Nailed It!

I was watching the PBS NewsHour last Friday and the had a commentary by David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart discussing the House vote for the House Speaker, here are the transcripts of the discussion…

Amna Nawaz:

So, it took four days, over a dozen rounds of votes for Kevin McCarthy to just break the logjam, to try to work towards getting the votes to become speaker. He hasn't done it yet, as we sit here and speak right now.

But, David, let's talk about the holdouts, the ones who have consistently, the small number of members who consistently oppose him and still do. Are they just anti-McCarthy? Are they never going to back him?

David Brooks:

I don't think they're anti-McCarthy.

I think there's two schools. Chip Roy, who was earlier in the program, a congressman with a goatee, he does want to change the rules. And there's a case to be made that Congress needs reform. Most of them are not like that.

And, in my view, it's wrong to call them very conservative. There are a lot of Republicans who are very conservative. These are nihilists. They came here, and they're quite open about that, especially with their friends, and they say, we just want to burn the place down.

And we normally think, those of us who go in even journalism or go into political life, for sure, that you have some positive agenda, like, you want to do something good for the country. That is absent in these people. It's a posture of rejection, a posture of negativity.

And so they just want to be negative, be oppositional, and then go on TV and say everyone else has screwed up. And so this is a form of nihilism that is in the Republican Party. It's certainly in the conservative media sphere. Tucker Carlson was very much on these guys' side.

And it's something really that's a menace to the health of that party.

They want to tear the government down. They are anarchist. They believe that they can rebuild the government in their image.

Here we are stuck in a stalemate both sides not giving. Then Trump steps in and all of a sudden we have a speaker! No tell me that wasn't a setup? Trump popularity has been dropping since the elections and now he gets a shot in the arm. Those ten or so anarchist are going to blackmail the United States government and the Congress.

Jonathan Capehart:

Yes.

I mean, there's nothing to add really to what David said. I mean, the fact that there's going to be another vote maybe tonight, maybe tonight, he really — McCarthy breaks the logjam and gets the that he needs. But nihilists don't care about the schedule. They don't care about the timetable. They don't care that folks won't get paychecks because there's no officially no Congress. They want to blow stuff up.

And what better way to blow stuff up than to, with each vote, destroy the dreams, hopes and aspirations of Kevin McCarthy?

They don’t care as long as they get their way.

Gazing into my crystal ball, I foresee them holding up all the budget bill until they get their way.

I foresee a rash of misogynistic anti-abortion bills.

I foresee a rash of anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ bills, I wouldn’t even be surprised to see ant-Drag Queen bill.

I foresee a rash of hearings on President Biden's family, on southern border, the Afghanistan withdrawal, the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Department of Justice, and the FBI in the search of Trump’s estate.

Jonathan Capehart:

At this point, no.

The rules package that they just released moments ago, whoever the next speaker is, is going to be beholden to the Freedom Caucus, beholden to these nihilists.

I foresee, some Republican challenging the Speaker and the vote for the new speaker will be a Democrat or a moderate Republican because they will be fed up with their cr*p.

The Republican party has sold its soul to the devil.