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It’s a pretty safe bet at the next gathering of California House of Representatives members, should such an event transpire, Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) will not be picking up Adam Schiff or Eric Swalwell’s bar tab. This decidedly less than surprising notion comes courtesy of McCarthy’s speech on March 11th to the California Republican Party Spring 2023 Organizing Convention, during which he flat-out called Schiff and Swalwell liars. From the Sacramento Bee:
He accused Schiff and Swalwell of lying “time and time again” during their tenure on the House Intelligence Committee, which oversees the FBI, the CIA, and other national security agencies.
McCarthy did not explain Saturday what Schiff allegedly lied about. In the past he has accused Schiff of lying when he claimed he did not know the whistleblower who had first-hand knowledge that Trump tried to get Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden.
“When a whistleblower came forward, [Schiff] said he did not know the individual even though his staff had met with him and set it up,” McCarthy told reporters in January.
In the same speech, McCarthy also tore into California Governor Gavin Newsom.
McCarthy had similarly strong words for Gov. Newsom — and Democratic “overspending” in general.
“We’ve watched what Gavin has done to our state,” he said. Newsom is “the only Governor I know that can take a budget surplus and bring it into a budget deficit.”
“He’s the only Governor I know in the country that thinks spending $128 billion on a train to nowhere is a good investment … the only thing I think Gavin spends more time on than high speed rails is spending time on his hair.”
It is simultaneously refreshing and exciting that McCarthy would be so blunt in his comments. It is also a mite puzzling. Given how much of modern politics is constantly pointing toward the next election, looking for any pull-quote usable to bolster one’s standing among the faithful, not providing same is standard operational procedure. McCarthy’s comments are blue-meat fodder for Schiff’s Senatorial campaign.
They also are usable by Swalwell. Despite the laughable failure of his 2020 presidential campaign, Swalwell clearly has his eye on higher office, most likely the governorship whenever Newsom tires of the job. Perhaps McCarthy is, in his way, living out something Hawkeye Pierce said on M*A*S*H:
You know what a hero is? Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, he’s somebody who’s tired enough and cold enough and hungry enough not to give a damn. I don’t give a damn.
While during his tenure as House Speaker, McCarthy has made good on specific promises — for example, he kicked Schiff and Swalwell off the House Intelligence Committee and kept them off despite House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ whining — he has much more ground to cover. A good starting place would be the inept CA GOP, which in addition to being such a money-sopping cluster in statewide elections it makes Ronna McDaniel look like Scott Presler, is quite possibly harboring bad actors actively working on China’s behalf. This is even more important given further comments McCarthy made during his speech.
McCarthy said that the first of his three priorities going into 2024 is the country’s $31 million (sic) deficit; his other priorities are changing the education system via a “Parents Bill of Rights” and taking a more aggressive approach in dealing with China.
Good talk, Mr. Speaker. Now, let’s see action.
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