All posts tagged: Kevin McCarthy

Marjorie Taylor Greene’s fire was suddenly extinguished this week. She has made herself irrelevant

Marjorie Taylor Greene’s fire was suddenly extinguished this week. She has made herself irrelevant

Marjorie Taylor Greene made sure to milk every moment of the six weeks since she filed her motion to vacate. Inexplicably, she regularly paraded around the Hill with her boyfriend — Right Side Broadcasting Network host Brian Glenn — and was often also accompanied by her cueballed press secretary Nick Dyer. When Greene finally actually called for a vote on Wednesday night and a group of centrist Republicans gathered, Glenn and Dyer watched on. Dyer lit a cigarette. Glenn told me he supported his girlfriend “one hundred per cent.” Greene relished the fact that amid multiple important votes in Congress — including lawmakers passing legislation to keep the government open and assisting allies like Ukraine — all of the reporters huddled around her and asked for her thoughts. This happened despite the fact that she never had the votes to depose Mike Johnson. She didn’t really have anything serious to offer him, either. When she finally pulled her motion to vacate on Wednesday, she enraged Republicans and Democrats alike for the simple reason that they …

Pope Francis needs to reform papal election process — carefully

Pope Francis needs to reform papal election process — carefully

(RNS) — Before he retires or dies, Pope Francis needs to reform the process for choosing his successor because the current rules could result in a conclave deadlocked between a conservative and a liberal candidate. The process for choosing a pope is not divinely inspired. It is a human creation that has changed over time and can change again. The current system, in which cardinals elect a new leader by a two-thirds vote, has been firmly in place since 1179. Before that, popes were sometimes elected by the clergy and people of Rome. The conclave, in which the cardinals are held behind locked doors until a pope is elected, has been in place since the 13th century. In the 20th century, the process was dramatically changed by the internationalization of the College of Cardinals. Italians no longer make up most of the electors. Pope Paul VI, who headed the church from 1963 to 1978, also increased the number of cardinals while limiting the electorate to cardinals under the age of 80. Popes John Paul II …

Former Matt Gaetz Associate Is Cooperating in House Investigation: Lawyer

Former Matt Gaetz Associate Is Cooperating in House Investigation: Lawyer

A chief witness and onetime friend of Representative Matt Gaetz is cooperating in an unfolding House Ethics Committee investigation into whether the Florida politician had sex with an underage girl while in Congress, a lawyer for the witness said Friday. Fritz Scheller, who represents Joel Greenberg, said that he had provided documents to the committee and that Greenberg “has and will cooperate with any congressional request,” The New York Times reported. In May of 2021, Greenberg pled guilty to several charges, including sex trafficking, and is currently in his second year of an 11-year sentence. The former Florida tax collector was able to secure a more lenient punishment by agreeing to cooperate with a Justice Department investigation into Gaetz. In February of 2023, the department announced that it was closing the investigation without charging the Florida Representative with any crimes. At the time of Greenberg’s December 2022 sentencing, Scheller said he was “disappointed” that the department hadn’t charged anyone else, and, though he didn’t name Gaetz, urged prosecutors to “pursue others,” including more “higher-level” figures, …

An Out-for-Blood Kevin McCarthy Is Plotting Revenge on the Republicans Who Ousted Him: Report

An Out-for-Blood Kevin McCarthy Is Plotting Revenge on the Republicans Who Ousted Him: Report

How is Kevin McCarthy taking his historic dethroning? It would seem not great, based on the revenge campaign he’s said to be mounting! Politico reports that McCarthy and his allies are “mobilizing to oust the eight GOP lawmakers who joined Democrats to depose him.” Specifically, Brian Walsh, a top ally of the ex-Speaker, “is overseeing an attempt to recruit primary challengers to take on members of the infamous ‘Gaetz Eight’—the Capitol’s nickname for Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and seven Republicans who supported his fire-McCarthy push,” according to half a dozen people with knowledge of the plans. “These traitors chose to side with Nancy Pelosi, AOC, and over 200 Democrats to undermine the institution, their fellow Republicans and a duly elected Speaker,” Walsh told Politico in a statement. “There must be consequences for that decision.” The outlet reports that McCarthy’s team has identified three of the eight lawmakers most vulnerable to primary challenges: representatives Nancy Mace, Bob Good, and Eli Crane. Walsh reportedly made a trip to Charleston last year where he interviewed more than a dozen candidates said to be …

Matt Gaetz Told a Friend He Shivved Kevin McCarthy as Revenge for the House Ethics Probe: Report

Matt Gaetz Told a Friend He Shivved Kevin McCarthy as Revenge for the House Ethics Probe: Report

Matt Gaetz has long maintained that his move last year to oust Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House was strictly about a lack of agreement on policy, and absolutely not about getting revenge for a revived Ethics Committee probe related to the Florida lawmaker’s alleged sex trafficking. On the other hand, McCarthy has insisted the probe was why he lost his job, saying in an interview last month: “We all know it’s the ethics complaint on Gaetz. He’s doing everything to make sure it doesn’t come out, and that means he doesn’t care about anything else.” And according to a new report, the former House leader may be onto something. The Daily Beast reports, according to private correspondence it reviewed, “Gaetz indicated to a friend that his effort to undercut, isolate, and ultimately remove McCarthy was, indeed, payback for the ethics probe.” According to the outlet, “in the communications, Gaetz singled out McCarthy individually for reviving an Ethics Committee probe against him, and he indicated that his animus toward McCarthy was over that investigation.” …

GOP Speaker Mike Johnson has a House majority in name only as he approaches 100 days in job

GOP Speaker Mike Johnson has a House majority in name only as he approaches 100 days in job

WASHINGTON (AP) — New Speaker Mike Johnson finds himself leading House Republicans with a majority in name only. Unable to unite his unruly right flank and commanding one of the slimmest House majorities in history, Johnson is being forced to rely on Democrats for the basics of governing, including the latest bill to prevent a federal shutdown. Approaching his first 100 days on the job, Johnson faces daunting choices ahead. He can try to corral conservatives, who are pushing rightward in endless hours of closed-door meetings, to work together as a team. Or he can keep reaching out to Democrats for a bipartisan coalition to pass compromise legislation. So far, rather than the speaker of a dysfunctional GOP majority, Johnson, R-La., has shown he is willing to compile a rare, large supermajority of Democrats and Republicans to get things done with Democratic President Joe Biden. And that supermajority is exactly what some in Congress want, but others fear is coming. “Everyone understands the reality of where we are,” Johnson said at a weekly news conference. …

Congress voting Thursday to avert shutdown and keep federal government funded through early March

Congress voting Thursday to avert shutdown and keep federal government funded through early March

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is expected to extend current federal spending and keep the government open with votes in the Senate and House on Thursday, avoiding a shutdown and punting a final budget package until early March. The stopgap bill comes after a bipartisan spending deal between House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., earlier this month and a subsequent agreement to extend current spending so the two chambers have enough time to pass individual spending bills. The temporary measure will run to March 1 for some federal agencies whose approved funds are set to run out Friday and extend the remainder of government operations to March 8. Johnson has been under heavy pressure from his right flank to jettison the budget accord with Schumer, and the bill to keep the government open will need Democratic support to pass the Republican-majority House. But Johnson has insisted he will stick with the deal as moderates in the party have urged him not to back out. The stopgap legislation will be the …

Democrats willing to help GOP Speaker save job — for a price

Democrats willing to help GOP Speaker save job — for a price

A handful of House Democrats say they’d step in to help Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) keep his gavel in the face of a potential conservative revolt — but it wouldn’t come free. Democrats willing to consider the matter said Johnson would first have to forge an agreement with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) ensuring Democrats had a greater voice in the legislative process. In that case, they’d be willing to provide the votes to keep the Speaker in power.  “Just like I told McCarthy: Talk to Hakeem, and there are some of us that can support you,” said Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), referring to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who was booted from his leadership post last year at the hands of disgruntled conservatives.  “I’ll say the same thing [to Johnson].” Cuellar is not alone among Democrats floating the idea of a Johnson rescue. “He would have to be more willing than Kevin McCarthy was to sit down with Hakeem Jeffries and have a conversation about what it would take for us to be …

Speaker Johnson insists he’s sticking to budget deal but announces no plan to stop partial shutdown

Speaker Johnson insists he’s sticking to budget deal but announces no plan to stop partial shutdown

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Mike Johnson insisted Friday he is sticking with the bipartisan spending deal he struck with the other congressional leaders, but offered no clear path for overcoming hard-right opposition within his own party to prevent a partial government shutdown next week. Johnson emerged from days of testy meetings behind closed doors at the Capitol to read a terse statement. Just months on the job, the new speaker is trying to set the record straight that he will not renege on the budget deal he made earlier this week. But in his first big test as the new leader, he has yet to show how he will quell the revolt from his right flank that ousted his predecessor. “Our top-line agreement remains,” Johnson, R-La., said, referring to the budget accord reached Jan. 7. “We are getting our next steps together, and we are working toward a robust appropriations process,” he said. “So stay tuned for all that.” It’s the same intractable political dilemma that led a core group of right-flank Republicans to …