After Tuesday’s cataclysmic ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the House recessed for the remainder of the week as everyone in the Capitol tries to figure out what in the hell happens now. The scary part? No one really seems to know. How the House functions with a temporary speaker is a big question among the leading congressional scholars because this has never happened before.
The one power that Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry claimed for himself was retaliating against Democratic leadership. As for the important business of the House, he’s not touching it. At least not yet. No legislative business is expected to move forward until a new speaker is elected, and the timing on that is currently unknown. Meanwhile, the clock keeps ticking toward Nov. 17, the next funding deadline and the next threat of a government shutdown.
The Republicans will be totally consumed with the palace intrigue of finding a new scapegoat to sit in the speaker’s chair. That and exacting retribution on Democrats (and possibly Rep. Matt Gaetz). It is already promising to be an ugly fight between two hard-liners who relish wallowing in political infighting: Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan. If the two split the hard-line vote, a more moderate candidate could emerge.
Scalise immediately began calling around for endorsements, Punchbowl reports, and is meeting with the huge Texas delegation on Wednesday. He’s the initial favorite, with powerful allies in key committees. His leadership position gives him an organizational advantage as well—he’s got a team that’s been working with all the members’ offices. He’s got the endorsement of Majority Whip Tom Emmer, who undoubtedly sees this as his chance to move up the food chain to majority leader. Scalise is, however, currently getting treatment for blood cancer. That’s going well, but his health does create a big question about his future ability to serve.
Jordan got the jump on Scalise by being the first to formally announce his candidacy for the job. It had seemed that chairing the House Judiciary Committee, holding dubious hearings where he had an unfettered opportunity to yell at Biden administration officials on national television, was the pinnacle of Jordan’s ambitions. The speakership would give him a chance to yell even louder. He’s probably got an edge with the hardcore MAGA crowd because he’s closer with Donald Trump than Scalise is, and because Jordan’s trying to impeach President Joe Biden.
Neither of the two have proven interested in or capable of compromise with Democrats. That does not bode well for the next year of governance. Republicans are already starting off on the wrong foot there by being petty assholes and alienating Democrats.
They learned exactly the wrong lesson from what just happened to McCarthy, reverting to the “blame the Democrats” narrative instead of seeing just how fragile their slim majority is. What’s called for is a coalition government. So far, that’s not in the cards.
The best hope for a functioning House—and functioning government—is for the so-called moderate Republicans to make an alliance across the aisle. Instead, Republicans in the only bipartisan group in the House—the Problem Solvers Caucus—are talking about bailing from it. To be honest, the group has been ineffectual, at best, largely because none of the Republicans in it have been willing to buck their party, even when they could easily team up with Democrats and create a big enough bloc to have influence.
Mainstream Republicans could be using this moment to reevaluate and realize their power and start talking to Democrats about what they could do under a potential Speaker Hakeem Jeffries. Judging by this guy below, Rep. Mike Lawler, they are doing the opposite. He’s one of the first-term Republicans in a district won by Biden in 2020.
Like the rest of the Republicans, he’s arguing about seating order on a sinking ship.
Sign if you agree: So long, Kevin!
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