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Kevin McCarthy Is An Egotist
Last night, Kevin McCarthy finally got enough votes from his fellow members of the House of Representatives to become Speaker of the House for the next two years. This was after four days and fifteen rounds of voting, with a handful of Republicans refusing to vote for McCarthy until the very end on the basis that he was not conservative enough to fight the Biden Administration.
Let me explain what happened in no uncertain terms: Kevin McCarthy did not have the votes needed to become Speaker of the House because, despite his party having the majority in the House, some of its members — mainly from the Freedom Caucus — did not believe he was a good choice. In response to that, McCarthy did not admit defeat and attempt to find somebody who could be a good pick. Instead, he and his loyalists spent nearly a week stopping anybody from being Speaker of the House, and promised to continue doing so unless Kevin got his way. It’s not as if his loyalists wouldn’t have voted for any other Republican if Kevin told them to (and it’s not as if the Republican Party is intellectually diverse enough for it to make a difference which Republican is in charge), instead McCarthy quite literally just waisted the time of the entire nation until enough people gave in and made him Speaker.
