By all appearances, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is not personally corrupt, or at least not in the most familiar sense of that word. Given existing political reality — meaning the profound cynicism, nihilism and tribal bitterness of the institution he supposedly governs — that may not be a net positive. When Salon did some reporting on McCarthy's personal circumstances a few years ago, it emerged that he and his wife owned a modest home in Bakersfield, California, a distinctly unglamorous inland city at the heart of one of the Golden State's few remaining solidly Republican congressional districts. Kevin and Judy McCarthy met as students at Bakersfield High School and have been together ever since. Judy McCarthy has a full-time job as a fundraiser for the California Republican Party, another institution with a remarkable downward trajectory. (Which, in fairness, is probably not her fault.)
But friends and fam, lend me your ears — I come not to praise Kev, although I hardly need to bury him. He's doing a terrific job of that all by himself, and keeps on eagerly handing shovels to his enemies. How else can we account for the dewy-eyed innocence of McCarthy's response this week, after two failed procedural votes to bring a defense appropriations bill to the floor of the House? It's perfectly true, as Salon's Tatyana Tandanpolie reported on Thursday, that under normal circumstances such votes on House rules are predictable partisan affairs: Members of the majority party all vote in favor, even on occasions when debate and disagreement about the actual bill in question are likely to follow.
