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DEALING
ITEM: Kevin McCarthy doesn’t have a pact for the votes.
What that loudmouth will say on your morning Zoom: Enough already. This clown show needs to end. Give someone else a try.
What you should say on your morning Zoom: Since McCarthy has 200 votes and no one else can claim to be able to get a majority, he isn’t giving up until he has to. He has bought time until next week. UNLESS, a bloc of his supporters freak out today when they see what he has agreed to in order to try to win votes — and then a test vote suggests he can’t win a majority. In which case it could all come crashing down by COB. Unless it doesn’t. Because no one knows.
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BODY LANGUAGE READING
ITEM: Watch this video of Kevin McCarthy talking to the media Thursday night.
What that loudmouth will say on your morning Zoom: The poor guy clearly knows he isn’t getting this job.
What you should say on your morning Zoom: The poor guy is clearly on edge because he has no idea if he is getting this job.
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AGREEING
ITEM: The entire commentariat – from the near-far right to the far left – all agree on three matters:
a. The rebels are pathetic, craven manifestations of the worst incentives in our Freak Show politico-media culture.
b. Kevin McCarthy is a pathetic and craven man for caving into the rebels just to satisfy his personal ambition to get a job that his concessions make not worth having.
c. All of this reflects both all-too accurately and poorly on the state of the Republican Party and bodes bad for governing in 2023.
This consensus makes Fox News commentators sound like MSNBC commentators when talking about Matt Gaetz & Co.. It makes Matthew Continetti sound like Peggy Noonan sound like Rich Lowry sound like John Harris, who says
For now, McCarthy has maneuvered himself into a situation where he might face something worse than losing the speakership: Winning it under conditions like these.
What that loudmouth will say on your morning Zoom: I’ve never agreed with Nancy Pelosi more!
What you should say on your morning Zoom: As Kim Strassel (who joins the rest in denouncing the rebels) points out, a vast majority of the rules changes sought by the anti-McCarthy group are actually populist good government measures meant to break the grip of the establishment and advance conservative principles. That is true of even many of the elements of the second tranche of demands McCarthy is negotiating over now. Sure, some are power-grab ultimatums or rules that could make the House unmanageable. But it would serve the Republic well if the concepts in the agreement being codified were evaluated by the public and experts one by one, rather than being lumped in as simply “concessions” – some of which, to be sure, are indeed horrible ideas that will weaken the institutions of the House and the speakership.
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BORDERING
ITEM:
President Joe Biden said Thursday the U.S. would immediately begin turning away Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans who cross the border from Mexico illegally, his boldest move yet to confront the arrivals of migrants that have spiraled since he took office two years ago.
What that loudmouth will say on your morning Zoom: Too little, too late, too Trumpy, too much.
What you should say on your morning Zoom: It’s all about the execution, so only time will tell..
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REMEMBERING
ITEM: Today is January 6.
What that loudmouth will ask on your morning Zoom: Has it been one year, two years, or three years?
What you should say on your morning Zoom: “Never again” might mean different things to different people, but, truly “never again.”
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SPARING
ITEM:
What that loudmouth will say on your morning Zoom: Wake me up before you go-go.
What you should say on your morning Zoom: Hey, now, hey, now, don’t dream it’s over.