Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Kevin McCarthy's Very Bad Week

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Kevin McCarthy, a Republican representing California's 23rd congressional district, has been a politician almost his entire adult life.  As the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives he knows full well that politicians experience both good times and bad - it's the nature of the game.   And while McCarthy has experienced more than a fair share of success in his political career, last week, for him at least, was most certainly a loser.

Kev, who like my own Republican representative in Congress, Jason Smith, does not like to leave anything to chance.  McCarthy, for instance, hasn't held a town hall since June of 2010, preferring, like Rep. Smith and so many other Republican congressmen, to use screened phone calls instead - and with smirks on their faces calling those "town halls."  So it was an odd occurrence last week when an action by Kevin McCarthy brought a bit of fresh air and ridicule to the Republican side of the House.

McCarthy, in the spirit of "professional development," brought in a speaker to enlighten and inspire members of the Republican House leadership.  He made what he assumed was a relatively safe choice and selected Larry Lindsey, the former director of the National Economic Counsel under President George W. Bush, to give a jolt of enthusiasm to his fellow Republicans.

But instead of talking economics, or political strategies, or how to fool the rubes, or even sharing possible plot twists for Game of Thrones, Lindsey instead went off on a verbal tirade about Donald John Trump!  And to make matters worse, the national media got wind of his remarks!

Larry Lindsey said that he had enlisted two psychiatrists to study Trump - at a distance - and that they had concluded Trump was a "total narcissist," or, in clearer terms, "a 10-out-of-10 narcissist."  That is something that much of America already knew, and even something that most of those dopey congressmen also knew, but it was not something that they expected to hear stated as fact in a public setting - and especially stated by a speaker brought into address them on their own dime!

Larry Lindsey apparently elaborated on that diagnosis by adding that Trump's mother most likely did not pay adequate attention to him during his formative years - perhaps in much the same manner as he raised his own children.  The speaker also stated for the record that Trump had the long-term decision-making skills of "an empty chair."

Significantly, after that total roast, there was still no one willing among Republicans in Congress to move toward impeaching their extremely flawed President.  Well, not until the end of the week.

Late in the week a young Republican Congressman from Michigan, Justin Amash, became the first sitting GOP member of Congress to call for Trump's impeachment, a move that frosted the cake of a week that McCarthy was having.  The GOP wall of solidarity in defense of Trump had its first crack.

More on Justin Amash tomorrow.

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