Kevin McCarthy: The Gift That Keeps On Giving
Remember Kevin McCarthy? The guy who took 15 votes to become House Speaker, and one vote to “unbecome” one? Well, here on the Left Coast, where Kevin is from, we still have a problem – of sorts.
Seems that Kevin chose to quit his job as Congressman for California’s 20th district so close to the California primary filing date – which has just passed – that he has caused a major conundrum here.
McCarthy’s protégé, one Vince Fong, his former district director, was urged by McCarthy to run for his vacated spot. Fong, testing the winds, declined the offer because the better known California State Senator, Shannon Grove, whose district overlaps Kev’s former one, was the preferred candidate. So he qualified and filed for re-election to his current posting as a California Assemblyman. Then, the world shook as Senator Grove also declined the golden opportunity to serve in the cesspool that the US House of Representatives has become.
So quicker than you can say, “Lauren Bobert’s hand job,” ol’ Vince filed to finish McCarthy’s unelapsed term.
That makes a total of two offices that Vince Fong was running for – one more than allowed by state law.
Or so said Secretary of State Shirley Weber.
This led to a trade-off of threats to file suit between Fong and Congressman-Wanna-Be David Giglio, who had already decided to primary Kevin. I’ve visited Giglio’s website (and you can, too, just not with Juanita’s and my help). He is not just MAGA, Giglio is, shall we say, MEGAMAGA. TFG would be bonkers not to endorse him.
So, according to the article linked above, if Vince Fong has no path to the CD-20 ballot, and that seems likely, California Republicans will have a choice between Giglio, the Tulare County Sheriff, or the owner of a Native American casino to replace their favorite former congressman.
Oh, they could vote for one of the Democrats on the ballot, but in this Cook Partisan Voting Index R +16 district, that seems doubtful.
I’m confused (and not for the first time, I might add): Aren’t California elections (nominally) non-partisan? I understood that the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, will duke it out. Or, is this different because it’s a special election?
Oh, and what’s in water in Bakersfield?
1Where MAGAS go, trouble is sure to follow.
2BarbinDC @1: with apologies to Hunter Thompson, and those who have not read the book:
We were somewhere around Bakersfield when the politics began to take hold. I remember saying something like “I feel a bit frightened; maybe you should drive ….” And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the road was full of what looked like huge pickup trucks, all swooping and screeching and diving around with giant Trump flags flapping.
Then it was quiet again. My attorney muttered “What the hell are you yelling about?” “Never mind,” I said. “It’s your turn to drive.” No point mentioning the red MAGA hats, I thought. The poor bastard will see them soon enough.
3Isn’t it spelled “grift?”
4Need to change MAGA to MAAFC. If anyone has missed the message of der leader for months, it’s make America a fascist country. I was reading several accounts of gop congress critters today from the Sunday news show rounds and their excuses for continuing to support trumpf and trivializing his Hitler plans. It’s really troubling. If 1/3 of the voters are what you would call MAGA, I hope the other 2/3 will call bullshit on electing a candidate that supports trumpf. That includes the voters from Bakersfield up and down I-5 because there’s a lot of MAGAts up and down that interstate.
5With our top-2 primary system, if the Dems could agree on a single top-tier appealing candidate, at least we’d ensure Dem vs Rep in the general. Yeah, we’re still stuck with the electorate a couple of hours down the road from us in liberal little Davis, but miracles sometimes happen.
6In the opinion of this blog community, can a certain government be fascist but not be extreme enough to be considered nazi. Are there levels of fascist??
7It took Ernst Nolte 450 pages to answer that question, in ‘Three Faces of Fascism.”
The components of fascism (which originated in France) are few but the key is fuhrerprinzip. The leader. Which, of course, implies followers. There are plenty of would-be leaders, rarely does one find his (always his) followers.
The Republican Party is pure fascism: the leader can do no wrong, and everybody follows the leader.
There can be fascistic governments that have no individual fuhrer. Their features include extreme nationalism, often irredentism, scapegoating minorities, centralized administration, weak or non-exstent rule of law etc.
It is a curious — or perhaps not — fact that almost all fascist movements originated in Catholc countries.
8I should add, that last remark is not from Nolte. It is my observation and I have never seen anyone else make it, but it cannot be an accident.
9So, Harry, is Putin the Fuhrer of a Fascist government. By definition??
10Yes
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