Welcome to leadership, Rep. Scalise.
The newly minted House Majority Whip, Rep. Steve Scalise had a really, really bad first effort today, so bad that his vote counting on the big
border crisis response bill had to be pulled from the floor, and then maybe resurrected as apparently some members demanded that this vote had to happen before leaving town. So they didn't leave town, and have scheduled another meeting for Friday morning when they work on the vote count, again. All of which has led to this delicious Politico headline:
"House GOP in disarray: A fight over the border bill".
In a Thursday afternoon meeting, Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) heard from a number of Republicans who did not want to leave Washington until a package passed the House.
But all day Thursday, the votes in support of the original $659 million border bill faded away, and it’s unclear if Scalise will be able to recapture votes in support of the package. Thursday was his first day as whip.
Lawmakers were supposed to be heading home Thursday to begin a five-week recess. But the House schedule was in such flux that members walked off the floor canceling and rebooking flights to go home. […]
The turmoil is stunning considering how far to the right the GOP leadership pulled this bill. Boehner, McCarthy and Scalise, the new GOP whip, crafted a process that would have given the House a vote on legislation to stop the Obama administration from expanding its deferred deportation program. But even that wasn’t enough.
Why the turmoil is stunning to Politico is a bit of a mystery, considering we've been here before. Even down to Ted Cruz's machinations. It's still absolutely unclear that there are votes to have this pass, as Daily Beast's Tim Mak tweets:
Rep John Fleming relays that Boehner told the troops that they were "not even close" to 218 votes on the border bill
— @timkmak
So they're just prolonging the pain, apparently. Just what the country needs. But it should make an August back home extra special for Republicans.
