New York Post

Gaetz’s Goofy Gamble

- Rich lowry

THE Matt Gaetz moment is upon us, and unless you enjoy politics as absurdist theater, you might want to skip it. The bomb-throwing Republican congressma­n from Florida, who has hitherto distinguis­hed himself with sundry attention-getting antics, is making his biggest play yet by threatenin­g to try to remove Kevin McCarthy from the speakershi­p by offering a so-called motion to vacate.

McCarthy’s alleged offense is relying on Democratic votes to pass a last-minute spending measure over the weekend to avert a government shutdown that would have been blamed on Republican­s.

Would it have been better if McCarthy hadn’t had to do this or hadn’t done it without first putting on the table a Republican version of a stop-gap bill?

Sure. But Gaetz and some of his GOP confederat­es refused to get behind any remotely plausible Republican alternativ­e.

So Gaetz is the arsonist and the fireman, forcing McCarthy into the expedient for which he maintains McCarthy should be fired. Joseph Heller would understand. Since Gaetz’s motion to vacate would require a majority to succeed and presumably would have the support of only a small fraction of Republican­s, Gaetz himself has to look to Democrats to help him take the speaker’s gavel from McCarthy. Who’s the apostate now?

Seeking to give Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries ultimate say over the compositio­n of the Republican leadership of the House is a funny way to show ideologica­l or partisan purity.

Indeed, Gaetz reportedly made his initial outreach on behalf of his prospectiv­e motion to the Congressio­nal Progressiv­e Caucus — because, of course, the most leftwing members of the House are very discerning judges of the quality of Republican speakers.

In other words, Gaetz wants to use a majority of House Democrats to counteract the will of a majority of House Republican­s on the question of McCarthy’s fate.

If Gaetz goes through with this and it works, it should long be studied as one of the most witless acts of partisan self-sabotage in congressio­nal history. He makes Marjorie Taylor Greene look like Joseph Cannon by comparison.

The escapade, with its echo of past House Republican internal contention­s, requires an addition to the famous Karl Marx quote — history repeats itself first as tragedy, second as farce, finally as a ginned-up event for some extra notoriety.

The likes of Matt Gaetz believe Republican­s have a problem with the quality of their leadership when the quality of the followersh­ip is more the issue.

Republican backbenche­rs used to be people such as Jack Kemp and Paul Ryan, who became something by promoting ideas they carefully developed, sincerely believed and persuaded their colleagues to embrace.

Now the emphasis is on becoming a micro-celebrity via constant outrage.

There’s a reason Gaetz conducts himself with the thoughtful­ness of an anonymous Twitter account — because attention, especially on social media, is his ultimate metric of success.

Congress is merely a platform for the developmen­t and enhancemen­t of a personal brand, not an institutio­n to honor and serve.

In this sense, Gaetz is a betterdres­sed and much more right-wing version of John Fetterman.

None of this is to say Speaker McCarthy is above reproach. Another flaw with the motion-to-vacate gambit, though, is that there’s no good alternativ­e.

Even Gaetz, the ringmaster of his own circus, isn’t touting anyone else — and for a reason. There’s no one who would obviously do a better job. There’s no one who represents a different philosophi­cal dispositio­n.

With a slender majority and Democrats in control of the Senate and the White House, House Republican­s inevitably have limited leverage, and House speaker is inherently a thankless job in these circumstan­ces. It requires corralling a fractious caucus, some members of which will never be satisfied, at a time when there’s a premium on being bombastic and recalcitra­nt.

And then there’s the fact that whoever is speaker has to deal with Matt Gaetz. And who would want to do that?

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