Sparking speculation that he’s working out some kind of humiliation fetish in a very public way, on Thursday Kevin McCarthy plowed through a third day of losing speaker votes in the House. Once again, McCarthy’s big win for the day was managing to adjourn at the end of the day rather than voting and losing through the night. Seriously, Wednesday’s adjournment was such a big win that on Thursday at one point Republicans gave themselves a standing ovation for having managed it.
But the House only adjourned on Thursday after McCarthy loss number 11. So that’s another achievement for Kevin-11, as Erin Gloria Ryan has dubbed him: He managed to lose more times on Thursday than on either of the previous two days, having started off the day with just six losses under his belt. But that was pretty much the only progress Thursday saw.
McCarthy also ended both Wednesday and Thursday with claims that he was close to a deal to peel off some votes from his Republican opposition. Not enough to actually win, but enough to look like he was making progress. Super close to that deal, guys, really! Except that after ending Wednesday with major concessions, he got no additional votes on Thursday and had to offer still more concessions.
Bear in mind that the job of speaker of the House involves getting legislation through Congress—knowing how many votes you have and which votes you can get by offering which new provisions. McCarthy is showing, vote after vote, that he is ridiculously unqualified for the job he is trying to get. This isn’t just any show of weakness. It’s a show of weakness tailored to the moment, and his weakness is further highlighted by the fact that he’s attempting to follow in the footsteps of one of the best vote-counting, vote-managing speakers ever.
The House returns at noon and Daily Kos will be following the action, or lack thereof.
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The House goes into Friday ready for a twelfth vote. And possibly a thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth. Friday morning, before the voting resumes, McCarthy is holding a conference call—rather than a harder-to-control meeting—with Republicans to lay out his latest “deal” (or surrender) offer. But no one is saying that the “deal,” if it happens at all, would get McCarthy to 218 votes, and McCarthy isn't offering a timeline for getting there. He’s giving away the farm in hopes of falling short by somewhat less. It’s … starting to feel a little like this:
The refusal to hold a meeting on this is also getting comment. It’s “a bit cowardly, if you ask me,” Rep. Ann Wagner told Politico. Wagner had pressed McCarthy for a conference meeting, but right now he’s busy trying to make the defectors happy and does not have the bandwidth to also try to keep his supporters happy.
Related, McCarthy has some other problems brewing beyond his string of losses. Rep. Ken Buck left late Thursday to return home for a medical procedure. Rep. Kevin Hern—who Rep. Lauren Boebert nominated against McCarthy on Thursday, but who himself voted for McCarthy—needs to go home for the weekend to attend his mother’s funeral. Rep. Roger Williams has attended every vote even as his wife goes through a medical emergency back in Texas, but McCarthy’s incompetence is exacting a toll on him. Rep.-elect Wesley Hunt would like to go back to Texas to see his wife and the baby she delivered this week.
And the patience of McCarthy’s backers is not likely to be infinite, especially since he’s someone who has been known for having broad, but not particularly deep, support among House Republicans. He’s benefiting from the absence of anyone else who looks like they’d have broader support, but at some point his supporters might tell him to give it a rest already. “Senior Republicans are increasingly whispering that if McCarthy can’t wrap this up soon, he needs to step aside and let someone else try,” Politico reported, adding, “(On Thursday, we spoke to one top Republican backing him who is thinking of confronting McCarthy himself on this topic.)”
Friday’s first vote will tell whether McCarthy’s latest deal/concession package/groveling has won him even a fraction of the votes he needs to get from 200-201 to 218. As for what happens after that, a lot depends on McCarthy’s ongoing tolerance for (or enjoyment of?) public humiliation. Join us at noon to find out.
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