Ah, the Republicans. Always ready to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory. In the latest example of that, Tuesday the House picks a speaker. You’d think the Republicans would be grateful they have the power to do that, given their slim majority after the dismal showing in November.
But no. What are they about to do? Self-destruct from the gitgo. This will prove to America they can’t efficiently govern and give the Dem House minority yet another talking point. Yup, the Stupid Party. And I say this as a lifelong conservative Republican. A conservative, not a populist.
Fox, “If Republicans cannot elect a speaker when the new Congress takes office on Jan. 3, the party cannot pass a rules package governing how the House will operate. Without concrete rules in place, the House cannot move legislation or approve committee assignments for lawmakers.” As of press time McCarthy doesn’t have the votes. We think he’ll pull it off. But barely. If not, Scalise or a dark horse could emerge as the speaker.
“This is a sh– show,” said a House Republican. “Without a speaker, you can’t organize the House, which means committees can’t send subpoenas or pay staff. We’re supposed to govern, but you can’t govern without a speaker in place.”
McCarthy and his team led the Republicans to victory. Granted, a narrow one but a victory nonetheless. However now, about nine Republicans are saying they probably won’t vote for him as speaker, five for sure as no votes, thus throwing the GOP House into disarray.
The populist rebels are GOP Reps. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Paul Gosar of Arizona, Chip Roy of Texas, Dan Bishop of North Carolina, Andy Harris of Maryland and Andrew Clyde of Georgia, along with Rep.-elects Andy Ogles of Tennessee, Anna Paulina Luna of Florida and Eli Crane of Arizona.
McCarthy met with them on Sunday and had already granted major concessions to cut a deal and avoid public embarrassment for the Republicans. But, like the hostage takers they are, the rebs balked at his conciliations. They wrote the statement below after McCarthy outlined his position in a letter.
“Regrettably, however, despite some progress achieved, Mr. McCarthy’s statement comes almost impossibly late to address continued deficiencies ahead of the opening of the 118th Congress on January 3rd,” the letter whined. “At this state, it cannot be a surprise that expressions of vague hopes reflected in far too many of the crucial points still under debate are insufficient. This is especially true with respect to Mr. McCarthy’s candidacy for speaker because the times call for radical departure from the status quo – not a continuation of past and ongoing, Republican failures.”
How is the GOP supposed to exercise power in the House when insurgents paralyze the party before we take the reigns? Perhaps if they thought less about their cornpone ideology and delusions of grandeur and more about fighting the Biden agenda and the good of the nation they would get out of the way and let the grownups lead. Given what we see from them thus far, fat chance of that.