Democrats are sick of bailing the GOP out of their own messes, and boy, are Republicans whining about it
Anyone who has paid even the slightest attention to the events leading up to the historic ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as speaker of the House knows exactly who is to blame here: McCarthy and his fellow Republicans. For years, they’ve rolled out the welcome mat to Donald Trump and his wrecking crew of MAGA camera hogs, foolishly believing that they could harness the chaotic villainy without getting burned in the process. They refused to listen to former Trump «fixer» Michael Cohen when he warned Republicans in 2019 that those who «follow Mr. Trump as I did, blindly, are going to suffer the same consequences that I’m suffering.»
Granted, McCarthy didn’t get hauled off to prison like Cohen. But he still faced a tasty comeuppance this week when the sadistic bullies he empowered in his caucus, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, vacated his seat for no other reason than the sheer satisfaction of taking out their leader. Now shellshocked Republicans know who they want to blame for everything that has happened, and — surprise! — it’s not themselves. Oh no, they’re mad at Democrats for refusing to swoop in and save McCarthy from his fate.
As soon as he was booted, McCarthy laid out his views clearly: Republicans should get to act like drunk bulls savaging china shops, and it’s the duty of Democrats to come in quietly after to clean up the mess. «I think today was a political decision by the Democrats,» he whined in a press conference after the vote, complaining that the opposition party owed him their votes to protect «the institution.»
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Reality check: This whole thing only happened because McCarthy, in his desperation to rally Gaetz’s arson squad to his side at the beginning of this term, foolishly gave in to their demands to make it easy to vote to vacate the Speaker’s seat. It was a Republican, Gaetz, who used that power. There is no reason to expect Democrats to vote for an opposition party’s leader, especially when he refuses to offer any concessions in exchange. Yet Republicans were suddenly unified in their echoes of McCarthy’s claim that Democrats are obligated to bail Republicans out of problems of the GOP’s own making.
Republicans claim to be the party of «personal responsibility,» yet they can never take responsibility for themselves.
Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., who has taken over as acting Speaker, complained that Democrats «can’t be counted on in a moment like this.» Freshman Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., one of 18 GOP lawmakers in districts that President Joe Biden won, claimed on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Democrats should have saved McCarthy to «put the country first.» Former George W. Bush official Ari Fleischer griped that «foolish» Democrats were supposedly responsible for the fiasco.
