Trouble in the House?

I don’t know what’s going on with this. Trump keeps saying different things about it and I’m not sure if he doesn’t know what he’s talking about (always a safe bet) or if they are doing some kind of weird public negotiating:

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy broke ranks with Donald Trump on Friday, telling CNBC that he supports funding the U.S. Postal Service.

“The Postal Service will have the funding that it needs,” McCarthy said, adding, “We will make sure of that.” McCarthy claimed Trump would not oppose the funding despite repeated statements by Trump saying he would do just that.

In May, McCarthy voted against a House coronavirus relief bill, the HEROES ACT, that would have provided $25 billion for the post office.

Shortly before the vote, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), chair of the House Government Operations subcommittee, warned: “If President Trump and the Senate GOP demand anything less than the Heroes Act provides, the Postal Service will continue to sink.”

There is restiveness in the caucus about McCarthy apparently. And it is laughable.

Let me just endorse Kos on this one:

Next year’s collective Republican amnesia will be something to behold. Forget “I didn’t read this tweet” responses to the latest outrage from America’s buffoon “leader” Donald Trump. They’re all going to pretend that he never existed as they rediscover their supposed “values” like not surrendering to Russia, family values (for thee, not me), and concern over budget deficits. 

But for now, Republicans are still marching in lockstep toward that November cliff called “Election Day.” At least they’re doing so publicly. Privately? They’re being extra ridiculous. 

“Discontent with Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is on the rise in the House, as Republicans increasingly fearful of a loss by President Trump on Election Day gear up for an intraparty war over the future of the GOP,” reports The Washington Post. “A cluster of GOP lawmakers is starting to privately question whether the California Republican is putting loyalty to the president over the good of the conference. And a small group of members is discussing whether someone should challenge him for minority leader if Trump is defeated Nov. 3.”

Ha ha ha ha ha ha. 

[Deep breath]

Ha ha ha ha ha ha. 

This is rich. 

Every single Republican in the House voted against articles of impeachment against Trump. The lone conservative who voted yes, Michigan Rep. Justin Amash, had to leave the party and become an independent to do so. 

And now, as House Republicans face further decimation in the House, two years after they got body slammed into the minority, they’re wondering if someone else has been too close to Trump? 

Oh, and these profiles in courage still can’t talk on the record, “[T]he frustration with McCarthy had already been brewing for weeks as Trump’s polling has sagged behind presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden. According to interviews with more than 10 House Republicans — all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to be frank — some GOP lawmakers are worried that McCarthy has tied the conference too much to Trump, refusing to stand up to the president or act as a buffer to distinguish the conference from him.” [Emphasis mine.]

Those 10 “worried” Republicans sure didn’t vote to impeach, that’s for sure. And when it came time to vote for the now-stalled coronavirus relief measure in May, only one voted yes—New York Rep. Peter King. And we know he’s not one of the 10 fretting GOPers. How do we know? Because he already announced his retirement.

That’s not Kevin McCarthy casting those votes. 

Of course, all Republicans have every reason to worry about November. Democrats maintain a healthy 8-10 point lead in the Civiqs generic congressional ballot daily tracker. (The same tracker spotted Democrats a 6-point 50-44 lead in 2018, an election in which the Democrats won the House popular vote by 8.6 points, 53.4-44.8.) 

And for sure, being tied to Trump has been an electoral disaster for the GOP. Look at college-educated white women, the lone demographic to have significantly moved in the past four years: 
 

NATIONAL VOTE,COLLEGE WHITE WOMEN	VOTE	MARGIN
2016 EXIT POLLS (PREZ)	51-44 Dem	+7 Dem
2018 EXIT POLLS (HOUSE)	59-39 Dem	+20 Dem

Polling this year has consistently shown continuing trouble among all college-educated whites, and especially women. (Trump and his party are even losing ground among non-college whites, but I don’t trust them to deliver Democratic votes just yet. They’ve been shown to be susceptible to racist appeals in the past.)

Trump is going down. He’s taking down his party’s Senate majority, and another chunk of House Republicans in mostly suburban districts. All that is clear. 

But anonymously whining that some guy is too pro-Trump, while every one of your public actions are explicitly and proudly pro-Trump, is a new level of ridiculous. 

Everyone who has enabled Trump, and that’s a near-unanimous calculation when it comes to Republican elected officials, deserves to be wiped out electorally. That entire QAnon-fueled party needs to be burned to the ground. And if a science- and reason-based conservative party emerges from its ashes? Fine. Let’s have debates on the future of our country based on observable reality. 

But unless your name is Mitt Romney, you don’t get to complain about the sorry, sad state of the modern GOP.

Sorry, Republicans. You created the party that has been running the country for the past four years. The results are obvious.

Trump is your creature. You cannot escape him. He is you and you are him.