“The office of Speaker of the House of the United House of Representatives is hereby declared vacant.”
Bang gave the gavel.
And America marked a historic new low in the country’s seemingly daily ritual of humiliation.
Late Tuesday afternoon, in a shambolic, clumsy own goal, eight House Republicans voted along with every Democrat to remove Congressman Kevin McCarthy as speaker.
This would be shocking if it weren’t yet another example of the utter incompetence of the American political class – from top to bottom.
In the White House, our doddering 80-year-old president is the rightful focus of an impeachment inquiry.
His biweekly blunders and senior moments endanger the nation he incompetently leads, while his influential son strolls from child support hearings to state dinners to courtrooms without a hint of shame.
And speaking of courts, when he’s not on the campaign trail, the Republican Party’s leading presidential candidate is in the dock, facing 91 state and federal charges, followed by an overzealous, politically biased American justice system.
Although Trump is certainly not doing himself any favors as he rants and proposes the death penalty for his perceived enemies, such as a former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Last weekend the government nearly shut down — and no one cared, except the federal workers and uniformed soldiers who went almost unpaid.
The southern border is so dangerously wide open — even Democratic mayors are pleading with our Democratic president to do something — anything — to slow a mass migration crisis.
Late Tuesday afternoon, in a shambolic, clumsy own goal, eight House Republicans voted along with every Democrat to remove Congressman Kevin McCarthy as speaker.
In an epic act of self-love, egomaniac Matt Gaetz, who posts Game of Thrones meme selfies on social media, drove the government into a ditch so he could get his smiling face on TV.
And all the while, America’s octogenarian leadership wanders the halls of power, falling down, freezing, and tragically dying of old age just hours after casting the vote.
We’re through the looking glass.
But just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse, an ethically challenged former boyfriend of an admitted sex trafficker, a sad excuse for a congressman, leads a kamikaze mission to oust the most popular Republican in Congress from his leadership.
And why?
In an epic act of self-love, egomaniac Matt Gaetz, who posts Game of Thrones meme selfies on social media, drove the government into a ditch so he could get his smiling face on TV.
Do not you believe it?
Well, then ask yourself: what does the man from Florida do next?
Gaetz claims to be acting out of genuine concern and accuses McCarthy of failing to fix the House of Representatives’ broken legislative process.
At least at that point he’s over the mark. Congress is dysfunctional and our government should not be funding the Leviathan of unaccountable federal agencies without necessary oversight.
But what is Gaetz’s solution? To plunge the entire country into even greater chaos?
Now the House has no Speaker.
The country’s governance grinds to a halt until we reenact the Byzantine drama of the election of a new leader in January and round after round of meaningless speeches.
Then only fifteen ballots were needed to elect McCarthy. All he had to do was give fringe Republicans the power to fire him at a moment’s notice. And – big surprise – they succeeded!
Who in their right mind would want this job?
And let’s be clear that Democrats, and especially Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, have their own special culpability for this surprisingly sad turn of events.
Jeffries claimed he wanted the Republicans to end their civil war for the good of the country, but if so, why not instruct Democrats to join the 90 percent of Republicans who voted to remove McCarthy’s skin to rescue?
This would be shocking if it weren’t yet another example of the utter incompetence of the American political class – from top to bottom. In the White House, our doddering 80-year-old president is the rightful focus of an impeachment inquiry.
His biweekly blunders and senior moments endanger the nation he incompetently leads, while his influential son strolls from child support hearings to state dinners to courtrooms without a hint of shame.
You will be shocked to learn that it is the American people who will bear the brunt of this, their concerns remaining unaddressed while the Washington dandies preen for the cameras.
What an olive branch it could have been. What a step towards progress, a step towards a government that functions as it should.
If even the Democrats couldn’t stomach a vote in support of a Republican, they could have at least voted present and lowered the threshold of votes that McCarthy needed to hold on.
Instead, Democrats proactively accelerated its demise.
And again, for what? I think we know, when the Democrats rushed to CNN and MSNBC to rub it into the Republicans. So much for their concern for democracy and our beloved institutions.
You will be shocked to learn that it is the American people who will bear the brunt of this, their concerns remaining unaddressed while the Washington dandies preen for the cameras.
Isn’t that always the way?
Time and time again the American people say they don’t want Biden versus Trump, but that doesn’t matter.
We say we want a safe border and men out of women’s sports, and we get poorly written episodes of the West Wing and House of Cards.
No one in Washington seems to care what we want. It’s all a game of musical chairs, and whichever pompous windbag lands a chair, we lose.
This is the part of the column where I have to emphasize that America is better than all of this, but are we right?