Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyOctober 8th, 2015
NBC is reporting a rather surprising turn of events in the race to replace John Boehner as Speaker of the House.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy has abruptly pulled out of the race for Speaker of the House on the same day that he was widely expected to be nominated for the position.
The nominating contest in the GOP conference set for Thursday afternoon in the House has been postponed.
This is very not good for our community.
McCarthy is a conservative Republican and not an advocate for our equality. However, through his tenure as Majority Leader he has purposefully avoided social issues. His votes were against us, but he did not raise issues or go out of his way to support the more extreme measures of the far right.
The remaining candidate, on the other hand, is a nightmare.
Until today, the tea partiers had two candidates. The first, Jason Chaffetz should be well known to BTB readers. A California Jewish Democrat turned Utah Mormon Republican, Chaffetz has often led quixotic charges against the gay community. He was the frontman on the attack on marriage equality in Washington DC, seeking to impose a Federal override of the locally elected representatives. He wasn’t very successful.
He also isn’t very smart.
He is, however, dedicated to far right ideology and not afraid to let a little thing like constitutionality or the continuing functionality of government to stand in his way. As Speaker, Chaffetz would lead standoffs with the other branches of government, demand shutdowns, and advance bills that are consistent with his social agenda irrespective of whether they have support.
He would not just be bad for our community, he’d be bad for the country. And the Freedom Caucus (as the tea partiers have renamed themselves) apparently saw that and chose to have Daniel Webster, a rep from Florida, as their candidate.
I know less about Daniel Webster. He is, however, a far right conservative with strong religious ties to the more extreme end of evangelical Christianity. He is a fierce foe of equality and a supporter of a constitutional amendment to remove the rights of gay citizens.
Also, simply that he has been selected as the choice of those who see government as a means to put their theological doctrines into civil law should be enough to let us know that he’s not someone we want as Speaker of the House.
Webster is unlikely to be the first choice of establishment Republicans. He’s just too far out there.
So it’s difficult to predict what McCarthy’s move will mean.
It is possible that McCarthy is trying to shake up the party a bit and show them the possibility of one of the crazies being in charge so as to have them consolidate in support. Or he may be stepping aside to allow another establishment rep to come forward.
But if he’s clearing the road for Webster, it’s going to be an interesting, frustrating, and crazy year before the voters rush to the polls to remove the Republican majority next November.
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Mark F.
October 8th, 2015
Tim,
I’m no fan of most Republicans, but what anti-gay social legislation could they actually get through the Congress right now, regardless of who the Speaker is? Even with a Republican President in 2017, the Senate filibuster would stop most of the craziest stuff.
Timothy Kincaid
October 8th, 2015
Mark,
I’m doubtful that any “protect marriage” bills could pass. But under Boehner – and presumably McCarthy – they were not brought to the floor or debated. The vicious language and nastiness was averted. Under Webster, I assume that these bills would be given a hearing and the nation subjected to the voices of hate being given “equal time” on the airwaves.
I also think that with the tea partiers calling the agenda, we will have a much greater problem with “religious freedom” bills. Not the libertarian-minded ‘let private individuals do what they want’ bills, but the ‘let bigots in administrative positions refuse taxpayer-funded service to gay people’ type.
MattNYC
October 8th, 2015
This was the guy hand-picked to knock off Alan Grayson during the Republican Wave of 2010 and he is as crazy and dumb as Grayson is wily and smart.
I really don’t know who the establishment is going to dig out to restore stability (notice I did NOT say sanity or order) to the House GOP. Any reasonable Republican that doesn’t want to be living on Zantac and hiring a food taster for 12 months is going to steer clear.
Boehner can technically continue to serve until a majority of the conference can decide on someone.
It brings to mind when the California Democrats selected a liberal Republican as Speaker when they had a 50-50 split. I think Willie Brown engineered that as one of his last acts in teh chamber.
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