It seems some Republicans are having second thoughts about putting "David Duke without the baggage" on the House leadership team. The hard-right Rep. Steve Scalise was installed as majority whip as one of John Boehner's myriad attempts to placate hard-right House members unhappy with him; leaders even stuck by Scalise after reports that Scalise was no stranger to
the most racist elements in his party. All of that comes to naught, however, if Steve Scalise
is incompetent at his job.
[T]he frustration hit a head earlier this month, when the whip team came to the House floor believing they were within striking distance of passing a three-week extension of Homeland Security Department funding. Leaders thought the vote could give them time to hammer Senate Democrats and work out a longer-term solution. Instead, they were rebuffed by a staggering 52 members of their conference in an embarrassing defeat for GOP leadership.
"How do we not know a vote count that was so wide as that?" said one member who is close to leadership, speaking anonymously to discuss internal conference dynamics. "I want to see him succeed, but how many more of these can we withstand?"
This is after similar fiascos with Republican anti-abortion and education bills. The problem appears to be that even David Duke without the baggage is too moderate for the caucus he's supposed to be wooing. They don't want to keep government running or make compromises with the Republican Senate, they want everyone else to do what they say, period.
Not only has Scalise been unable to bring the conservative members on board, he is actively being out-whipped by them, members said. The House Freedom Caucus, an upstart group of hardline Republicans, is becoming increasingly influential in the conference, and in the case of the DHS vote, their strident objections to any clean bill caused even members who might otherwise vote with leadership to turn their backs.
You can see the problem here: For Scalise, and for Boehner, there's no way out here. The appointment of Scalise to a top leadership role didn't placate anyone. Booting him again would, in spite of his glaring failures at the job, likely make things even worse. In the meantime and for the foreseeable future Boehner simply can't round up the votes to pass anything of consequence; anything acceptable to the hard-right faction of the House has little chance in the filibuster-prone Senate, and vice versa.
It seems the Republicans will be lurching from self-imposed crisis to self-imposed crisis for the indefinite future. And they'll be taking the entire federal budget along for the ride, so won't that be fun.