From Axios AM 1/7/2023
8. 🖼️ Framer
Rep.-elect Katie Porter — a Democrat from Orange County, Calif. — reads in the House chamber last night.
- Later she tweeted: "The 15th time's the charm, apparently."
*****
15 times indeed...sheesh!
Here are my observations.
1. Elise Stefanik's standing ovations and McCarthy's humble surprise...each and every and each and every and each and every time McCarthy was nominated. It was like performance art.
2. Campaign speeches included many references to all the 'investigating' and 'oversight' they'd be doing on the government (the Jan 6 investigation was a waste of taxpayer time and money, though, according to Republicans). We can expect hearings about how the government tried to influence Twitter, Hunter Biden's laptop, the weaponization of the FBI and DOJ, the withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the origins of COVID-19, and lots of Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi investigations.
3. As noted by CNN multiple times last night, particularly from John King...the faction of the Republican party that includes Kevin McCarthy, Scott Perry, Marjorie Taylor-Green, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Bobart, Steve Scalise and others are people who either directly or tacitly supported the January 6, 2021 insurrection.
4. Kevin McCarthy wanted this position more than anything, which is why he seemingly gave away everything. Naked ambition. I wonder what matters to him more than being Speaker?
5. Hakeem Jeffries gave a speech. It was a good speech...kinda rousing. He even went through the whole alphabet using alliteration. I didn't notice until it was halfway through. Pretty creative even if it was 1/2 millimeter too much. The Republicans heckled him at a couple points (not just the alphabetic alliteration part [!! hey, I did it too!!]) but because he was giving a long-ish speech. If I were Jeffries I would have said, "every day I had to wait to give this speech I added 4 new paragraphs to it.", or "what do you think I was doing waiting for you all to get your act together?!", or "On Tuesday, this speech was 2 minutes long.", or "your indecision and inability to decide on a speaker gave me time to revise.". Something like that. He didn't respond to it, which I suppose is the right thing to do, but it wasn't 'satisfying' to the petty side of me that I'm trying to move beyond.
6. McCarthy's speech was an indicator of the horrible things to come. The one phrase that stands out to me was 'indoctrination in our schools'. I'm not sure that was the exact wording, but it was definitely the point.
7. The big question is what McCarthy 'gave' to all those holdouts. Some of them wanted what could be reasonable changes in how the Congress does business. (I don't know enough about the rules of the house to comment at this time). Others, though, wanted to be given leadership on committees or subcommittees. Matt Gaetz, one of the last holdouts who voted 'present' in the end, said they got everything they asked for.
I watched all hours of this drama on CNN. I was hesitant to do so because of the troubles they've been having. But I wanted to be immersed. I was. The good and bad side of CNN is that they have so much time to fill. That's good because it gives the panelists time to flesh out all the ins and outs of strategy (at one point I thought McCarthy and his allies should use strategy from 'Survivor'). It's also bad because they do a lot of speculating that may or may not end up being true, and often go over the same details multiple times. As it turned out I liked the panelists well enough and was interested in how things would work out - which I knew they would. It didn't work out for me or America, but it worked out for Kevin McCarthy and cable news.
