Why did Kevin cross the road?

About to be flattened, he saw a better offer on the other side.

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Note: This site can also be accessed by entering FeathersOfHope.net in your browser window.

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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)

Escape From MAGA World — (May 3)

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Feathers of Hope is a network of ordinary citizens committed to advocating for the removal and replacement of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House, thereby diminishing the power and influence of MAGA extremists in the chamber.

We have been urging moderate Republicans and Democrats in the House of Representatives to form a temporary bipartisan majority voting bloc for the purpose of passing a motion to “vacate the chair” and elect a new Republican Speaker who owes nothing to the minority MAGA group.

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One week ago, a bill to raise the debt limit passed the House with a Democratic majority.

How did that happen? And what does it mean for our network?

That’s the question I’ve been asking myself the last few days. Ever since the marathon balloting to elect a Speaker of the House in January, everyone who follows this sort of thing knew there would be a “debt ceiling crisis” in the Spring. Kevin McCarthy had promised it to MAGA extremists in exchange for their votes.

Mr. McCarthy had also agreed to a rule allowing any single member of Congress to bring to the floor a “motion to vacate the Chair”. This essentially means that the Speaker could be removed from office at any time if the motion passes and he fails to get a majority vote to retain his seat.

It was thought that this combination, along with several other promises (some explicit, some implied) made the Speaker a captive of the radical MAGA minority. Whatever they wanted to do, no matter how reckless or irresponsible, they’d have Speaker McCarthy on their side.

A Speaker of the House of Representatives whose loyalty lay with the farthest right-wing fringe of the Republican Party being second in the line of succession for the presidency filled this citizen with dread. As a direct response, Feathers Of Hope was launched in early January.

The stated goal of our network was to see Kevin McCarthy removed and replaced by a moderate Republican Speaker who would owe nothing to MAGA extremists. Our aim was to reduce the power of a radical MAGA minority in the chamber.

In the post Why Are We Still Trying to Unseat McCarthy? , I explained as follows:

“Well first, it's nothing personal.  I don't particularly like Kevin McCarthy, but I don't loathe him either.  There's really not enough substance to the man to evoke such a deep emotion.  In his adult life, he’s never been anything other than an ambitious politician.  His apparent lack of any deeply held beliefs or principles has served him well on his path to the Speakership.  He's an opportunist, not an authoritarian.”

This was published on February 9, two days after President Biden’s State of the Union Address. Referring to that night, the post continued:

“That woman in the white coat, standing and shouting "liar" at the President during his speech, is an elected member of Congress. She, and more than a few others, proudly represent and defend the mob who assaulted our Capitol on January 6, 2021. Marjorie Greene recently boasted that if she had been in charge that day, the insurrection would have been better organized and better armed. 

Speaker Kevin McCarthy says, "I'll never leave her."  She in turn will continue to partner with him so long as he remains a faithful servant of theirs. If this weren't so serious, it'd be merely pathetic.  And frankly, if Greene were a man she’d be taken far more seriously by everyone. Keep in mind, Marjorie Greene and her allies are armed and dangerous, fully prepared to carry-out what the insurgency started two years ago.”

So our effort to replace Kevin McCarthy was always the means to an end.  That end is to marginalize and isolate MAGA extremists in the House of Representatives before they consolidate their gains and tighten their grip on the levers of power.

A strong and independent Republican Speaker supported by a bipartisan majority, would owe them nothing. The traditional power dynamic between Speaker and members, one where the Speaker is in charge, would be restored.

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As expected, Speaker McCarthy failed to pass a debt limit raise before the deadline to do so, thus initiating the “crisis”.

There’s no need to repeat the sequence of events that followed. We all know about the threat to default and the public pronouncements, the negotiations and the final resolution. But the mystery remains.

What happened to the MAGA threat?

The key date for understanding the answer is April 26.

That’s the date the House of Representatives passed the “Save, Limit, Grow Act.” Working furiously to garner the needed 218 votes, Mr.McCarthy pleaded with moderate Republicans to support the bill despite their opposition to many of the cuts MAGA was demanding. But tax incentives and subsidies in President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act are already benefitting their districts, so voting for their repeal would be hard for moderates to defend back home.

Desperate, the Speaker begged them to ignore the substance of the bill, because it would never become law anyway. Instead, they should focus on the symbolic victory of passing any legislation to cut spending and raise the debt ceiling.

From that moment, Kevin McCarthy knew that he had a losing hand. He would never be able to deliver 218 votes for any compromise he and President Biden might agree to. Unwilling to accept a legacy of being the man responsible for an American default, the only thing left to be negotiated was how much Republicans would have to give up to get Democratic votes.

Ironically, bowing to MAGA’s demand for drastic spending cuts as a condition for raising the debt limit left Kevin McCarthy with no choice but to betray MAGA.

Now his number one problem had become how to save his Speakership. The extremists would be furious. He feared the party would split and he’d be branded a loser. A motion to vacate was a distinct possibility.

Fortunately, Joe Biden understood all this as well. And in exchange for the best budget agreement Democrats could hope for with a Republican House, they could provide what Mr. McCarthy wants most of all — enough votes to assure he’ll remain Speaker. Negotiations were completed, the bill passed and was signed May 30.

• The extremist MAGA minority has been significantly marginalized.

• And the Republican Speaker now owes his position to a bipartisan majority.

Of course, some Republicans are indeed furious. Powerless to do anything about it, one Freedom Caucus member complained that the end result was a “turd sandwich”.

Kevin McCarthy on the other hand, flew to San Francisco the next day where he had lunch with a few friends who paid $100,000 per couple to sit at his table.

The menu was not disclosed.

(Yes, that’s what it says: $100,000 to sit at the head table. $50,000 to sit nearby. Cheap seats in back only $25,000 )