In Name Only

A conversation with friend and colleague Charles Madigan about the storm clouds looming over Kevin McCarthy’s dubious fate as Speaker of the House.

Charlie: It is highly unlikely that the new Speaker of the House, California’s Kevin McCarthy, will be hanging a “No Serial Liars Allowed Here” sign outside of his office. George Santos, the newly elected Long Island congressman who lied about his background and history, is a long way from being welcomed as a new House member. Yet the Republican party swore in Santos. His fantasy background may well be the least of Santos’ problems. He’s joining a Republican House with rule changes engineered by McCarthy that have fueled concerns he has given away the farm to get the gavel.

It's all part of a vastly confusing and unsettling couple of days on the Hill. Lots of trading required for McCarthy to slip the bonds of an embarrassing battle among the Republicans. It may be an early look at how this Congress is going to go, with the radical right doing everything it can to dismantle the federal framework.

photo by Joshua Sukoff

Santos is one of those little chips of the MAGA movement plummeting to earth now that it’s clear the era of Trump is likely over. Donald Trump wants to run for president, again? He of course has his loyalists, but so did George Wallace and a host of other stinky bottom feeders who thought they would ride the wave of public passions to a purer version of America. I think we just need to print up a bunch of posters that say, “Everything this man touches becomes poop!”. That way, even children can get the message! 

And finally, almost anyone who has drawn breath past age sixty-five understands that Medicare and Medicaid are not socialism. I worked for what, forty-five years, to have my tax dollars help build that system, and I will not sit quietly by while a collection of nut jobs tries to disassemble any part of them. Ask senior America about cutting those programs and get ready to have an ancient mob of affable geezers surround the capitol waving “Hands off my Medicare” flags. True, they are not going to break in and bust up the furniture. But add them to the people still deeply upset about abortion and you end up with a vast voting block well-motivated to put these feeble-minded right-wing Republicans in their place. If Santos survives in Congress, he’ll have to face those voters in two years. 

That’s what happens when the mission of America slips off the track.

Jim: Well, it’s hard to say anything more about the Kevin McCarthy fiasco. He should have done the right thing and backed out of the race for Speaker. That would require something Kevin lacks: Integrity. Instead, he selfishly hung in there and got the job by giving the right-wingers want they wanted, more power, thereby diminishing the job he coveted. The man’s unprincipled. I can’t even begin to imagine the lies spread during the fifteen votes it took for him to win the gavel. It would be nice if he lied to the so-called Freedom Caucus about promises he made during his humiliating debacle. For once, though, I fear he told the truth. Now how will the GOP deal with the block of twenty hard right wingers who made McCarthy a SINO, Speaker In Name Only? And what will they do about Santos’ lying his way into a congressional seat? We’ll just have to sit back and watch the circus. 

I did find two things interesting in the McCarthy saga, though.

One came when Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Trump acolyte from Georgia, held up her cell phone with the letter DT on the screen. She stuck her phone in Florida’s Representative Matt Gaetz’s face, motioning for him to answer Donald Trump’s call as the former president pleaded with the hard liners to vote for McCarthy. Gaetz, a Trump clone, didn’t take the call. Could this be a crack in support for Trump among the so-called Freedom Caucus, the right-wing cabal that led the fight against McCarthy? The former president lobbied the group, one of his natural fan clubs, with little effect. McCarthy only won when Gaetz and others on their own voted “present,” lowering the threshold that McCarthy needed to win. The right wingers apparently no longer fear the man from Mar-a-Lago.

The other intriguing element? Americans saw raw footage of how our politics resembles a lucrative entertainment venue instead of the serious business of government. Preening for the cameras as the live coverage saturated the nation, the members of the Freedom Caucus couldn’t get enough of the attention lavished on them as they cynically launched fund-raising campaigns. 

Their actions carry ominous implications for the ability of McCarthy or anyone else to deal with serious issues. I think they overplayed their hand. The public will not approve of shutting down the government, defaulting on our debt or cutting Social Security, all likely scenarios if the McCarthy opponents are serious. It’s not the American way. When faced with disapproval by the voting public, Congress usually figures out a way around such obstacles. It won’t take many moderate defectors from the GOP to join bipartisan deals to save their skins, including measured designed to sideline a certain congressman-elect from Long Island who has issues with the truth.

Charlie:  Well, it would certainly be good to see Santos leave under the right terms. But we both know that’s not going to happen and why. Will they invite him out? Probably, but mainly because they don’t want their own loose connection to the truth to come under scrutiny. And they may need his vote. Also, what was the point in holding up a phone call from Trump? Can’t we please get past the point where that odious man has any impact on anything? And that odious woman who presented the phone?

Overall, we have many chips of the MAGA movement plummeting to earth now that it’s clear it’s over. Trump wants to run for president, again? Two impeachments not enough? He of course has his loyalists, but so did George Wallace and a host of other stinky bottom feeders who thought they would ride the wave of public passions to a purer version of America. News of the MAGA decline could even reach newsrooms across the nation so green political reporters looking to make a name will not plop their surfboards in front of his wave of detritus.

But probably not Rupert Murdoch and Fox News. They will append themselves to these bloviators however they can so they can send messages to their loyalists!

Jim: I will take the role of the contrarian here, Charlie. Some of the protests by the Freedom Caucus represent legitimate grievances. The House and Senate, for example, should stop passing huge omnibus spending bills larded with special interest provisions that benefit the districts of individual congressmen. The bills are too big and contain too many pages for anyone to read in the pressure cooker atmosphere of eleventh-hour congressional legislative brawls.

However, most of the concessions won from McCarthy are odious. Why should congressmen from states that represent only one in seven Americans be awarded three seats on the Rules Committee that plays a huge role in what legislation goes before Congress?

We’re heading for a CINO (Congress In Name Only) headed by a SINO (Speaker In Name Only). 

—James O’Shea and Charles Madigan

James O’Shea is a longtime Chicago author and journalist who now lives in North Carolina. He is the author of several books and is the former editor of the Los Angeles Times and managing editor of the Chicago Tribune. Follow Jim’s Five W’s Substack here.

Charles Madigan is a writer and veteran foreign and national correspondent for UPI and the Chicago Tribune, where he also served as a senior writer and editor. He examines news reporting, politics and world events.