Monkey in the Middle

Attribution: United States Congress, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

By Mark Mamerow

If you’ve followed the current government shutdown imbroglio, you’re aware that it is happening because the far right Freedom Caucus is blackmailing House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

The nihilistic, burn-it-all-down down faction of the House GOP has McCarthy in a bind. It’s unclear exactly what ransom they are trying to extract, but until they get it, they will not support any resolution, no matter how temporary, to keep the government open. And anything the Freedom Caucus supports will be so far right as to be unacceptable to the Democrat-controlled Senate. 

Reasonable observers lament the power held by this tiny minority of radical legislators. But the fact is, these yahoos have no power that was not handed to them by McCarthy himself. They have power over him ONLY because he allows them to have that power.

This is the situation that the victims of blackmail typically find themselves in.  Because the blackmailed does not want compromising information about himself to become public, he is in thrall to the blackmailer.  But if the blackmail victim is prepared for the truth to come out— and is willing to face the consequences— then the blackmailer loses all leverage.

Consider the case of Milwaukee’s former Archbishop Weakland. A former gay lover had possession of a compromising letter that Weakland had written.  He held up the bishop for 400 grand, which the bishop diverted from church funds. Years later, the blackmailer went public anyway!  This ultimately led to Weakland’s retirement in disgrace.  

If the bishop had been willing to face the music up front, admit his past romantic involvement, and taken his case to his diocesan flock, he would have been embarrassed.  He would have been exposed and humiliated. But he would most likely have been grudgingly forgiven.  And the blackmailer would have effectively been told to pound sand.  

McCarthy has the option to tell the Freedom Caucus to shove it. He could cut a short term budget deal supported by Democrats and some number of the non-radical Republicans. The resulting compromise would be acceptable to the Senate, and the government shutdown would be averted.  But, this would trigger a “motion to vacate” from the nut jobs, and Kevin would once again be fighting for his Speakership job.

It would be embarrassing. It would be humiliating.  But he would probably survive.  There are no other viable candidates who want the job, and who would be acceptable to enough Republicans to get it (the non-crazy Republicans would not select a Freedom Caucus fire breather  as Speaker).  Winning this battle, if he were willing to fight it, would cement his position. He would have effectively defanged the yahoo caucus.

The problem is, he’s not genetically capable of taking this risk. Politicians who have risen to  leadership roles get there by NOT taking chances. Political natural selection favors the cautious, and often punishes the risk taker.  Just ask Liz Cheney.