Hail McCarthy, Prince of Debt & GOP

Joe’s claiming VICTORY for 11th hour debt ceiling deal hammered out in Congress, BUT WSJ columnist hits real mark in crowning Speaker McCarthy with a rare DC Swamp statesman’s Juncus, if not Laurel, Wreath…for HIS plan.

As Kimberley Strassel stressed, forget all the BSers in the Swamp, including No. 46, suddenly claiming credit for what they had repeatedly suggested was a joke that wasn’t going to happen except over their cold dead fingers. Instead, Kim argued: “The debt-ceiling vote [at least, in the House] was the product of a deliberate, well-considered strategy.” AND, while “the legislation is no panacea to federal ills … it marks a sharp reversal from 18 months of Biden White House dominance. Equally important, it sent a loud message: Republicans can govern.” Thank you, Mr. Talleyrand, er, Speaker?

Not that McCarthy’s “master stroke” was easy. As Kim explained: “What a turnabout. Amid a ‘humiliating’ 15 ballots to be elected speaker in January, the press insisted Mr. McCarthy was crippled, the token head of a ‘ragged GOP’ stumbling ‘through the wilderness,’ assuming a speakership that would be a ‘nightmare’ as it failed to manage ‘MAGA radicals,’ ‘rebels’ and ‘anarchy.’ As recently as mid-April, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer smirked on the sidelines, chiding Mr. McCarthy not to ‘bother with partisan wish lists’ given that he lacked the GOP votes to pass them. The dynamic changed entirely one week later, when the Californian got his 4-vote majority to deliver the only debt-ceiling bill in town, forcing the WH to the table … it wasn’t Lady Fortune or a sudden outbreak of GOP kumbaya. It was a deliberate, well-considered strategy that required hard work” by you know who. Hail, Kevin!

Davd Soul