House Republicans Look In The Mirror, See Kevin McCarthy, Shudder In Despair, Puke

Anarchy In The GOP

I’m sure their editorial, Republican Party Masochits, Friday last night gave the Wall Street Journal no please, just agita. Me, it gave pleasure. It also confirmed, once again, that as bad as the Democratic Party is, there is a worse alternative: the Republican Party. “If a Martian arrived in Washington this week not knowing who had won the November election,” wrote editors, “he’d be forgiven for thinking it was the Democrats. Usually the losers are in disarray, but not this time. Democrats in the House minority have completed a seamless change of House leadership to a younger generation with little internal dissent. But Republicans, who ostensibly won the majority, can’t even find the votes to elect a GOP Speaker, much less agree on budget strategy or much of anything else.”

They pointed out that after the election, McCarthy won the vote for party leadership against the neo-fascist candidate, Andy Biggs (AZ), by a resounding 188-31. Obviously, only Republicans got to vote. But on January 3, the Speaker’s election everybody votes and 218 votes is required to name a winner. At this point, McCarthy doesn’t have 218 votes and Republicans are wringing their hands, some— like the Journal editors— even fantasizing about a Democratic speaker (numerically impossible). Biggs is now one of the 5 Mouseketeers, the #NeverKevin Caucus, who say they will never vote for him under any circumstances. If they stick to that— unlikely— he won’t be elected speaker.

“What’s bizarre,” wrote the editors, who will never admit to themselves that what’s bizarre is that the GOP itself is bizarre, “is that the dissenters don’t have major policy differences with McCarthy or a plausible alternative candidate for Speaker. Biggs has no chance. He and his rump group also don’t seem to have any constructive reason to oppose McCarthy beyond a desire to grab the media spotlight or blow everything up.” Well… I hate to take their side— and I won’t— but McCarthy is a worthless, spineless jellyfish, an empty suit steeped in institutional corruption… so there is that. The Journal editors noted— with horror— that “Their main demand is so self-defeating it could have come from Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The dissenters want McCarthy to concede that any Member could call the chair vacant and insist on a vote to replace the sitting Speaker. In order to get the votes to become Speaker, McCarthy is supposed to weaken himself so much that he wouldn’t be able to govern as Speaker.” And he will (see above, that thing about jellyfish).

[A] narrow GOP majority of only 222-213 requires a leader who can enforce party discipline. That’s how Nancy Pelosi has been able to govern with the mirror-image majority in the last two years. Too many House Republicans are too dimwitted to understand the uses of power and how to wield it. They’d rather rage against the machine to no useful effect.

Meanwhile, across the Capitol, Senate Republicans are doing McCarthy no favors by joining Democrats to pass a giant omnibus spending bill for fiscal 2023. Most House Republicans prefer a continuing resolution to fund the government only into early next year, when Republicans will have more leverage as the House majority.

But Mitch McConnell and the Senate GOP don’t trust that McCarthy can deliver in January, or so they say. They won’t even give him the chance. The more likely explanation is that Senate Republicans also want one more spending blowout this Congress as much as Senate Democrats do. Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby is the ranking Republican on the Appropriations Committee, and he seems intent on going out with big spending bang.

…The new House GOP majority wouldn’t be able to use their power of the purse to influence priorities until fiscal 2024. The higher spending, and thus larger budget deficits, would also make pro-growth tax cuts that much more difficult to sell politically. If there’s a recession, Democrats will propose even more spending, and Republicans will propose what?

Democrats run the House until January, so McCarthy can’t stop an omnibus bill. But the lack of coordination between the House and Senate GOP bodes ill for any coherent agenda over the next two years. Senate Democrats and the White House will have a united front and could roll over a divided GOP.

The GOP dysfunction since Election Day won’t matter if it teaches Republicans that their only chance of influencing policy is to stay united. On the evidence so far, however, Republicans are the gang that couldn’t shoot straight— except at one another.

Judicious fellow Californian, Ted Lieu, once told us that it's "always difficult to take Kevin McCarthy seriously. Nevertheless, allowing McCarthy to get anywhere near the speaker's gavel would be catastrophic-- not just because of his propensity for falsehoods and smears, but because he will exist soley to do Donald Trump's bidding-- even potentially overturning the 2024 results." On another occasion, after some performative rant by McCarthy, Lieu said "Have you been waiting for the Leader of the House Republican Conference to stand up to the radical wingnuts in his party and defend democracy and common sense? Don't hold your breath. Kevin McCarthy has made it crystal clear whose side he's on and it isn't rational reasonable Americans. From downplaying the insurrection to damaging public health, Kevin is just fine with backing dangerous extremists in his party... These are serious times for our nation and we need serious leadership."

Hmmm... serious leadership? In Congress? Generally, Members of Congress elect to leadership those who can best prostrate themselves before oligarchs and take in the most money to spread around so... serious leadership? I don't see it on the horizon; certainly not in McCarthy nor in Hakeem Jeffries.