[Update} And there’s more: more
So today, after a withering shower of acid criticism for telling the truth about the Benghazi witch-hunt, whose target appears always to have been Hillary 2016, Kevin McCarthy acknowledged today that he doesn’t have the votes to become the speaker of the House. The only candidates that are now in play are both far-right–I refuse to call them conservatives because the far right is only interested in destroying the federal government, not conserving anything.
This really leaves the big-money conservatives, the old guard, the “moderate” majority of the House GOP, at the mercy of about 30 of the far-righters. The only candidates for House Speaker at this moment hail from that caucus– one Daniel Webster and one Jason Chaffetz.
Webster is, according to the website ontheissues.com, a “populist-leaning conservative.” If you comb through his stances on the issues, he’s reliably far right. On social issues, he’s anti-abortion and anti-same-sex marriage, but has no record on issues regarding families and children. So before birth a child would be protected, but after birth, not so much. He supports capital punishment. He opposes Obamacare, of course. He opposes affordable home mortgages. He’s anti-union. He opposes taxes to improve the environment and supported barring the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases. He’s anti-Arab and anti-Palestine.
Interestingly, he has no record on international trade positions. In fact, and this is rather curious since he’s from Florida, he has no stance on drugs. He supported Patriot Act wiretapping, though.
So basically he’s Tea Party with a dash of fascism; his issue stances are almost entirely negative, which comports well with his position on the governmental-destruction wing of the government.
But Jason Chaffetz, what a kettle of fish. He makes Webster look safe.
First thing on his page on http://www.ontheissues: Every sperm life is sacred. So there. Every life shall be protected from the moment of fertilization. Now whether he’s going to get someone to invent tiny little fertilization detectors to go in every woman’s Fallopian tubes, well, I don’t know about that. But it wouldn’t be out of character.
Voted against the Violence Against Women Act, but he’s for traditional marriage. So does that mean he’s for traditional marriages in which men can beat their wives, no prob? Unclear. He’s fine with protecting hate speech against gays and fine with letting the perpetrators of anti-gay hate crimes go unprosecuted.
Anything aimed at helping people out of the 2007-2008 financial crisis, he is firmly on record as opposing. No on anti-recession relief spending. No on helping people avoid foreclosures. No on economic recovery package. No even on allowing road signs indicating that roads were fixed with economic recovery funds. So no “your tax dollars at work” signs to let people know that tax dollars could improve their roads.
Of course he’s against Obamacare.
On corporations, he’s even against research and development into nanotechnology (one of the few industries where we shine). 100% voting record against labor and for management.
The problem for moderate Republicans is that now, with McCarthy gone (and he was hardly moderate), they don’t have a candidate for House Speaker. To put the Speakership into the hands of the burn-government-down faction–two places away from the Presidency–Whew.
It’s quite a dilemma. What will they do? Panic time, I’m thinking. They have to draft somebody who is not going to get into office and throw gasoline everywhere before he throws his lit cigarette down.
Em Turner Chitty 