Minutes before the vote that cost California Rep. Kevin McCarthy his job as Speaker of the House of Representatives, three Republicans

s voters

lunch in his hometown cursed Washington’s scorched earth policy.

The conservative women said McCarthy faced two bad choices in the days before his impeachment: risk an insurrection from the far right and make a deal with Democrats to pass a funding bill, or acquiesce in the tough approach.

–

scheduled airlines and the federal government shutdown, destroying the economy.

Ultimately, they thought, McCarthy did the right thing and paid the price on Tuesday.

“He was damned if he did, damned if he didn’t,” said Leslie Walters, a real estate agent and registered Republican, as she finished eating with two friends on the patio of the 24th Street Cafe, a cafe 1950s style in downtown Bakersfield.

Walters said she was sorry to see the end of McCarthy’s speakership. His 269-day term hadn’t been perfect, she said, but he was a good guy and a much better option than “having Nancy Pelosi for a million years.”

In McCarthy’s Central Valley congressional district, the most Republican in the Golden State, many residents were outraged by the summary execution of California’s first Republican speaker of the House of Representatives.

There was plenty of blame to go around, but the vast majority of the anger in the hours after McCarthy’s beating was directed at one person: Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who along with seven other Republicans joined the House Democrats. House of Representatives joined in voting for McCarthy. out.

“Matt Gaetz is a narcissistic, evil and vindictive man,” said Annette Londquist, head of Bakersfield Republican Women, a club that counts McCarthy among its 515 members. “He’s an angry man and his anger is directed at Kevin. I would say he just couldn’t let go of the revenge in his heart, but he has no heart.”

Put another way, says Clayton Campbell, vice chairman of the Kern County Republican Party, Gaetz has “a delusion of his own importance.”

“It’s important in the way that a faulty bolt on a jet plane is important,” Campbell said. “It can do incredible damage without doing any good.”

The ultimate betrayal, Campbell said, was that Gaetz had criticized McCarthy for working with Democrats, then turned around and worked with the opposing party to oust him.

“He’s a traitor,” Campbell said. “During the American Revolution, King George and the British Army were the enemy, but Benedict Arnold was the bigger traitor because he should have been on our side. Matt Gaetz should have been on our side. And then he plays this game and helps the Democrats. He’s a Benedict Arnold.”

McCarthy, who grew up in Bakersfield, won his last election by more than 34 points and has built decades of goodwill locally.

Some voters fondly remember his early days as manager of Kevin O’s sandwich shop at his uncle’s yogurt shop. Others see him walking his dogs or know his wife, who McCarthy met at Bakersfield High. Even some who can’t stand his politics don’t mind the chicken

Parmesan cheese

pizza named McCarthy at a local Italian restaurant.

“He grew up in Kern County, and he knows every corner of it,” said Greg Perrone, chairman of the Greater Bakersfield Republican Assembly, a conservative group. “He didn’t go to some Ivy League school and then come back and try to fix things. He’s not a transplant.’

Perrone said he had mixed feelings about McCarthy’s tenure as 55th Speaker of the House of Representatives. Too often, he said, McCarthy was willing to compromise on conservative ideals, including in the deal with Democrats that avoided a government shutdown.

He said that politically he mainly aligns himself with Gaetz and other members of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus. He is a budget hawk and a strong supporter of the Second Amendment

anti-abortion

policy. But Perrone said he disagrees with Gaetz “in cases like this” because Gaetz had no plan B after ousting McCarthy.

“I don’t regret standing up for choosing governance over resentment,” McCarthy said in a ramble

news

conference Tuesday after he was voted out as speaker. “I don’t regret negotiating; our government is designed to find compromises. I don’t regret my efforts to build coalitions and find solutions. I was raised to solve problems, not create them.”

Republican strategist Cathy Abernathy, who gave McCarthy his first job in politics as an intern for former Rep. Bill Thomas’

S

in the 1980s, she said what surprised her most was that 208 Democrats had joined the party

eight

Republicans in ousting McCarthy.

“The tables were turned. I’ve never seen it happen,” Abernathy said. “They could have stepped aside and just looked at what was going on, but they wanted to get involved. It wouldn’t have happened without the Democrats.”

Gaetz filed the motion to impeach McCarthy late Monday night, taking advantage of chamber rules that the House majority approved in January, part of a deal McCarthy cut to get elected that allows any lawmaker to to force a quick vote on starting the speaker.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, McCarthy noted that the rule means that “even if you have 96%,” the speaker could still be forced out.

“That’s not government that works,” he said. “That’s chaotic.”

The three friends argued over lunch in Bakersfield on Tuesday over the issue of debt, as well as the direction of the Republican Party.

“I don’t even see it as a GOP problem,” said Margot Shinn, a mortgage lender who lives down the street from McCarthy. “It’s the far right, you know, Matt Gaetz and that group.”

Shinn added with a hint of frustration in her voice that she wasn’t jealous of her neighbor’s work, that she enjoyed herding cats.

“The party is starting to fall apart,” she said. “And now there is no room for compromise. You have to be flexible, just like a willow you have to bend.”

Kernville resident Lyle Teunissen, 67, spent his lunch break from jury duty outside Dagny’s Coffee Co. on Tuesday.

Store

in downtown Bakersfield with a blueberry muffin, a cup of coffee and an Oliver Sachs book. Teunissen, who said he was a Democrat, said he thought McCarthy was a good guy and that he had voted for him before.

The retiree, who previously worked clearing roads for groups enrolled in the Caltrans Adopt-A-Highway Program, said he liked McCarthy sticking his neck out to prevent a government shutdown.

“What’s the point of having a seizure?” said Teunissen. “It takes a lot of courage to be in politics right now.”