The Bad Faith of the Never-Kevin Movement

As I begin writing this post, Kevin McCarthy has lost the ninth ballot in a row for Speaker of the House, and they’re moving forward with a tenth. This is the most contentious voting for Speaker since 1855, when it took 133 ballots to settle on a representative for Speaker of the House. (For the past two days the precedent has been 1923, but even that Speaker nomination process ended after nine rounds.)

Now, look: I admit to feeling a fair amount of schadenfreude watching McCarthy have to stand there and take beating after beating after beating. But that’s not the same as enjoying this process. Because at the end of the day, our government isn’t fully functional until the House can elect a Speaker. The longer this shitshow continues, the less we can accomplish. Sure, that means Republicans can’t hold their smoke-and-mirrors investigations into the Bidens, but it also means members of the House Intelligence Committee can’t conduct normal business. So there’s more here at stake than one dude’s ego.

This whole fiasco reminds me of that paradox: What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object? Here, the immovable object is McCarthy (who hasn’t shown any sign of giving up even as his votes drop with each successive ballot) and the unstoppable force is the tiny never-Kevin faction that’s preventing McCarthy from getting the majority he needs to become Speaker. What we’ve seen the past three days is the answer to that question: It turns out nothing happens. Or, rather, the same thing will happen over and over and over and over again. Is it too on the nose to quote Einstein? “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

Here’s the thing, though: The never-Kevin group (lead most prominently by Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert), are acting in bad faith. This cadre of Freedom Caucus members is so far right that they feel like McCarthy (Kevin McCarthy!) isn’t conservative enough. That’s pretty wild. This is a guy who the January 6th Committee referred to the House Ethics Committee for violating congressional ethics rules. The guy who was Trump’s whipping boy. I mean, if Kevin McCarthy isn’t conservative enough for you, then you’ve got a pretty bleak outlook on the world.

What’s interesting is that the Frankenstein’s monster Trump birthed is finally starting to direct its rage at its creator. The 200-odd Republicans who have voted for McCarthy never really knew what it was like to be on the receiving end of Gaetz’ or Boebert’s ire. Now they have the privilege of knowing what these folks are truly like: egotistical teenagers. They’re not adults here to behave rationally, they’re children who get their kicks by sowing chaos. Just look at Gaetz. During today’s first round of voting he cast his ballot for Trump and has continued to vote for Trump. Or take Boebert, who, during the eighth round, said she was going to vote for a Kevin, only to then cast her vote for Kevin Hern of Oklahoma. I mean, I kind of admire the jackassery on display here.

The problem is that this small group has no incentive to behave. To them, big government is inherently dysfunctional, and if they can prove that point while fucking around like this then all the better. They’re rewarded for behaving badly, which makes it even harder to not compare them to children.

Meanwhile, the Democrats have held it together. Each and every one of them — all 212 — have voted for Hakeem Jeffries. They’ve been consistent, they’ve been unified, and it’s been pretty awesome to see. I know the Democrats have their problems, but this is one moment where they’re not fumbling the ball.

At the end of the day, I don’t really know what will happen. My prediction is that McCarthy will have to throw in the towel — the question is how long that will take. Also, as bad as McCarthy is, I’m a little worried just who might end up Speaker if not him. Steve Scalise has been floated as another possible option, although he’s a guy who gave a speech for a group founded by former KKK grand wizard David Duke. So maybe an incredibly weakened McCarthy would be better than some else? Who knows!

In the meantime, McCarthy has lost the tenth ballot. They’re not done doing the roll call, but he very clearly doesn’t have the votes. As we come up on the two-year anniversary of the January 6th insurrection, we’re reminded once again that chaos still hasn’t left the building.