Kevin McCarthy struggling to gain speakership

Good day all. With all the news regarding the Twitter Files, a few things have gotten lost in the clutter. One of these is the problems that Kevin McCarthy is having in his quest to Replace Nancy Pelosi next year as Speaker of the House.

The Republicans won enough seats, (Barely), to take control of the House of Representatives from the Democrats. Normally this would mean that the Republican Majority Leader would be the next Speaker. This isn’t a hard and fast rule of course, but is somewhat traditional. However, Kevin McCarthy is not having much luck getting the majority of Republicans on board to elect him as the next Speaker. Here are the details from the Daily Wire:

Five House Republicans publicly oppose Kevin McCarthy’s speaker bid, and several more have private doubts, imperiling the Californian’s accession to the gavel.

Gee, I wonder why these people are having problems with McCarthy being the Speaker of the House? Could it be that he screwed up the House races in the Midterms and the blowout that should have happened, didn’t?

In order to placate the doubters, McCarthy and his allies have commenced a substantial whipping operation, several sources with knowledge of his efforts told the Daily Caller. The Republican leader is prepared to offer the holdouts prized committee seats through the Steering Committee.

However, McCarthy has labeled their most substantial demand, a strengthened motion to vacate the chair, a non-starter. Former House Freedom Caucus chairman Andy Biggs of Arizona announced Tuesday that he would also run for the position, underscoring McCarthy’s failure to secure his right flank.

Biggs is one of the MAGA Republicans, which McCarthy is not. McCarthy isn’t as bad as Cocaine Mitch McConnell in the Senate, however, he is seen as a Kalifornistan RINO who will cave in to the Democrats at every turn.

Biggs told the Daily Caller that McCarthy should “step aside” and if he does not there will be “unnecessary chaos” when the vote occurs.

I’m not seeing a problem with this. A little chaos would be a good thing.

Kevin McCarthy needs to step aside and allow our conference to move forward without him at the helm. He does not have the votes to become the next House Speaker. Not accepting this fact will stymie Republican efforts to advance legislation and hold the Biden Administration accountable. His reluctance to step down will add unnecessary chaos on Jan. 3,” Biggs said.

This is one of the issues for Biggs and the others. McCarthy’s limp wristed manner when it came to Pelosi’s flat out stomping on the Republicans, first with the January 6th Kangaroo Committee and not standing up for Marjorie Taylor Greene when Pelosi booted her off her committee assignments for questioning things like the Tainted Election of 2020. Finally, not moving to shut down Liz Cheney and her nonstop assaults on the Greatest President of the 21st Century, Donald Trump, and anyone who supported him cemented his appearance as a gutless RINO Uniparty loser.

Other public “no’s” on McCarthy include Virginia Rep. Bob Good, South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, and Montana Rep. Matt Rosendale. One House aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conference dynamics and negotiations, told the Daily Caller that there are likely more “silent no’s” who McCarthy needs to whip.

McCarthy has already started making threats toward those who won’t support him. I have a suspicion that it won’t work. While Marjorie Taylor Greene has announced her support, I suspect she’s doing so only to make him indebted to her. As for the holdouts?

Kevin McCarthy had never asked me for my vote,” Gaetz told the Daily Caller.

This is a problem with much of the Jurassic Pols in Congress. They’ve been there so long that they’ve forgotten that they actually need to talk with others in the caucus, not just assume they will do as they’re told. He’s also forgotten that the Democrats are the ones who are into the “Groupthink” way of doing things, and the Republicans have a habit of thinking for themselves.

Reps. Michael Cloud of Texas and Ken Buck of Colorado both told the Daily Caller that they have not committed to vote for or against McCarthy.

Congress is broken. We need fundamental change in order to become a body that can represent the people over entrenched interest — and put our nation back on a path toward security and strength. I’m willing to vote for anyone who will present a clear vision and plan to accomplish this,” Cloud said.

Which isn’t what McCarthy has done. This is showing the major problem with the Republican Party. On the one hand, you have the Ultra MAGA Deplorables who want to Make America Great Again, and then you have people like Kevin McCarthy who are globalists, and want to manage the decline of the United States. In short, they generally don’t stand for anything but themselves. (McConnell is the poster child for this in the GOP)

I’m waiting to see how Kevin outlines his agenda,” Buck added. “I think that it’s really important that we get spending under control. We have $31 trillion in debt. Republicans should lead on that issue and we need a leader who is willing to stand up to the Biden administration and the excessive spending that we’ve had for the last three or four years.”

McCarthy hopes that House Freedom Caucus (HFC) chairman Scott Perry of Pennsylvania will support his bid, and other members of HFC will follow, another House aide, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, told the Daily Caller. The Republican Steering Committee’s assignment of committee memberships for the 118th Congress will be another key way for McCarthy to shore up support, the aide added. Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a McCarthy supporter, is likely to be appointed to the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Well, I see now why MTG is supporting McCarthy. That is a plum assignment, and honestly, McCarthy owes her for his wimpy response to Pelosi and the Democrats. Still, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she dropped him if it looked like he wasn’t going to get the votes to be speaker.

Perry and six other Republicans released a letter on Thursday outlining rules changes that they believe McCarthy needs to support. They include the motion to vacate, longer times for members to read bills, single subject bills, and a hands-off approach to primaries.

There’s no alternative to McCarthy. Biggs’ challenge is not viable,” the aide explained.

At this point in time, neither is McCarthy’s.

In previous Speaker votes, members have voted “present” or missed the count altogether. In 2015, for instance, John Boehner won the chair with 216 votes.

And Boehner is considered to be a complete and utter failure as Speaker.

Many Democrats missed that vote to attend the funeral of former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, and several others missed the vote due to inclement weather. Following the death of Democratic Virginia Rep. Donald McEachin, one additional “present” or missed vote would bring McCarthy’s needed threshold to 217. Three would bring his magic number to 216.

That misses the issue. By rights, the Republicans should have crushed the Democrats in the midterm elections. If they had, McCarthy wouldn’t be having a problem getting the votes needed to win the speakership. Instead, it was a narrow win, and many members of the GOP caucus see McCarthy as one of the reasons the GOP didn’t do as well as they expected.

Kevin McCarthy does not have the votes to be speaker. And despite his team and the Republican establishment going into full meltdown mode trying to cobble together enough to get him there, I don’t see how it happens. Turns out if you spend millions attacking your conservative colleagues and kick conservatives off committees—it eventually catches up to you,” former House staffer Rachel Semmel, currently communications director at the Center for Renewing America, told the Daily Caller.

A senior House aide agreed, telling the Caller that McCarthy does not have the votes to become Speaker.

Leader McCarthy doesn’t have 218, and even after several weeks of meetings with the five who have publicly stated their opposition and others who haven’t committed their support, he doesn’t seem to be any closer to locking up the Speakership,” the aide said. “He’s going to have to give some serious concessions to the holdouts. If he doesn’t, the Speaker’s race will almost certainly have multiple ballots.”

Now that would be interesting. I can’t recall the last time there were multiple ballots to select the Speaker of the House. Watching a nice knock down, dragged out fight would be just the thing to change up the system, no matter who wins.

McCarthy remains optimistic on his speakership chances, however. When reached for comment on the matter, McCarthy’s office referred the Daily Caller to a Fox News interview where he said he will “get there.”

He might get there, or he might not. It’s even possible that the GOP actually does go outside of the elected members and brings in someone. Former representative and dedicated Trump hater, Justin Amash has offered to take up the speakers gavel. There is also the amusing possibility that President Trump is elected Speaker of the House. Oh the fun that would be if he accepted the spot.

Of course, someone had to suggest that the Democrats and some of the RINO’s would be more than happy to give the Speakers Gavel to Liz Cheney. I don’t see that happening for one very simple reason. Cheney is flat out hated by a large segment of the population. Politically, she’s as dead as the dinosaurs. Still, this is going to be both an entertaining fight and an educational one. Probably McCarthy will pull it out, but he’s going to be damaged. If he tries to do a Pelosi, I see a challenge to his speakership and the whole thing starting all over again. Hmm, I’m out of popcorn.

Thatisall

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