Dem
51
GOP
49
There have been further developments in relation to a couple of things we wrote yesterday, so we thought we better bring you up to speed.
To start, we noted that District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil had told Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg that his former lieutenant, Mark Pomerantz, had to obey the subpoena issued by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and the House Make America Great Again Committee. While Vyskocil is a Trump appointee, we thought her order was sound, and weren't sure if Bragg would see value in appealing it.
Well, Bragg did see value. And he did appeal it; something that had actually already happened when we wondered if he would (although the appeal was filed so late the news didn't break until Thursday morning). The appeals court has already granted a temporary injunction, which doesn't mean anything other than "we'll tap the brakes until we hear the case." The Committee's briefing is due today and Bragg's response is due Saturday, which means a ruling will presumably come early next week. So, stay tuned.
We also had an item yesterday about Speaker Kevin McCarthy's (R-CA) budget bill. We observed that the existence of an actual bill, one that has significant support among the members of the House Republican Conference, is worth noting. At the same time, we wrote: "Needless to say, a bill like this is only vaporware until it comes up for a vote and passes."
There is another way we might have expressed that latter sentiment. The bill needs 218 votes to pass, and in general, it's not too hard to get the first 180 of those. It's the other 40 or so that tend to be a real pain in the rear end, because if you cater to the extremists, you lose the moderates. And if you cater to the moderates, you lose the extremists. This is what was so impressive about the last 2 years of the tenure of Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) as Speaker; she was regularly able to navigate this perilous circumstance because she's better at whipping than Indiana Jones.
Well, guess what? It turns out that the optimism coming from Team McCarthy may well have been misplaced. In a surprise to nobody, a bill extreme enough to get the Freedom Caucus on board turns out to be too extreme for moderates like Nancy Mace (R-SC) and Tony Gonzales (R-TX). Oh, and actually, the bill isn't extreme enough for the Freedom Caucus; they want even more aggressive cuts to food stamps. Because, as we noted yesterday, there's no bigger political winner than taking food out of the mouths of poor children. McCarthy's leadership team says the bill will be voted on as-is, because they know that if they open it up to renegotiation, everyone in their conference is going to start making demands related to pet projects or pet issues. But if the Speaker sticks with the bill as is, well, according to one high-ranking GOP staffer "The whip count on this is not good."
So again, stay tuned. Nobody ever said that Kevin McCarthy is a skilled herder of cats, because every indication is that he is not. This could very well blow up in his face, and if it does, then he will really and truly have backed himself into a corner. And then what does he do? (Z)