You undoubtedly have heard the term "road rage" or the quaint saying, "It's all the rage." What we witnessed late Friday night on the floor of the House of Representatives, when GOP Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was denied the Speaker's gavel for the 14th time this past week, was intraparty rage on full display.
For background purposes, Rep. Matt Gaetz had just voted "present" instead of specifically naming McCarthy as his choice for Speaker. This did not sit well with Rep. Mike (Ragin') Rogers who could be seen arguing with Gaetz and then lunging at him. If he hadn't been restrained, there's no telling what Rogers might have done.
All week long, political pundits on both sides of the aisle kept saying electing a Speaker would be the easiest thing this Congress will do; however, after watching two members almost come to blows on the floor of the House, I wonder if that is true now.
The Cannon, Longworth and Rayburn Office Buildings on Capitol Hill are named after Speakers of the House. For the sake of continuity, I hope Kevin McCarthy's tenure as Speaker lasts longer than weeks or months. If it doesn't, he'll be lucky to have a doorknob named after him. Care to guess how long he will last?
-DF
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Well I wanted to punch Matt Gaetz's lights out after watching this weeklong circus! I don't see how this House will pass anything with numbers like we saw in fourteen votes. It turned out that Jim had to explain some stuff that I did not understand. I kept wanting some higher power to intervene and force somebody in as speaker but the House has to have a speaker before ANY OTHER business can be carried out. At some point early on I heard Jake Tapper say that the 20 rebels were "Never Kevin" because he's from California...