The United States of America is currently experiencing some turmoil that it has not experienced in at least 80 years or possibly even longer.

Our country is being invaded at the southern border.

The country is way beyond the point of no return fiscally and in a heap of debt.

The kicker is that I’m pretty sure the Commander in Chief does not know if he is wearing pants right now and we no longer have someone acting as the permanent head of the Article I branch of the United States Constitution.

Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play? 

If you are reading this article on the Friendly Confines of RedState, then you already know that Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy has been voted out of his cushy perch overlooking the House Chamber and was removed as the top guy earlier today.

My colleague Ward Clark covered this earlier today with his post called Speaker McCarthy Is Ousted. Who, Then, Shall Replace Him? 

Who indeed will replace Kevin?

 From Wards article 

In a move that wasn't all that much of a surprise, the U.S. House of Representatives voted Tuesday to remove Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) from his post as Speaker of the House. This is the first time in the history of the republic that such an attempt has succeeded; the last such effort was a vote to oust Speaker Joseph Gurney Cannon in 1910.

So the Speaker's chair is technically empty; there is a Speaker pro tempore, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), but an election must still be held for a new Speaker. Who might it be? Well, I have some thoughts.

Note: I'm not, nor will I, state any personal preference. I don't know, as I don't have one at this point. But I do have some ideas as to candidates for the position.

Ward has some thoughts on who could replace McCarthy so please do check his post out.

However, in the meantime, before that mess is cleaned up, we have a couple of issues that are lurking in the background.

First up did Donald Trump give the green light on this?

As I wrote the other day while I was wondering aloud if Trump had given Gaetz the green light to topple his handpicked Speaker from January and my colleague Bob Hoge followed up on that today, maybe Trump did or didn't. Matt Gaetz: I Had Donald Trump's Blessing to Oust Kevin McCarthy From Speakership

From Bob's piece:

My colleague Duke wondered the other day in his article whether Gaetz would proceed with such a dramatic plan without Trump’s approval. We have our answer:

'I have spoken to President Trump over the last several days,' Gaetz told reporters on the steps of the Capitol after the vote. 'I would say that my conversations with the former president leave me with great confidence that I'm doing the right thing.'

McCarthy became the first speaker in American history to be outed from his job in Tuesday's vote that saw eight members of his own party sink him. Now Republicans will have to deal with the fallout. That not only includes electing a new speaker but dealing with the bloodbath that remains of their party.

Gaetz may say that, but Trump did not seem pleased with the dysfunction within the GOP, at least if you read his social media posts earlier in the day:

Clicking on Bob's post shows that Trump's Trtuh Social post seemed like he was going to check the ledger over how this looks and if he decides Gaetz moved irrationally Matt won't be invited on the Trump bus in 2024 and instead spending time underneath it.

The second thing lurking in the background is this.  

The small group of members led by Gaetz who are presenting this as some sort of noble act now have shown that the GOP is willing to set aside unity in a fractured way to go after an issue that neither Republicans or Democrats are actually going to tackle.

I heard a lot of talk about the deficit and the $33 trillion debt. 

These are important issues, of course, but to actually do any sizable work on the debt you would have to tackle Social Security and Medicare and there is no one in that chamber of 435 members that is willing to even talk about it let it alone make a proposal to rein in spending to tackle the debt. If there is, send along their name; I want to thank them.

Even the people cheering from social media sidelines and saying this is the right thing to do, go ahead and tell them that the Social Security that they plan on collecting in five 10, or 15 years won't nearly be as much as they have been told and a temper tantrum will ensue that would embarrass a two-year-old.

The next thing is that those who say that the Democrats play hardball and the GOP should also just supported something that the Dems would not do by playing said hardball. When Pelosi had a similar margin a couple of years ago of five to seven members in the House, they held the line and continued to push a unified message filled with human excrement and did not break. 

The well-meaning folks who did this today thinking that this is the only way to wrangle the House from the swamp have now stopped the only tool that the GOP has right now of damaging the Biden Administration and the Democrats as a whole, The investigations into Burisma and the shady dealings of the Biden family are now on hold and no one is clear for how long.

So being that it's October and the month of Halloween, I'm getting creepy vibes that the national folks are following the lead of the Michigan GOP, which has pretty much sacrificed the 2024 election for some sort of goal that only a few truly understand.

As I wrote here last week With Just Over 30k in the Bank, the Funeral March Has Begun for the Michigan GOP and it seems to be spreading.

Here is just a sample.

A listing of Michigan Republican Party account balances from West Michigan Community Bank showed $35,051 across seven accounts, with expenses for many of the scheduled speakers at the Sept. 22-24 conference on Mackinac Island not yet paid, including author Dinesh D'Souza and unsuccessful former Arizona candidate for governor Kari Lake.

At this point, 13 months before a presidential election, the Michigan Republican Party should have about $10 million in its accounts, said Tom Leonard, a former Michigan House speaker and former finance chairman for the state GOP.

The party had less than 1% of the $10 million target.

This is due to a number of litmus tests that sound familiar to what I heard on the House floor today. If we don't agree 100 percent, screw you.

The article continues:

During a closed-door state committee meeting on Sunday, the final day of the Mackinac conference, Karamo spoke about the health of the Michigan Republican Party's finances, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by The News.

"The party is not going bankrupt," Karamo told state committee members.

She is technically right, I suppose.

The party is not GOING bankrupt; it IS.

So how does this translate from the state of Michigan being in serious trouble to the national leaders and the slim Republican majority in the House of Representatives?

First off, people will argue whether Kevin McCarthy should have been given the gavel back in January and that is 100% a fair discussion.  If he broke promises as was accused by members today that in my opinion is also an absolutely legitimate discussion. The Republican party needs to be a party of ideals, not personalities, and definitely not next in line for key leadership positions if they do not measure up. 

I remember some commentators going off about Chip Roy and Thomas Massie trying to secure concessions from McCarthy before they decided to support him and I thought that was exactly what the founders intended to happen and it wasn't that problematic to me back in January.

Yet the only thing the GOP had going for it right now is that the House of Representatives has the power of the subpoena and they've been getting the word out via hearings on the mess that is Hunter Biden's laptop.

All of that stops right now, and nobody knows who the next speaker is going to be. The jockeying on this could go on for 12 hours 12 days or who knows how long.

The folks that were upset with McCarthy could have over the next 40 days beat the hell out of him behind closed doors to get the concessions that they were asking for but now they've put the whole work of the House and the investigations into Biden Inc on hold. 

This looks like a plan that was crafted on a napkin in a bar, and somebody spilled some beer on it and the ink smeared and the people who came up with the plan on the napkin said whatever, let's do it. Everybody that went in support of Gaetz's motion on the floor of the House today had no clear-cut plan forward. That was fine back in January, but in October of 2023, 13 months before the Presidential election, this makes me worried.

My sincere hope for 2024 was that some of the other states in the national GOP would be able to add to the margins of the House make some Senate races competitive and maybe eke out a win for the GOP nominee for President like what happened in 2016 with Trump.

I have been telling people here in Michigan that the Michigan GOP needs to be rebuilt from the bottom up and you don't do that in 13 months to be competitive for a Presidential election cycle, you have to start focusing on 2026, yet once again I was hopeful on the national side to give Michigan some time.

Now I do not see how the folks at the national GOP are going to be able to spin this into a win.

The issues that Gaetz brought up are all 100% legitimate but the time to do this was back in January, not 13 months before a national election and I just don't have a good feeling about this.

If I'm wrong let me know by scrolling down to my bio below and checking me out on Twitter or Facebook for my radio show page. I'm looking for some hope, so send it along.