Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, clearly isn’t exactly enthusiastic about much of what’s been seen recently out of the House GOP, which is continuing so far this Friday in its debilitating failure to actually seat a new Speaker.
McGovern said he’s been in communication with Republicans who are frustrated with the behavior of the House GOP as an entity, but he pointed to the threats — including what one target in Congress described as credible death threats — that could intimidate them from speaking out. “Their conference is filled with narcissists who only give a shit about themselves,” McGovern told the media outlet Talking Points Memo. “They don’t really care about this country or what’s going on in the world.”
As the House GOP keeps falling short in its ambitions to seat a new Speaker, there remain serious issues that need addressing, whether the imminent deadlines for government funding or whatever more the U.S. might do in response to the ongoing conflict between Israel and nearby terror organizations. But without a Speaker, the legal framework for the House to actually take major action just isn’t there — which in normal times shouldn’t be a problem, considering the extensive precedent of functioning political parties in the majority managing to reach enough of a consensus to get the job done. Republicans, though, keep historically falling short of that goal and refusing possibilities of bipartisan cooperation with Democrats to enact something to jump-start Congress.
It was unclear Friday what was going to happen as the struggle continued, all of which originates with a successful motion by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) to boot Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as Speaker. At the time, McCarthy himself evidently rebuffed the prospect of striking a deal with Democrats to salvage his time as Speaker, leaving himself at the mercy of the Republican Party’s fanatics!
