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McCarthy’s Wrong-Headed Compromise
Kevin McCarthy has offered to reform the motion to remove the Speaker of the House to gain the votes of the recalcitrant conservatives. Nancy Pelosi had changed the House rules so that only House leadership could offer such a motion, which was obviously never going to happen under her reign. McCarthy has offered to change the rules again so that five members could offer such a motion, although it would still require a majority vote to remove the speaker.
This is a mistake. While there should be the possibility to offer a motion to remove the speaker, the bar should be high. The speaker needs to have enough authority to push hard compromises through and to discipline members who never cooperate. If five members can offer such a motion, he will always be walking on thin ice. It will exacerbate the current infighting in the Republican caucus. Requiring 25 or 50 members to offer such a motion would still make it a realistic possibility to remove him if he really screws up without making it too easy.
The compromise that he should offer is to restore regular order and to empower the committee chairmen to run their committees. Regular order in the budget process would result in more attention paid to the details of appropriations. It would show that Republicans can run the House and manage the nation’s budget.
Empowering the committee chairmen would result in legislation with tighter language and better ideas. Committees would again mark up bills, which would bring more voices into the process. It would have a chance to break up the solid Democratic bloc as those with more moderate ideas would have them considered. Moderate Democrats would no longer have to submit to the wacky progressive leadership in order to influence legislation. It would be scary because the House leadership would no longer control everything, but it would bring the more responsible voices on both sides to the fore.
The battle royal would occur if the House would produce twelve appropriations bills and the Schumer’s Senate would slap together another omnibus. But if the House Republicans would stand firm, they could contrast their responsible governance with yet another gargantuan spending blowout. They could take record of responsible governance into the 2024 elections.
Kevin McCarthy, if you want to be Speaker and be effective, restore regular order and the committees.
Published in Domestic Policy
Never, ever underestimate the ability of Republican politicians to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Fast,
Great post! Too few of our articles about politics are well-informed, intelligent, and well thought out as this one is.
Most are the kind of “doomer” rubbish that, as @omegapaladin wrote yesterday, merely help drag this site and our movement into the toxic waste dump of the blogosphere and diminish the unique—literally unique—character that makes people willing to pay hard-earned cash for a subscription.
I hope folks will give a thought before caving in to the temptation to mewl. Sometimes even some our best and brightest fall in.
Horowitz: McCarthy passed budget bills with Dem support during Trump years
On the first ballot for Speaker of the House:
Jeffries (Democrat): 212
McCarthy (Republican): 203
Biggs (Republican): 10
Other Republicans: 9
Since no candidate got a majority, they will vote again.
First time since 1923.
How to Win Friends and Influence People
Is there any Republican who disappointed us as quickly as Eyepatch McCain?
Currently Representative Jim Jordon, who received 6 votes for Speaker, is nominating Kevin McCarthy for Speaker on the second ballot.
I wonder if at the end of about a dozen or so votes for Speaker, we will end up with a Speaker who leads a bi-partisan coalition. I have no idea how this ends.
And Matt Gaetz nominates Jim Jordan. Got to love a good floor fight. I much prefer this to the lockstep leftism on display from the Dems.
What about actual McCain?
Of course, that lock-step leftism is why they succeed. Unfortunately for the whole country.
I don’t think disappointment happened so quickly with him.
Could Jeffries actually become Speaker even though Democrats are in the minority?
I read something about a week ago that the House, if it wants, can have a vote where a plurality is sufficient to become Speaker. If that happens, make sure you have a stiff drink in front of you before you hear the news.
It would be just like the current GOP to elect a Democrat as Speaker of the House.
It would fit in well with McConnell’s calculated loss.
And add put more weight on the scale for “not a dime’s bit of difference between them.”
Even Henry would start to doubt.
According to this, they could also do ranked-choice voting. Maybe McCarthy could win in that situation.
Next ballot should be Lee Zeldin.
Or at the very least McCarthy should slink off and do whatever it is that he does….
He was nominated in the first round. He got one vote.
Right now it’s Jeffries (Democrat) 164, McCarthy (Republican) 164, Jordan (Republican) 18.
Yes, and McCarthy still doesn’t have the votes.
So, I guess every 100 years we decide to have vote-o-rama while selecting a Speaker of the House?
Well we’ve had vote-o-ramas for the past two election cycles, so why shouldn’t it ooze into the House of Representatives.
But, decorum and all that….
They’re just voting to see who’s going to receive the largest portion of the graft.
Conservatives seek to preserve tradition.
Why wouldn’t the Dims throw a few votes to McCarthy if they think they’d rather deal with him instead of one of the others?
I think the Democrats are enjoying watching the Republicans make fools of themselves on national television. They can say to the voters, “This is what you get when you elect a Republican majority: Chaos.”
Then they hope to win back the majority in 2024.
People are watching this on television?
There’s a big part of the problem, right there.
Well maybe for now. But for sure they aren’t going to get Pelosi again, so they might as well drag whoever they would prefer to deal with – or whoever they think would make the Republicans look the worst – across the line.
I’m not a fan of McCarthy, but the 19 Never-Keviners are their own worst enemies. They are making the Republicans look fractious and incapable of governing on national television. You settle your own differences in private and then come out united if you want to be effective.
If you want to get beat by crazy leftists and dementia patients in 2024, keep doing what you’re doing, Never-Keviners.
If the past two years are the definition of governing, then I welcome the fractious and incapable. And what is McCarthy doing to settle differences? Apparently nothing. Should he eventually prevail, I’m sure he will not be vindictive at all. No, not at all.
Oh, wait, he sent Dan Crenshaw out to call names. That’ll do it!
McCarthy lost Byron Donalds. And he’s on to vote number 4. Such a leader.