How did the U.S. House end up in such paralysis?

By Jack Spiegel

So tell me a little bit about how the house got to the point that they are at right now — take me all the way back to January.

The debacle that positive all which is the 20 or so manga Republicans who refused to call their coalition and had to be the radicals in the group and demand another speaker, that speaker obviously a more radical Republican didn't have the votes in the Republican caucus or in the whole house deserve to get through. So , they broken a deal, the radicals and the moderates, and McCarthy are broken and people saying we can lower the threshold to remove the speaker, if the MAGA Republicans not like what the speaker does is when you speak in order to operate the house, so they brokered the deal. You now have an ousted speaker, which is the first time that's ever happened in US history. And the Republicans, Kevin McCarthy specifically set himself up for failure. This was bound to happen when you hold yourself hostage to a radical wing of the party, frankly, I’m surprised it didn't happen sooner.

Cappuzzo was president of Quinnipiac Democrats during his final year at Quinnipiac University. (Jack Spiege/Chronicle)

Why would Kevin McCarthy agree to that deal in the first place?

I think it comes down to purely selfish reasons, right? There's a book that came out in 2010 — it's called Young Guns. It was a book by Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy. Each one of those people has served as speaker or majority leader. You set up a narrative for the past 10 plus years that you are eventually going to be in House leadership. You're setting yourself up for failure because if you then get to a position where you're being held hostage, of course you're gonna take whatever deal you have to broker in order to become speaker.

What was some of the reasoning for the Gaetz-six to oust Speaker McCarthy?

I think it really comes down to the America first agenda. To that notion of oh, we have to put our Americans first, but you're okay with funding other operations in other countries? I think it's really strange that they're choosing the issue of Ukraine. But there's other foreign policy issues where they're okay with issuing funding. It's just really strange how Ukraine is the is the straw that breaks the camel's back.

How do you think this effects Republican reelection efforts in in 2024?

It doesn't. You know, people are going to vote however they want to vote. I mean, there's a scandal within politics every single day now. And I think that's largely in part because of Trump, where you can say or do whatever you want, and it doesn't impact your reelection chances. For better for worse.

The House has been without a speaker since Oct. 9. Government funding runs out once again in just over one month. (Jack Spiegel via C-SPAN)

No not Joseph McCarthy, but you know, they’re dirty words. I don't think that calling your opponent saying this is your fault, you're the devil, the problem is gonna cause any.

We have another government shutdown looming in 30 days. How do you think this affects other policy positions in addition to government funding?

It was gonna shut down at some point, right. You're not going to pass a spending bill that’s going to last more than a year. It's not not possible to— government is not made to function in that way, at least at this point in time. Whether you have a speaker or not, nothing was getting passed. I think there’s another shutdown coming.

Rep. Bob Good (R-AZ) and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) were two of 8 Republicans to vote to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy. (Jack Spiegel via C-SPAN)

Does this hurts McCarthy at all? Do you think he's gonna run for reelection?

I see no reason that he doesn't get reelected. Bakersfield is pretty conservative. Right? I really don't believe that. electoral politics are tangible. I don't think there's anything you can say or do [to change people’s minds] like in the past — which means go back 50 years, the October surprise and slang election. Not anymore. It doesn't matter what you say or do people's minds are largely made up, they have a pre-developed narrative that we can't really tell how they're going to vote a certain way, regardless of what you say your policy positions don't matter.

Do you see government as largely predetermined for the foreseeable future?

I don't see government as predetermined. I see the electoral basis predetermined. With the exception of a few voters and a few very important states, I don't think people are really going to vote for President President Biden, today and change their vote to President Trump or vice versa. I don't think someone who's voting for Trump a year from now saying ‘I really liked that President Biden reduced insulin prices to $35.’

So what's your prediction for who the next speaker is going to be and when that speaker is going to come?

I don't have a prediction about that. I frankly have no idea what is going to come. What I hope happens is that Democrats can broker a deal with moderate Republicans because the reality is they're only six votes short. they feel a heading a coalition of moderate Republicans who actually want to get work done and say hey, look, ‘we'll vote for like whoever you guys want to put up. If you if you promise to vote for X, Y and Z’ — broker deal with them to get a Republican Speaker who will help the democrats.

Do you think any of this affects Democrats’ Electoral chances, McCarthy himself has been saying that this is the Democrats fault, because all of voted of them voted him out of his position. Do you think that's going to work?

Mitt Romney, when he was governor of Massachusetts, implemented something like Obamacare in Massachusetts. When Obama tried to pass Obamacare, as a national level, he was called the communists. Whatever you want to do - whatever Democrats try to do, Republicans have always called them communist or socialist. don't think saying something is someone's fault is going to impact the election of communism and socialism to be really dirty words of politics. They still are dirty words, but not as much as the McCarthy era, ironically enough-

Not Joseph McCarthy you’re referring to, though-