Quick take: Kevin McCarthy didn't just ask for this, he demanded it

 As Kevin McCarthy heads toward the inevitable shutdown that he does not want and cannot figure out how to avoid, here is his dilemma.  A large faction of his caucus will demand his head on a platter, through a motion to vacate, if he cuts a deal with Biden and Senate Democrats.  Neither Biden nor Senate Democrats have any incentive to cave completely to GOP demands.  Biden caved almost completely on the debt ceiling, but he and Senate Democrats will let a shutdown extend until the public turns so strongly against the GOP that enough of the party breaks from the Freedom Caucus and cuts a deal, because the public will not side with the GOP on this, and the economic damage of a shutdown will be contained.  So, McCarthy cannot give the Freedom Caucus what they want.  He does not have the power to deliver them the total victory that they demand because-- and I know that this is some advanced political science-- the Freedom Caucus does not control the Senate nor the White House.  Meaning, what?  He cannot give the Freedom Caucus what they demand, and his inability to give them total victory means probable removal.

Gee... could anyone have predicted this?  Like... me?  Did... I write a book about this very process?  Why, yes I did.  This is what got Boehner.  After Boehner's removal, McCarthy thought he had the votes as a replacement, and he did not.  The party eventually settled on Paul Ryan, but Ryan refused the job until Boehner cut a final deal to raise the debt ceiling, because Ryan didn't want to be the guy who cut a deal with Obama, because if you cut a deal with a Democratic president, the Freedom Caucus demands your head.

When McCarthy was scraping, clawing, begging, pleading and whatever else he was doing to get the gavel at the beginning of this Congress, my question was... why?  This was inevitable.  Why did you want this?

Speaker of the House with a Republican Congress and a Democratic president is the shittiest job in Washington that doesn't involve a drunken Rudy Giuliani groping you.  When Boehner took the job in 2011, he can be forgiven for not knowing what would happen, but McCarthy cannot be forgiven for ignorance.  I mean, he was never the sharpest knife in Don Young's assault-the-Speaker arsenal, but he isn't actually the dumbest guy in Congress, which is like saying he isn't the fattest kid at fat camp.  We're all laughing at Lauren Boebert's latest foibles, and she is not even the dumbest.

So Kev', remember.  You didn't just ask for this.  You demanded it.

James Blood Ulmer, "I Asked For Water (She Gave Me Gasoline)," from Memphis Blood: The Sun Sessions.  Fun fact-- Vernon Reid, from Living Colour, produced and played on this album.