Right wing Republicans are unable to spell "compromise"

Editorial echo published in the Los Angeles Times: Kevin McCarthy played with MAGA fire — and got burned. McCarthy flopped, but blame the chaos on the entire Republican Party.

It’s difficult to summon much sympathy for former House Speaker 

 McCarthy flopped, but blames the chaos on the entire Republican Party

Kevin McCarthy, who lost his dream job on Tuesday when eight Republican dissidents turned on him. 

Although the Bakersfield Republican did the right thing last week in supporting a measure to avert a government shutdown that received bipartisan support, his record before then is less worthy of admiration.

Nor should Democrats, who voted as a bloc to remove him, be blamed for not coming to McCarthy’s rescue after Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) moved to vacate the speaker’s chair. It is hard to see why the opposing party should have bailed out McCarthy, given his willingness to seek spending limits more restrictive than those possible under a deal he made with the White House in May to suspend the debt ceiling and avert a default. 

McCarthy didn’t help himself over the weekend when he said Democrats were the ones “willing to let government shut down, for our military not to be paid” ❗😡when 90 Republicans and only one Democrat voted against the stopgap measure to prevent a government shutdown.

Yet, McCarthy’s ouster from the speakership could lead to even more dysfunction and drama in the House. What might be called the Nihilist Caucus in the Republican conference has been empowered by its coup against McCarthy. If these hard-liners exercise a veto over the selection of McCarthy’s successor, they could put the next speaker on an even tighter leash than the one they fastened around McCarthy’s neck.

USNews political cartoon

This is the same McCarthy who voted to challenge some of the results of the 2020, election, courted Donald Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, appeased hard-right members of his conference and unilaterally acted to authorize a baseless inquiry into impeaching President Biden.

Nor should Democrats, who voted as a bloc to remove him, be blamed for not coming to McCarthy’s rescue after Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) moved to vacate the speaker’s chair. It is hard to see why the opposing party should have bailed out McCarthy, given his willingness to seek spending limits more restrictive than those possible under a deal he made with the White House in May to suspend the debt ceiling and avert a default. McCarthy didn’t help himself over the weekend when he said Democrats were the ones “willing to let government shut down, for our military not to be paid” when 90 Republicans and only one Democrat voted against the stopgap measure to prevent a government shutdown.

Yet McCarthy’s ouster from the speakership could lead to even more dysfunction and drama in the House. What might be called the Nihilist Caucus in the Republican conference has been empowered by its coup against McCarthy. If these hard-liners exercise a veto over the selection of McCarthy’s successor, they could put the next speaker on an even tighter leash than the one they fastened around McCarthy’s neck.

In his better moments McCarthy recognized that members of Congress are supposed to be stewards of the public interest, not just provocateurs and partisan point scorers. “I don’t regret standing up for choosing governance over grievance,” McCarthy told reporters after he was voted out of the speaker’s chair. “It is my responsibility. It is my job. I do not regret negotiating. Our government is designed to find compromise.”

The price McCarthy paid for acting on that philosophy tells his successor that putting the nation first is politically perilous — assuming that the next speaker will even want to seek bipartisan solutions.

The stopgap funding legislation for which McCarthy paid a political price keeps the federal government running until Nov. 17. Bipartisanship will be necessary to continue government operations after that, as well as to support important priorities such as aiding Ukraine in its resistance to unprovoked Russian aggression.

For the sake of their party and the country, Republicans in choosing a new speaker should seek a conciliator, not a chaos agent.

Wrong use of the United States military - guarding barbed wire

Pentagon to Send More Troops to Mexico Border reported in USNews  by Claire Hansen, Staff Writer

(Unfortunately) The Pentagon Will Send an additional 3,750 troops to the southern border with Mexico, bringing the total number of active-duty troops there to 4,350, the Department of Defense said Sunday. These valuable troops will be assigned to do work they could assign to any laborers like, for example, prisoners. They will maintain and watch the ugly barbed wire, being spread across Texas and the US border with Mexico.  In fact, our miltiary will guard the barbed wire to prevent Americans from Central and South America from entering the United States. This is a wasted effort being ordered by the failed Donald Trump.  

The US military are highly trained to fight terrorists.  In fact, any trained laborers, like prisoners, can be trained to maintain barbed wire.

This announcement comes just days before Donald Trump gives the State of the Union address, in which he is expected to continue to push for a southern border wall and tout the importance of border security.

Lawmakers continue to negotiate over border (MaineWriter - "wall or fence"?) funding and face a Feb. 15, deadline to come up with a deal or risk, yet another horrible government shutdown. 

Trump has also said he is considering declaring a national emergency to bypass Congress and funnel billions of dollars to create a wall.

The Trump administration first sent troops to the border right before the 2018 midterm elections in what critics said was a political ploy.

Sunday's announcement confirms previous comments officials have made about troop deployment to the border. 

Acting Defence Secretary Pat Shanahan said last week that several thousand more troops would be sent to the border to install more wire fencing and barriers and provide mobile surveillance. Trump tweeted Thursday that more troops would be sent.

Sunday's announcement said the mobile surveillance would last through Sep. 2019, and the additional units will be deployed for 90 days, according to reports.

Pentagon officials did not mention the troop deployment when they testified before the House Armed Services Committee last week, angering Democrats on the committee.
Both Sides of the Border

Children are able to crawl through the border barriers. I don't believe our American military are trained to arrest children.

"The Defense Department was not transparent about the number of active duty personnel needed for future support missions at the southern border," Rep. Adam Smith, Washington Democrat and chairman of the committee, wrote in a letter to Shanahan. 

"When given the opportunity to testify publicly about the mission at our southern border, the Department baulked."

Democrats have opposed sending troops to the border, raising concerns about the mission's impact on military readiness and on conflicts the military is engaged with overseas.

Vice Adm. Mike Gilday, the director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House panel last week that some units have missed training opportunities and others have been unable to go home, at regular intervals, because of the deployment, but also said military readiness has not been impacted, the Associated Press reports.