The Livingston precedent
by digby
I’m sure this was just an excuse — the Benghazi comments were the kiss of death. But it may have been the excuse he needed to drop out:
There’s a guy out in America who has emails for a massive number of members of Congress and the email addresses of highly influential conservatives outside Congress.
A few days ago, he emailed out to 91 people, including these members of Congress, an email with a series of links to stories alleging a relationship between Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) of North Carolina. It is worth nothing that the two deny a relationship.
But the email began circulating pretty heavily. Conservatives were buzzing about it. The first line pointed to the current scandal about Denny Hastert and concluded suggesting that if the rumor about McCarthy and his personal life were true, he was a national security risk.
Then, as Matt Lewis noted there was this odd quote from Ellmers the other day.
Even some natural leadership allies such as Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) (R-N.C.) expressed doubts about promoting McCarthy to Speaker, a job second in line to the presidency.
“He has not spoken to me personally for my vote, and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) has, so that’s where I am right now. At this point I will be casting a vote for Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) 81%,” said Ellmers, who is facing a GOP primary challenger. “I can’t vote for someone who doesn’t ask for my vote.
“I’m apparently not high on his priority list,” she added.
A lot of people in Washington, including the members of Congress on that email chain, were scratching their head. It appeared there was smoke. Then Congressman Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) 89% demanded candidates with “moral turpitude issues” get out of the race. Add all of this with McCarthy’s statement undermining the Benghazi investigation and . . . well . . . .
It is again worth noting that both parties deny it. But the rumor itself may have led to McCarthy’s collapse. It has become a louder buzz over the past few days with more and more people on and off the hill talking about it. Once Ellmers’ odd quote was out there, the buzzing became chatter.
Now this.
We really are partying like it’s 1999.
Personally, I think this is nonsense. McCarthy didn’t make it because he’s a dolt and he’s unacceptable to wingnuts. (They want that Duggar nutball Daniel Webster.) I don’t know why anyone would care that he’s having an affair, if he’s having an affair. But you can see that the Villagers are very stimulated by the story. Of course.
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