'A kaleidoscope of incompetence': McCarthy's speakership is teetering after 'latest stumble'

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) may have painted himself into a corner with his own debt ceiling bill that is full of unappetizing proposals that will likely fracture his fragile caucus, according to a report.

According to an analysis by MSNBC's James Downie, McCarthy's tenure as speaker has been filled with stumbles and incompetence that will likely lead to his ouster by members of his own caucus who weren't thrilled with his ascension -- that required 15 ballots -- from the start.

Addressing McCarthy's debt ceiling proposal, Downie wrote, "The problem here isn’t the bill itself — even though it has the absence of substance you’d expect from today’s GOP. The problem is that the basic elements of what’s being requested in the bill have been public knowledge for months, and yet McCarthy and his team have dawdled on bringing it to the floor."

Add to that, he pointed out, there is no indication McCarthy has the votes he needs to get it passed and there is no way Democrats are going to bail him out.

"There is no excuse for such negligence," the analyst continued. "McCarthy’s failures in that office have been, like the rest of his career, largely inconsequential. But if the country is to raise the debt limit in an orderly fashion, then he must quickly find one of two qualities he’s never displayed before. Either he’ll need to put his country over his position and broker a bipartisan deal in the House before the Freedom Caucus inevitably replaces him. Or he’ll need to persuade a dozen or more Republicans, whose brand is just this side of 'death to Democrats,' to hold hands with Biden."

Neither of those, he suggested, look promising.

Reviewing McCarthy's job so far, Downie gave him a failing grade, concluding, "But we don’t have leadership. We don’t have selflessness. We don’t have competence. We have Kevin McCarthy."

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