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**DECEMBER 15, 2020**

Meyerson on TAP

What the 'My' in 'My Kevin' Actually Means

As I write, midday on Tuesday, Vladimir Putin, Mexican President López
Obrador, and even Mitch McConnell have each finally acknowledged that
Joe Biden is America's president-elect. As yet, though, we have heard
nothing from Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy, or, as Donald Trump
calls him, "My Kevin."

Last week, My Kevin clarified whatever ambiguity his title may have
suggested by signing on to an amicus brief that 126 Republican House
members submitted to the Supreme Court in support of Texas Attorney
General Ken Paxton's suit to have the Court overturn the election.
(Paxton claimed that the election results in Georgia, Michigan,
Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin were illegitimate because, among other
things, the states had followed court orders in conducting their
elections-a curious case, to put it mildly, to bring before the
Supreme Court, not least because states that Donald Trump carried had
also been subjected to such court orders. Paxton also claimed that the
odds of the final count deviating from the first count of same-day
voters were "quadrillion to one," though the odds that a majority of the
signatory Republican House members could tell you how many zeroes were
in a quadrillion were themselves a quadrillion to one.)

Back to My Kevin's decision to support Paxton's challenge. What it
meant was that being "My Kevin" precluded any other allegiances or
identities that McCarthy may once have held. In signing on to the brief,
McCarthy made clear that the "My" in his name signaled exclusivity, that
he is wholly Trump's to do with as he pleases, that faithfulness to
the Constitution or, more generally, the rule of law or, still more
generally, the basic ideas of democracy (majority rule, equality before
the law-that sort of thing) were not secondary beliefs that McCarthy
furtively holds but were actually antithetical to his one and only
allegiance.

Does freeing McCarthy from this possession require an exorcism? Does the
relationship between Trump and My Kevin violate the terms of the 13th
Amendment to the Constitution (the one that abolished slavery)? That's
a case I'd like the Supreme Court to hear. I'd sign an amicus brief
in an instant.

~ HAROLD MEYERSON

Follow Harold Meyerson on Twitter

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