Kevin McCarthy’s still fruitless bid to become Republican Speaker of the House is a once-in-a-century piece of shit. 1923 was the last time the House failed to elect a Speaker with his single vote.
McCarthy’s humiliation is historic, but it is not out of tune with the Republican Party, whose turbulent control of the House has been undermined since the 1990s by crises, attempted coups, and crime.
The 1994 “Republican Revolution” ended 40 years of democratic rule in the House. However, it has established political parties whose ideological hostility to the government has periodically spilled over into outright hostility to the government. this line.
Seen through this lens, the drama surrounding McCarthy isn’t much of a deviation. Rather, it parallels the course of the party finding itself in a mess since 1994. The following is a look back at the Republican culture of chaos in the House since it returned from the political wilderness of the Sinton era.
Term: Gingrich served as Speaker of the House from 1995 to 1999, leading to two government shutdowns (lasting nearly a month together), numerous ethics complaints, an attempted coup in the leadership by fellow Republicans, and the It came under a turbulent rule marked by a partisan impeachment vote. Clinton lying about sexual infidelity — even though Gingrich himself was cheating on his then second wife with his now third wife.
exit: Bipolarization Gingrich hoped the Clinton impeachment drama would propel the Republican Party to new heights in the House. The Republican Party instead suffered a historic loss in the 1998 midterm elections, and Gingrich, unable to contain the schism in his ranks, resigned and “had no intention of presiding over the cannibal people.” claimed.
where is he now: Trying to act as the voice of reason, as if the wind had not sown. “The choice,” he told Fox News this week, “Kevin McCarthy or Chaos.”
Bob Livingston
Term: Livingston was Gingrich’s successor and had collected the votes to be elected chairman in late 1998. Hustler Publisher Larry Flint has put out a $1 million bounty for hints about Republican leaders having sex outside of marriage.
exit: Livingston, who called for Clinton’s resignation, withdrew his congressional bid and confessed to colleagues in 1999 that he “greatly regretted having to tell you that I was flown”. He resigned from parliament shortly thereafter.
where are they now: After his unsuccessful run for governor of Louisiana, he founded Livingston Group, DC’s leading lobbyist shop.
Dennis Hastert
Term: The cocky former wrestling coach seized power after the Gingrich-Livingston debacle. Hastert put on a seemingly bland face to Republican hard-line politics, but he was widely seen as a figurehead, with majoritarian leader Tom DeLay (see below) wielding real power. In a polarizing move, the Speaker of the House enacted the “Haster Rule.” Under this rule, a bill only progresses in the House if it is supported by a majority of the majority party, breaking bipartisan dealings.
exit: Hastert, the longest-serving Republican Speaker, resigned from the House after the Democrats won the House in 2006.
where are they now: Hastert is a convicted child abuser. He served more than a year in prison for serial sexual abuse of the boys on his wrestling team. Hastert also pleaded guilty to financial crimes related to hush money paid in an attempt to cover up sexual abuse.
Tom DeLay
Term: Known as “The Hammer,” DeLay was seen as too partisan to be Speaker of the House, but during the Hastert era he acted as the true center of power for the House Republicans, initially wielding the whip. and has been the majority leader since 2002. DeLay he launched the K-Street project, which helped turn the Republican House of Representatives into a lobbying service organization, culminating in the Jack Abramov corruption scandal.
exit: In 2005 DeLay was indicted on campaign money laundering charges and left Congress after a year. He was convicted in 2011, but was eventually acquitted on appeal.
where are they now: In life after politics, DeLay was competitive dance with the stars Founded a lobby shop.
John Boehner
Term: Boehner, who was an architect alongside Gingrich in the 1994 revolution, was one of the coup planners who tried to remove Newt just three years later. Boehner, who has close ties to lobbyists, distributed checks to fellow members of the House of Representatives from the notorious Big Tobacco. In the aftermath of the delay scandal, Boehner became majority leader in 2006 after promising reform. But the radicals elected in the 2010 Tee-his party wave had little incentive to mate with leaders to get funding for Pet-his projects, so radicals to good government Not good for governance. This led to Boehner’s presidency being shaken from 2011 to his 2015 by far-right rebels in the Liberal Party Caucus, who valued ideological purity over legislative achievement.
exit: In 2015, Boehner was finally kicked out by members of the Freedom Caucus, led by Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, after a series of battles in which they fought off Chaos Agents who had given up their government funding. Boehner’s ally Peter King called it “a madman’s triumph”.
where are they now: After resigning, Boehner joined Reynolds Tobacco’s board of directors and is now a cannabis lobbyist. He was last seen in tears during a speech praising outgoing Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Paul Ryan
Term: Ryan was a House budget maniac and became a major figure in the Republican Party when he was elected Vice President by Mitt Romney in the 2012 election. Ryan was reluctant to take over as Speaker of the House from Boehner, but he proved in the collapsed caucuses that he was the only solidarity candidate. A deal from the Freedom Caucus to stop legislative-essential political parties from voting against them, Ryan wrestled in the Republican House of Representatives early in the Trump era, securing huge tax cuts for the richest corporations.
exit: In any normal party, Ryan would have picked up the gavel of the House Speaker who surrendered to Pelosi in 2018 and would still be in office. A small future in the populist MAGA era.
where are they now: Upon leaving Congress, Ryan jumped into a deal with the Murdoch family and became a director of Fox Corporation. He is also Vice Chairman of Teneo, a global consulting firm.
Kevin McCarthy
Term: McCarthy was elected to the House of Representatives after the 2010 Tea Party election and rose to the post of majority leader in 2014 when Eric Cantor resigned after a shock defeat in the Republican primary. (Admitting that the Benghazi poll was hoaxed to undermine Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers) and rumored personal indiscretions. At the time, McCarthy argued that the party needed “newcomers” and admitted, “I’m not that guy.” Overcome, McCarthy easily won the Republican nomination for the presidency last year.
exit: be decided.
where are they now: McCarthy can be found grinning on the floor of the House, bearing successive historical humiliations. Vote (so far) for his coveted speakership post.
