Happy Thursday, and welcome back to your regularly scheduled email about Washingtonian inside baseball (albeit with a healthy dosage of the word “defenestrated”). As of now, there’s a healthy chance the United States will not default on its debts—something that, for reasons I’ll get into, the MAGA wing of the G.O.P. is rather grumpy about. But are the so-called Taliban 20 grumpy enough to deploy the motion-to-vacate bomb on Kevin McCarthy, or will the Speaker live to see another day?
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Happy Thursday, and welcome back to your regularly scheduled email about Washingtonian inside baseball (albeit with a healthy dosage of the word “defenestrated”). As of now, there’s a healthy chance the United States will not default on its debts—something that, for reasons I’ll get into, the MAGA wing of the G.O.P. is rather grumpy about. But are the so-called Taliban 20 grumpy enough to deploy the motion-to-vacate bomb on Kevin McCarthy, or will the Speaker live to see another day?
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The Taliban 20’s McCarthy Red Line |
Sure, the right-wing House insurgency was pissed that their Speaker backed off some of his promises and (quelle horreur!) cut a deal with the Democrats to save the economy. But they decided not to defenestrate him. At least not yet. |
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Back in January, when he was forced to dole out gifts and dangle committee assignments to the 21 Republicans blocking his path to the House Speakership, Kevin McCarthy looked as if he had traded real power for a lofty title. McCarthy, after all, eventually won the gavel, but only after handing his opponents a giant red detonation trigger known as the Motion to Vacate clause—a procedural move that... |
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FOUR STORIES WE’RE TALKING ABOUT |
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Yalta 2023 |
Imagining the post-invasion contours of Russia and Ukraine. |
JULIA IOFFE |
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Orszag’s Shadow |
Is the new C.E.O. of Lazard actually in charge? |
WILLIAM D. COHAN |
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