THE GOP KNUCKLEHEAD CAUCUS COURTS A SHUTDOWN FOR NO GOOD REASON
A destructive dynamic at work in U.S. politics today is the overarching incentive to create headlines — no matter how the policy or politics that generated the headlines play out.
The dynamic is an even more cynical, turbocharged version of “all publicity is good publicity.” The nation is witnessing a prime example now with the government shutdown, possibly beginning this weekend, instigated by an obstinate subset of the House GOP’s Freedom Caucus. I call them the Knucklehead Caucus.
The exception to this new rule is that no one, of course, wants the sort of headlines trailing Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., or Hunter Biden these days. But almost anything short of criminal-conduct allegations can be exploited for fundraising via social media-driven and text message-delivered appeals for donations of $5 or $10. Or perhaps parlayed into an on-camera cable news job.
How else to explain the conduct last week of Republicans Andy Biggs of Arizona, Dan Bishop of North Carolina, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, and Matthew M. Rosendale of Montana? These four Knucklehead Caucusers teamed up with Colorado’s Ken Buck, a temporary ally, to derail House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s plan to increase the GOP’s leverage in budget negotiations with President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats by launching a separate move to fund the Defense Department.
Buck is a pretty smart guy — he’s in the Freedom Caucus but not a lockstep member, criticizing his colleagues’ pressure on McCarthy to impeach Biden — so I was startled to see his name on the wrecking ball that razed McCarthy’s effort.
With the New York Post reporting last week that Buck was in the hunt for a CNN contributor slot, the congressman’s move against defense funding made (a little) sense. He called the newspaper later to say he might also be interested in working for rightleaning Fox News or Newsmax — perhaps realizing that CNN already has enough contributors in the “rogue Republican” category, and wanting to maximize this employment opportunity.
Buck soon extricated himself from the Knuckleheads’ clutches and publicly opposed a government shutdown, but the others apparently remain adamant about leading the country into this dead end.
I’m tempted to call what’s happening a “Seinfeld shutdown” because it’s a shutdown about nothing. But that would be unfair to the “show about nothing,” because that was always a misnomer: “Seinfeld” was about plenty of things. This shutdown, unless averted at the last minute, really is about nothing other than some politicians’ wretched self-interest.
Beyond Buck’s cable TV aspirations, Norman and Rosendale almost certainly are angling for Senate seats, and Bishop is already running for North Carolina attorney general. I have no explanation for Biggs, once upon a time a responsible legislator but now the unlikeliest of statewide candidates.
The Knucklehead Caucus somehow saw a political upside in risking a pay cutoff for military families in their states — a surprise attack that left plenty of observers scratching their heads. Yes, if there’s a shutdown, the government will inevitably start running again, as it always does, but military families making do on tight budgets may not think kindly of politicians’ adding to their burdens.
Not every member of the Knucklehead Caucus was involved in the anti-Pentagon stunt. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida may have been preoccupied by plotting to force out McCarthy with a motion to vacate the chair, as coups against House speakers are known. Though Gaetz says he simply wants to “hold Kevin McCarthy to his word” about cutting government spending, Maria Bartiromo on Fox News recently suggested that he has a “vendetta” against the speaker. Rolling Stone magazine reported in January that the Florida congressman detests McCarthy for not defending him more forcefully after news emerged in 2021 that Gaetz was the target of a federal investigation involving the sex trafficking of a minor. (No charges have been filed against him.)
In July, ABC News reported on the House Ethics Committee’s “recently reopened probe” of Gaetz “over allegations that include sexual misconduct, illicit drug use and potential public corruption.” He is almost certainly upset with McCarthy for letting the inquiry proceed. If Gaetz makes good on his threats to engineer McCarthy’s ouster, questions about his motive are going to figure prominently in the coverage.
Temporarily shutting down the federal government isn’t necessarily suicidal politics, but in this case that result seems certain. The Republican holdouts have no discernible, achievable objective here. Unfortunately, they’re doing this just when Republicans in Virginia — home to many federal workers who stand to be furloughed in a shutdown — make their closing pitches to voters that their party should be rewarded with legislative majorities to support Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s education reform and tax reduction plans.
That would be a big win for Republicans everywhere, but it apparently isn’t good enough for the GOP’s musketeers of mayhem. They need eyeballs. Eyeballs and clicks equal a war chest. These shutdown antics may ultimately backfire — Republicans, like their elephant symbol, have long memories — but consultants have a big incentive to increase campaign budgets, even at the expense of a sound election strategy. That may be the real key to the shutdown mystery: how to raise the most money before my candidate flames out.