At the beginning of the year, hard-right Florida Rep. Daniel Webster challenged John Boehner for the speakership in the latest of the various Republican anti-Boehner uprisings.
He got twelve votes, compared to Boehner's 216, and a fed-up House leadership team
booted Webster from his plum spot on the House Rules Committee in retribution.
Guess who's back for more?
Webster, a Florida Republican, became one of the faces of the antiestablishment wing of his party when he garnered 12 votes for speaker in January in an act of defiance toward Speaker John Boehner. Now, he has joined House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy in the race to become speaker after Boehner announced his pending resignation.
This seems to be a pipe dream, with chances much slimmer than even, say,
Scalise's bid for majority leader. It's true that Webster has become "one of the faces" of the House rebellion-fomenters, he's also almost certain to be redistricted out of his current seat next year, after Florida's new court-ordered district maps are finalized and put into place. His supporters are trying to pass this off as a benefit—hey, if he'll only be in office for another year he'll be beholden to no one!—but it's not clear anyone else will buy it.
And then there's the Duggar problem. Webster is a staunch supporter of the Bill Gothard-founded, Duggar-promoted Institute of Basic Life Principles, the unabashedly misogynistic and more-than-a-little-cultish ministry that received its most recent press during the Dugger molestation scandal for its practices of victim-shaming girls and women subjected to sexual abuse. In speeches to the group he's touted their teachings of wifely submission, a viewpoint that makes his way into his various anti-abortion efforts (such as a bill to create "guardians" for fetuses and the usual passel of requirements that women seeking abortions receive misleading pamphlets, mandatory ultrasounds and so forth.
I mention that last part not because it will likely play any role in Webster's almost certain upcoming defeat, but as reminder that far-far-rightism and close ties to extremely dodgy groups seems to be a defining trait of the "new" Republican would-be leaders. Scalise gives sympathetic talks to a David Duke-led hate group and preens for their votes; Dan Webster is the guy reality-show molester Josh Duggar points to for support. Yes, it's all a rich tapestry of ick.