Not A Popular Guy
I don’t know how popular former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is among his former colleagues these days…after all, he got the boot as speaker in less than a year, after a prolonged process where he was voted in.
But my guess is that McCarthy has more friends in the chamber than now-former Rep. Matt Gaetz…or at least, more allies in the Ethics Committee.
That’s because the House Ethics Committee voted behind closed doors to release the report on Gaetz after all votes are taken for the current session. In other words, they’ll drop the flaming bag of poop at our doorstep, ring the doorbell, and run back to their districts to avoid conversation about it.
This is the supposedly bombshell report that was going to be released until Gaetz resigned, supposedly to become Attorney General. By all rights and precedent, when a member leaves the chamber, the ethics investigation is over and no report is ever made public. That’s because the investigation was designed to determine if the member should be sanctioned—and without him or her still being a member, the committee has no oversight.
But the fact that they are now releasing the report regardless suggests that Gaetz does not have enough friends left on Capitol Hill…and McCarthy fans may view this as payback for Gaetz getting in McCarthy’s way all the time.
Essentially, it’s sideshow stuff, but it may be enough to prevent Gaetz from ever thinking about running for office again.
And yes, if you’re wondering why anyone is spending time talking about this when there’s a budget resolution to pass…well, that may be the point. The continuing resolution as proposed is another stinker, and maybe those in charge think the bad spending bill will fade from public attention in favor of an ethics report full of sexual allegations and more.
Regardless…Santa, if you’re listening…a lump of coal for all of them, please.
