We’re only two weeks away from seating the next Congress but in case you haven’t noticed, we still don’t know who the next Speaker of the House will be. At the same time, the Democrats have been ramming through a series of very expensive bills and there have been a disturbing number of Republicans going along with them. (Apparently in the name of “unity” or something?) The editorial board at the Wall Street Journal has certainly been paying attention and earlier today they published an editorial describing the “Republican Party masochists” who appear to be controlling the center ring in the circus. You don’t see very much of this on the larger cable news networks because they’re still trying to squeeze every last drop of juice they can out of the January 6 kangaroo court, but the Journal points out that the Republicans are going to need to get their act together quickly and start acting like the party that now controls the majority in the lower chamber. (Subscription required)
If a Martian arrived in Washington this week not knowing who had won the November election, he’d be forgiven for thinking it was the Democrats. Usually the losers are in disarray, but not this time.
Democrats in the House minority have completed a seamless change of House leadership to a younger generation with little internal dissent. But Republicans, who ostensibly won the majority, can’t even find the votes to elect a GOP Speaker, much less agree on budget strategy or much of anything else.
After the election, Kevin McCarthy won the GOP caucus vote to become House GOP leader against Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs, 188-31. But Mr. Biggs won’t take resounding defeat for an answer, and he is now planning to run against Mr. McCarthy for Speaker on the House floor on Jan. 3. A handful of other backbenchers say they’ll also oppose Mr. McCarthy, which could lead to multiple ballots and perhaps even a Democratic Speaker.
I wrote about the dysfunction that’s on display a week ago, but not much seems to have changed. As I’ve said previously, it’s not that I don’t understand there being a desire for new leadership. While I don’t personally have a problem with Keven McCarthy, it’s not hard to understand how the party’s anemic performance in the midterms could lead people to look for some new faces calling for an updated game plan.
But the reality is, very few members have presented a case for why McCarthy shouldn’t take the gavel. What’s worse is that only one person (Andy Biggs) has stepped forward and offered to take the job. They’ve already held a caucus vote on the matter and McCarthy won 188-31. Andy Biggs is not a viable alternative. The one demand Biggs’ supporters seem to have is that they hear a declaration from McCarthy saying any member has the right to “declare the Speaker’s seat vacant” at any time and call for another vote. But that would weaken McCarthy’s position considerably and inject even more drama into the caucus for the next two years. (The Journal described the demand as sounding like it was written by AOC.)
So what are the “Never McCarthy” people hoping to gain by voting against him? The WSJ suggests that they’re either doing it to generate headlines and raise their own profiles or they just want to “blow everything up.” I’d like to think it’s not that simple, but it’s difficult for me to conceive of a better or more reasonable alternative. If this situation deteriorates to the worst-case scenario, we could actually wind up with Nancy Pelosi keeping the gavel. What level of embarrassment are some of the House Republicans willing to tolerate before they declare that enough is enough?
Meanwhile, some of the Republicans in the Senate are not just helping Chuck Schumer pass massive spending bills. They are dithering as to whether to defend Trump from the J6 committee conclusions. It seems as if several of them view Trump as being wounded at the moment and they’re considering a chance to administer the coup de grace.
Senate Republicans are stepping out of the way of the House Jan. 6 committee’s recommendation that the Justice Department prosecute former President Trump for crimes related to the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
GOP senators, especially those allied with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), say the Jan. 6 committee interviewed “credible” witnesses and added to the historical record in a substantial way, even though they have qualms about how Democrats have tried to use the panel’s findings to score political points.
Has the entire GOP in Washington just collectively decided to do the Democrats’ job for them? The whole question about Trump and 2024 can stay on the back burner for a while, at least until some of the immediate business at hand for the next session is sorted out. And as for trying to bury Trump before he can pick up a head of steam, I’ll say the same thing about DJT that I said about McCarthy last week. You come at the king, you best not miss.
