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Just when you thought Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) couldn’t treat former House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) any worse, Gaetz is backing a downright sadistic idea floated this week in Republican circles: McCarthy as the next chairman of the beleaguered Republican National Committee.
Hasn’t McCarthy suffered enough?
The RNC is nine months away from: a national election with a likely presidential candidate who is a one-man Democratic turnout machine and who will spend much of the coming year in courtrooms; a slew of swing state Republican parties beset by infighting and a dearth of funds; a Senate map promising for Republicans but vulnerable to messy primary fights leaving bad blood; and a razor-thin majority in the House, with 18 Republicans representing districts that Joe Biden won in 2020. The stakes are high and the attractions are few.
The irony is that, like a broken clock being right twice a day, Gaetz is correct that McCarthy likely would be a good fit for the job. McCarthy is probably the best fundraiser among House Republicans, with a proven track record helping raise cash for the National Republican Congressional Committee, with his own aligned super PAC, and during his 269 days as speaker. And despite the shockingly abrupt, Gaetz-engineered end to McCarthy’s time running the House, it isn’t as if he’s disliked among his GOP colleagues; 94 percent of House Republicans voted to keep him in place.
And let’s face it, the first 100 days or so of Speaker Mike Johnson’s term have made McCarthy’s speakership look like the good old days. Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie recently tweeted, “Getting rid of Speaker McCarthy has officially turned into an unmitigated disaster.”
Sure, Gaetz detests McCarthy and reportedly told friends that the effort to remove McCarthy was payback for allowing a congressional ethics investigation of Gaetz to proceed. Gaetz insists his opposition to McCarthy was driven by broken promises and a lack of trust. The House Ethics Committee is still investigating Gaetz; CNN reported last week that “the GOP-led committee’s investigation into the Florida Republican has recently expanded to include questioning around allegations of sex crimes, drug use and illicit benefits.” Gaetz contends this investigation is payback for ousting McCarthy.
Whatever Gaetz’s motivation, the RNC is in desperate need of new leadership. The RNC is starting 2024 with about $8 million cash on hand, while the Democratic National Committee will have about $21 million.
RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, whose decision this week to step down soon sparked the speculation about McCarthy as her replacement, somehow lasted seven years heading the organization — the longest tenure since the 19th century — despite a string of GOP election disappointments. Most strikingly, the RNC’s traditional priority of getting Republicans elected took a back seat to covering expenses for the self-proclaimed billionaire former president. As The Post has reported, the organization doled out $633,000 to the law firm of Ronald Fischetti, a veteran defense attorney who represented Donald Trump in investigations by the Manhattan district attorney’s office and the New York attorney general’s office.
How many donors to the RNC realized their money would be used for a de facto Trump legal defense fund?
When the RNC wasn’t sending donor dollars to Trump’s lawyers, it was spending money left and right, on expenses that are difficult to justify. Red State’s Jennifer Van Laar recently reported that the RNC spent about $297,000 on office supplies, $1 million on management consulting, $70,000 on floral arrangements, $116,000 on media-booking consultants and $263,000 on limousines — significantly more than their counterparts at the DNC in each category. Meanwhile, the DNC significantly outspent the RNC on useful matters such as voter-file maintenance, get-out-the-vote texting and transfers to state parties.
Say, which priorities strike you as a better and more productive use of limited resources?
Like many other Republican institutions, the RNC has at times acted like its lone priority is stroking the ego of Trump. Last month, RNC member and Trump ally David Bossie offered, and then withdrew, a resolution to declare Trump the party’s “presumptive” presidential nominee. The resolution would have had no impact on the actual results of the presidential primary. It would not have altered any candidate’s delegate total. All it would have done was flatter Trump and tell Republicans in 48 states that their primaries and caucuses shouldn’t count for anything. It was a vivid demonstration of how some RNC members believe their primary mission in 2024 is to send happy vibes down to Mar-a-Lago.
So, sure, an RNC that was run by Kevin McCarthy would probably clear the exceptionally low bar of “better and more effective than an RNC run by Ronna McDaniel.” The question: Is McCarthy enough of a glutton for punishment to want the job?
Kevin McCarthy as RNC chairman? Hasn’t he suffered enough?
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09.02.2024
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Just when you thought Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) couldn’t treat former House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) any worse, Gaetz is backing a downright sadistic idea floated this week in Republican circles: McCarthy as the next chairman of the beleaguered Republican National Committee.
Hasn’t McCarthy suffered enough?
The RNC is nine months away from: a national election with a likely presidential candidate who is a one-man Democratic turnout machine and who will spend much of the coming year in courtrooms; a slew of swing state Republican parties beset by infighting and a dearth of funds; a Senate map promising for Republicans but vulnerable to messy primary fights leaving bad blood; and a razor-thin majority in the House, with 18 Republicans representing districts that Joe Biden won in 2020. The stakes are high and the attractions are few.
The irony is that, like a broken clock being right twice a day, Gaetz is correct that McCarthy likely would be a good fit for the job. McCarthy is probably the best fundraiser among House Republicans, with a proven track record helping raise cash for the National Republican Congressional Committee, with his own aligned super PAC, and........
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