Don’t look now, but the new House Speaker may not end up being Kevin McCarthy at all. In fact, it could be some yet unknown person who’s hand-selected by the Democrats!
Politics :
Current House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has dreamed of the day when he might become the new House Speaker. Republicans captured a slim yet decisive congressional victory in the November 2022 election. So, it stands to reason that McCarthy would step forward, grab the gavel from Nancy Pelosi in January, and elevate to the position of the new House Speaker, right? WRONG!
To say that all is not well in GOP-land would be an understatement. The Donald Trump/MAGA wing of the party has no real desire to govern now that they will control the House in 2023. Instead, they’re hell-bent on revenge and have brazenly made it known that they wish to investigate President Biden and his family every single day. They even want to impeach Mr. Biden multiple times (for unknown crimes TBD) as retribution for the multiple impeachments of their king, Donald Trump.
However, McCarthy and other sensible stalwarts of the GOP believe that although such a strategy could create a short-term sense of euphoria, it may end up as political suicide when it comes time to elect the next president in 2024. Plus, with such a slim majority over the Democrats, McCarthy recognizes it will already be difficult enough to pass general legislation on behalf of conservatives, evangelicals, and other Republican factions.
Since logic has never been at a premium among MAGA sycophants, ReTrumplicans say they are prepared to vote against McCarthy as the new House Speaker unless he gives them everything they want — a move which would play right into the hands of the Democratic Party.
This would be horrible news for McCarthy since in order to secure the Speakership, he would need to win majority support of the House on the first day of the new Congress on January 3. With Republicans winning a narrower-than-anticipated majority of only 9 more seats than Democrats (222 Republicans to 213 for Democrats), McCarthy can only afford to lose a handful of Republican votes on the floor. Or, in other words, he would need to win a majority that, as of today, he simply doesn’t have.
By law, the Speaker of the House does NOT need to be a current or elected member of the House of Representatives. She or he only needs to be a person who’s duly chosen by a majority of the congressional members. And, here is where Democrats could step in with a bit of a steal.
While Republicans infight amongst themselves, Democrats could nominate and actually elect someone like John Kasich, the former governor of Ohio who has been critically outspoken about the direction of his Republican Party. They could also select former Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan. Or, they could really get saucy and nominate the outgoing congresswoman from Wyoming, Rep. Liz Cheney.
A fearful Kevin McCarthy recognizes that his party’s inner battles could backfire against Republicans and deny him his coveted Speaker of the House title at the 1-yard line — and he’s already sounding the alarm.
“We have to speak as one voice. We will only be successful if we work together, or we’ll lose individually. This is very fragile — that we are the only stopgap for this Biden administration,” McCarthy told his fellow Republicans during an appearance on Newsmax Monday.
“And if we don’t do this right, the Democrats can take the majority. If we play games on the floor, the Democrats can end up picking who the Speaker is,” McCarthy added.
Truer words have never been spoken. Stay tuned…
OK WASSUP! discusses Politics:
Democrats could pick the new House Speaker.
The Hill:
All Democrats are expected to vote for their party’s Speaker nominee, expected to be finalized as Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) this week. At least five House Republicans from the hard-line conservative wing have publicly said or strongly indicated that they will not vote for McCarthy on the floor, throwing his Speakership bid into dangerous territory.
Those members are Reps. Bob Good (Va.), Ralph Norman (S.C.), Matt Rosendale (Mont.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.) and Biggs.
Several others have expressed skepticism of McCarthy but have not said how they will vote on Jan. 3. Biggs said on the “Conservative Review” podcast on Monday that he thinks the number of “hard noes” on McCarthy is around 20 GOP members, which would sink McCarthy’s bid.