Matt Gaetz Just Read Kevin McCarthy the Riot Act on the House Floor

The rebellion of the Angry Children’s Caucus is on. On Tuesday, at close enough to high noon to make the metaphor useful, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida rose to tell Speaker Kevin McCarthy that beggar’s day had arrived and that the gallows were now in his eyes. McCarthy, Gaetz warned, had better not even make a warm glance at governing.

“On this very floor in January, the whole world witnessed a historic contest for House Speaker. I rise today to serve notice. Mr. Speaker, you are out of compliance with the agreement that allowed you to assume this role. The path forward for the House of Representatives is to either bring you into immediate total compliance or remove you, pursuant to a motion to vacate the chair.”

To be fair, Gaetz read into the record a comprehensive accounting of exactly what concessions McCarthy had to throw to the ACC in order to become Speaker. The ransom demand for his balls was long and precise and Gaetz was willing to run it down, chapter and verse.

“We have had no vote on term limits or on balanced budgets, as the agreement demanded and required. There’s been no full release of the January 6 tapes, as you promised. There’s been insufficient accountability for the Biden crime family, and instead of cutting spending to raise the debt limit, you relied on budgetary gimmicks and rescissions so that you ultimately ended up serving as the valet to underwrite Biden’s debt and advance his spending agenda.”

Related Posts:

• How to Develop a Sales Process with Matt Ryder » Succeed As Your Own Boss

The only shorter route to the political abyss than a trumped-up impeachment is forcing a government shutdown. Full speed ahead, my pretties!

Prior to Gaetz’s remonstrance, perhaps to throw the crazy people a bone, perhaps (sadly) because he believes it to be a good idea, McCarthy announced that the House would open an impeachment inquiry into the president. Because even McCarthy can count, he declined to put the question to the full House, as was the case in both Trump impeachments and in the impeachment of Bill Clinton. In his subsequent speech, Gaetz accepted this concession with his customary grace and profound gratitude.

Mr. Speaker, you boasted in January that we would use the power of the subpoena and the power of the purse. But here we are eight months later and we haven’t even sent the first subpoena to Hunter Biden. That’s how you know that the rushed and, you know, somewhat rattled performance you just saw from the Speaker isn’t real.

But midway through his speech, Gaetz came to the real purpose behind all this reckless activity that is going to clog the government and threaten the country’s fiscal stability, to say nothing of making the world’s oldest democratic republic look like a failing clown college that has lost its accreditation.

The most troubling of fashions, a vote for a continuing resolution is a vote to continue the election interference of Jack Smith. Mr. Speaker, we told you how to use the power of the purse. individual, single subject spending bills that would allow us to have specific review, programmatic analysis and would allow us to zero out the salaries of the bureaucrats who have broken bad, targeted President Trump or cut sweetheart deals for Hunter Biden.

That is the fundamental purpose of the Republican party, and of American conservatism, right now— the preservation and protection of El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago and the legally fragile possibility that he will be elected president again. All eyes are on that prize. All hands are set to that task— or, at least, not set against it. Politico had a nice rundown of the cowards among the Republican “centrists” who are just happy they won’t have to take a recorded vote about launching the impeachment effort. Anonymously, of course.

“I think it is better if he is doing this than making everyone take a vote on this. I am not sure a vote would have passed,” said one centrist Republican, who was granted anonymity to speak freely. This centrist said that flagging GOP support for an inquiry vote was communicated to McCarthy — underscoring that some Republicans are leery that the party’s investigations have so far not yielded a direct link between the president and his son Hunter’s business dealings. Another moderate Republican echoed that position, but dismissed the argument that an impeachment inquiry would land negatively with voters back home. “I’m not [concerned]. The Bidens are a hot mess, and people see that,” said this centrist, who also spoke candidly on condition of anonymity.

Dedicated public servants, the lot of them.

Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976. He lives near Boston and has three children.