Yesterday, the world bore witness to the first public emasculation since August 5, 1305 when Scottish independence leader William Wallace was executed for treason. However, there was one major difference between Wallace and this most recent victim House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Wallace’s punishment was administered following a tribunal in Westminster Hall. McCarthy’s was self-imposed as he stood at a podium in front of the Speaker’s office where he begged for the mercy of his executioners.
This epic story begins on January 7, 2023, when McCarthy, during private negotiations with members of the GOP Freedom Caucus, makes numerous concessions to secure the 218 votes he needs to become Speaker. This backroom castration, though slightly less humiliating than yesterday’s public surrender to the occupants of Earth 2, was a precursor of things to come.
On the day of McCarthy’s ascension to the top of the House leadership, Forbes contributor Brian Bushard reported that the wannabe Speaker made the following concessions to the Freedom Caucus.
- Separate votes on each of 12 appropriations bills rather than approving them simultaneously under an omnibus spending bill.
- Cap discretionary spending at FY 2001 levels which would require a rollback of major Biden era legislation including the bipartisan infrastructure program and the Inflation Reduction Act.
- Create a special subcommittee to address alleged “weaponization of the federal government,” which would eventually lead to impeachment of Joe Biden.
- Reduce the number of caucus members required to initiation action to “vacate the chair” (i.e., remove the Speaker) from five to one.
Did McCarthy think this was a multiple choice question? That he only had to pick one of the options? That by picking #3 he could renege on the other three promises?
Within two hours of his announcement he had authorized an impeachment investigation he learned what he should have known all along. Giving in to the Freedom Caucus would only embolden them to pursue their other demands. To drive home that point, Matt Gaetz, speaking from the podium on the House floor, let McCarthy know he was not off the hook.
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. I know that Washington isn’t a town where people are known for keeping their word. Speaker McCarthy, I’m here to hold you to yours.
One has to keep in mind McCarthy and his MAGA-verse minions are the ones who claim everyone from the military to the FBI are too soft. Yet, it is McCarthy who is displaying weakness. Nancy Pelosi, with an equally small majority and fractured caucus in 2021, would never have tolerated such disrespect from any Democratic member of the House. Or who can forget Pelosi challenging Donald Trump over U.S. engagement in Syria at a meeting in the White House cabinet room (below).
When McCarthy told Liz Cheney she would lose her GOP leadership position after she told her colleagues, “We cannot let the former president (Trump) make us complicit in his efforts to unravel our democracy,” she did not negotiate or compromise to keep her job. Following the removal vote, Cheney told reporters, “”I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office.”
These occasions became fodder for myriad political jokes about Pelosi and Cheney wearing the big boy pants or growing their own pair of cajones. However, female leaders in the United States and around the world have proven, time and again, they do not need testicular transplants. Why would they need cajones, when they already have equally powerful ovarios de acero.
For what is worth.
Dr. ESP