Spring Break Is Over
And like the swallows returning to Capistrano, the sophists have returned to Capitol Hill.
Note: This site can also be accessed by entering FeathersOfHope.net in your browser window.
For new readers, here are links to a few previous posts that will bring you up to date on what the Feathers of Hope network has been doing :
Wait, Exactly How Will We Do This? — (January 28)
Replacing McCarthy - A Progress Report — (February 16)
Moderate Republicans? Really? — (March 2)
Spread The Word, Write or Call Today — (April 6)
The only feasible way to remove and replace Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House, and thereby diminish the power and influence of MAGA extremists in the chamber, is for a cross-party alliance of moderate Republicans and Democrats to temporarily join forces and form a majority voting bloc. They can then “move to vacate the chair”, and elect a new Republican Speaker who owes nothing to the minority MAGA group.
Members of the House of Representatives are now back in their D.C. offices, having returned from their districts after a two-week break.
Here’s a link to their contact info in last week’s post: Now's The Time, House offices
Like many of you, I called several Members' home district offices last week. I left some voice mesages and had in-person conversations with about a half-dozen staffers. The staffers are unfailingly polite and very good listeners. I always make a point of asking whether I've explained myself clearly so they can relay our proposal to the Representatives. And while staffers are careful to not register agreement or disagreement, they are skilled at getting the message down quite accurately. (One did mention that mine was not the only call she'd received on the subject. That was good to hear.)
So for those of you who may be a little shy about calling, let me reassure you. More than half the time you'll just be leaving a voice message, and when you do connect with a staff member they are trained to be helpful and friendly.
Keep a record of who you call, the date and whether you left a voice message or talked to an actual person. It’ll be helpful to have this at hand when you call again. You didn’t know you’ll be calling again? Oh yes. This is a serious effort.
Unlike campaigns where the point is just to be counted as a supporter or opponent of some pending bill, we are trying to persuade people to do something bold. We are asking Republicans to shift allegiance to a different leader, while asking Democrats to vote for a Speaker from the opposition party. It’s not an easy task, and persistence is a big part of being persuasive.
Again, here's a link to last week's post, which has contact info for both the DC offices and District offices of the 19 House Members we're trying to influence:
We also need to contact writers, political commentators and columnists. We want to get people talking about the possibility of Speaker McCarthy being replaced. The more often it’s mentioned in media, the more plausible it will become and the more public support there will be.
Here are a few of the people I’ll be writing to this week:
Robert Reich (robertreich@substack.com), John Kasich (info@johnkasich.com), Charlie Sykes (morningshots@substack.com), Mona Charen (monacharen@thebulwark.com), Chris Cilliza (chriscillizza@substack.com), Jay Kuo (statuskuo@substack.com), Steven Beschloss (sb@stevenbeschloss.com) , Jill Lawrence (jilldlawrence@yahoo.com)
You can probably think of some more. It’s also good to post in the comment sections of whatever you regularly read, as well as on social media.
We want the prospect of McCarthy’s removal and replacement to become a regular part of the national media narrative.
Meanwhile . . .
-On Tuesday morning, the House officially re-convened and began debate on the subject of ( go ahead, take a guess! ) trans-gender athletes in schools.
It’s hard to think of a subject that affects fewer Americans’ lives. The total number of trans individuals in the country is about one-tenth of one percent of the population. And the sliver of this sliver who are competetive athletes must be truly miniscule. Yet Republicans are obsessing over this as though it were a challenge to every athletic program in America. After a two-week absence the Republican-led House returns to resume performative grandstanding.
And on the debt ceiling . . .
In a speech on Monday, Speaker Kevin McCarthy said this to a room full of Wall Street investors:
“Defaulting on our debt is not an option.”
Other than that, the speech was a bust. In a clumsy attempt to be reassuring, he offered nothing of substance to suggest that there will be any bill coming from the House that the Senate would pass or the President would sign. He repeated the usual tired list of political talking points, deflecting responsibility for his own failure onto Mr. Biden as though he were just a rival legislator from the opposing party rather than the President.
House Republicans report that they are intensely involved in negotiations on a bill to raise the debt ceiling. There have been countless meetings with more still scheduled, various caucuses have been producing proposals, and preliminary votes are being counted. Republican Study Committee Chairman Kevin Hern, (R-OK) said last week that passing a debt limit bill should be the House’s top priority in April: “We must work night and day to get it passed to show the American people we can be trusted..."
While this is all true, and it sounds like progress, the fact is that Republicans are only negotiating with themselves. And it's a pointless, ultimately futile gesture.
Different factions have made separate presentations outlining various spending cut options. But the MAGA minority almost certainly will refuse to support any debt limit increase that doesn't include provisions moderate establishment Republicans would reject.
Speaking candidly, Representative Tom Cole, Republican Chair of the House Rules Committee, goes even further, predicting that the MAGA extremists "will never vote for any debt ceiling increase."
And even if Mr. McCarthy were somehow able to scrape together 218 votes and present a unified Republican front, Senate Democrats and the President have been adamant from the outset that raising the debt ceiling is not negotiable. It must be what's called a "clean bill", having no conditions or requirements, for it to pass in the Senate and be signed into law.
To be clear, negotiating the details of the nation's budget is an essential part of what the legislature and the executive branch do together. No one is suggesting that it's not. But that is a separate procedure from increasing the statutory limit on the national debt. That is a necessary, recurring and ordinarily routine act, one required to avoid default.
There is no scenario in which the debt ceiling fails to be raised. Mr. McCarthy himself acknowledges this.
But since he can’t deliver 218 votes for a bill the President will sign, a cross-party alliance of moderate Republicans and Democrats will necessarily emerge at some point to do the job. And that's when we're urging the same bipartisan majority to step up, strip the MAGA minority faction of their undeserved dominance in the chamber by removing Kevin McCarthy as Speaker, and elect a moderate Republican to become new Speaker of the House.