Instead of a Sunday School post, I offered up Happy New Year, Leo McGarry Style. McGarry, many of you'll remember, was the first Chief of Staff to President Jed Bartlet on The West Wing.
After recovering from a heart attack, he was invited back to the administration in a role that was not at all well-defined. Everyone wanted him, but no one really knew why - and he had to figure it out for himself, and for the rest of them. He did just that, after watching old Bartlet speeches. At a somewhat contentious dinner, he hit Bartlet - on the day after his final State of the Union speech - with a critique not only of the SOTU but of the state of his administration in general.
The show wrapped up with the senior staff summoned back to work by the President, and led to Leo's office. After a brief explanation from Bartlet on why they were there - to hear from an old friend - Leo updated his whiteboard from 365 days to 364 days left. He pointed out that they had all spent their days reacting to things, not proactively doing things.
He asked what they thought was important, and started listing their ideas: things left out of the SOTU, or that had been dropped over time. Things that motivated, energized, and inspired them. The things that mattered to them.
I'm hoping to use Leo's message to set the stage for this year.
Next up was a note from the Update Desk on my Meanwhile, Back in Albany (v46) post about the Democratic-controlled New York State legislature and their pay raise.
Many New Yorkers are struggling right now, trying to come up with money to pay their rent, their utilities, to buy groceries, and to scrape together money to put even a fair-to-middling holiday celebration together for their families.
Rural families, suburban families, urban families - it's not just one subset of New Yorkers; all of us are feeling a pinch in one way or another. Which is why it's so insulting to learn that our legislators just gave themselves a $32,000 raise.
The reason for the update? I had hoped Hochul would veto the raise; alas, that didn't happen,
even though the raise was more than she had expressed support for, and so was the outside income limit. There have been suggestions that she didn't veto it because she needs the legislature to get things done with the budget and all the legislation they pack into it. There've also been suggestions that she should have gotten a guarantee for having her pick to be the chief judge on the Court of Appeals approved, which may or may not happen.
I'm not sure about either of those, but I wish if she was going to approve it anyway, she had made them wait and stew in it for as long as possible.
Mid-week, I was Wondering on Wednesday about the drama surrounding the Congressional Republicans and their attempts at electing a Speaker of the House.
When Sally Field won her second Academy Award, she said, "Right now, you really like me!" I wonder what Rep. Kevin McCarthy would say, after losing six votes for House Speaker? Perhaps it's, "Right now, I wished you really liked me?" Or, maybe "Right now, I wonder if you ever liked me?"
I also can't help wondering how many votes McCarthy will allow before he decides it's time to step aside for someone 16 0r 17 votes more palatable? He's said he's in it to win it, and that he's "earned" the Speakership, but there may never be enough votes for him.
Former president Donald Trump tried to exert whatever power and control he has over the party, urging the Rs to get behind McCarthy who, Trump said, "will do a good job, and maybe even a GREAT JOB - JUST WATCH!" That didn't work - Lauren Boebert even suggested that Trump should have told McCarthy to step aside - and now I'm wondering what other Rs might have the power to convince the GOP caucus to align.
There was wondering, too, about who could help break through the squabbles, and about Rep. George Santos, the lying Congressman-elect from Long Island who wouldn't know the truth if it bit him.
And finally, in the wee hours of Saturday morning, the debacle came to an end, as I noted in Mr. Speaker.
Finally, the long first week of the new year is over, and we have a Speaker of the House. He may be missing some pieces of soul, or body parts, but he got the votes, and Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Trump) is the guy who'll be wielding the gavel.
I went to bed after he lost the 14th vote, the one about which McCarthy was sure he'd win, because he had counted the votes.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Blecch) had a different idea, and prevented the victory. It was at that point that the majority of the Republican caucus wanted to punch Gaetz in his smirking fact, and one of them - Alabama's Rep. Mike Rogers - almost did. That would have been a horribly popcorn-worthy moment, for sure.
McCarthy offered a taste of what's to come (more on that later today); sadly,
We also heard McCarthy and his allies talk about the importance of Donald Trump in securing the win, so it seems pretty clear that any hope of Trump not being a factor can be tossed out the window, at least at this juncture.
One thing's for sure: McCarthy will be
hammering away with the smaller-than-usual gavel.
I've got a Sidebar on the GOP's agenda ready for you, and I'll have highlights of Gov. Hochul's inaugural, our standard weekly posts, and more for you this week.
I hope you stick around.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!