for one of them. This could end us with Matt Gaetz or someone worse, or, as you pointed out Steve Scalise. Frankly, I think that's the most likely outcome. I have no love for Kevin McCarthy and would love to see him removed speaker, but he's the devil you know… it could be way worse.
Thanks for reading the post, J Hall.
I just want to point out that votes for Speaker are cast by all 435 members, not just Republicans. A majority is 218 and there are only 222 Republicans.
It's highly unlikely that any of the more moderate, centrist R's would vote for an extremist like Gaetz. They could conceivably vote for Scalise, but if they were going to do that, there'd be no reason for them to support removing McCarthy.
Our mission at Feathers of Hope is to persuade the Republican moderates (and Democratic leadership) to remove McCarthy specifically for the purpose of replacing him with a moderate.
For a longer discussion of this, and some insight into the strains within the Republican Caucus in the House, see our post from June 29:
https:// jerryweiss.substack.com/p/is-there-a-crack-in-the-wall
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Thanks Jerry. I didn't know there were still five good republicans. (My former governor, Charlie Baker, is the fifth.) I'm going to broadcast your substack on this to my email list of close to 80 people.
Thank you so much for helping to spread the word, David!
Building public support for this proposal is crucial, as politicians always need to know that they'll not be punished for taking a bold step. Since the ones we hope to persuade represent districts where MAGA is not dominant, we need to convince them they'll be rewarded by voters hungry for normalcy.
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Jerry,
Sounds good to me! And I broadcasted your post this morning.