Ten days after eight Republicans ousted former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, they are even further from finding their next scapegoat leader. The nominee Republicans picked Wednesday, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, gave up Thursday after failing to woo the opposition. Some in the Scalise camp are adamantly against his rival, Rep. Jim Jordan, who may or may not continue his bid. The Republicans meet again Friday morning—at least those who are still in town.
Meanwhile, government funding runs out in roughly five weeks. Israel and Ukraine urgently need aid. And Republicans are wallowing in nihilism, recriminations, preening, and self-promotion. It’s impossible to know what happens next. House Republicans are capable of just about anything (except governing), but there are some ideas being floated for how to break the impasse.
One idea being circulated is to put off having this fight (they love doing that) by giving the interim Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry more power to act as speaker than he has under his current designation. “From my understanding, going back and forth and parliamentarian and Rules … the possibility exists to give somebody … full duties, excuse me, for a limited period of time,” Ohio Republican Rep. David Joyce said. They’re looking at a temporary authorization for something like 45 or 60 days—long enough to get Congress through the immediate crises.
Republicans have also floated the idea of having an election to make McHenry the elected speaker pro tempore rather than the acting one, with the election giving him clearer powers. Either of these moves would probably have to involve Democrats. And they’ve been at the receiving end of McHenry’s vindictiveness, so they might not be too receptive.
Another straw Republicans are grasping at is finding a consensus candidate like Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, who some moderate Democrats have reportedly said they could accept. He would at least know how the place is supposed to function. On the other hand, he voted to overturn the 2020 election, so maybe not the best bet for Democrats to back. Also, Cole says he’s not interested. A consensus Republican candidate who wants the job and who enough Democrats and Republicans could accept might be a unicorn.
But as long as we’re going out on unlikely limbs, how about a bipartisan coalition, like House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries has outlined? It’s the logical answer for a body that clearly doesn’t have a functioning majority party. Tell that to Republicans, however.
One Republican, Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, has started thinking about it—but not in a particularly productive way. His idea is that Democrats have to save Republicans because “[t]hey put us in this ditch along with eight traitors.” So that’s not a good way of approaching the prospective partnership. “We’re still the majority party,” Rogers said, “we’re willing to work with them, but they gotta tell us what they need.” So far, he said, “they haven’t offered jack.”
That might be the first time we’ve heard “we’re willing to work with them” from a Republican, but damn, the attitude. First, they're not the majority party in practice, or they wouldn’t be in the mess. Second, has Rogers bothered to ask a Democrat what they need? He wants them to come to Republicans, hat in hand, pleading for scraps? Begging to be allowed to offer to save the GOP’s ass?
House Minority Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts wasn’t impressed. A decision on any potential coalition agreement, she said, “is going to be up to our caucus ... But our door is open. We want to get back to governing.”
The idea of a coalition isn’t out of the question and might be something other Republicans are quietly thinking about, à la this tweet from conservative never-Trumper Bill Kristol.
Republicans who are still talking to Bill Kristol probably won’t accept a Speaker Hakeem Jeffries, but they might be amenable to thinking outside of Congress and finding a non-lawmaker, a caretaker speaker acceptable to a majority in both parties. There might still be a person like that in existence.
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