McCarthy is a Symptom of House Republican Dysfunction, Not Its Cause - Horowitz

McCarthy is a Symptom of House Republican Dysfunction, Not Its Cause - Horowitz

“Ambition is like hunger; it obeys no law but its appetite.” said the 19th Century humorist Henry Wheeler Shaw.  We saw this level of raw ambition play out on a national stage last week as Kevin McCarthy gave everything short of one of one his kidneys away to secure his long-time goal of becoming the Speaker of the House.  It took 15 ballots for the California Republican to finally overcome his opposition. He did so through an ugly combination of buying them off and wearing them down.  “I ran out of things to ask for.” was leading McCarthy antagonist, Matt Gaetz’s (R-FL) telling explanation for why he finally came around.

 

But to focus on Mr. McCarthy misses the main point.  The existence of a far-right segment of the Republican conference that is more than willing to hold the rest of the body hostage to their demands and of a majority that is by and large more concerned about being challenged from the Trump-right in a primary than in appealing to independents and moderates in a general election, and as a result, rarely--if ever--aggressively counters the far-right, makes the job of Speaker a nearly impossible one. This would be the case no matter which Republican holds the speaker’s gavel.  A similar dynamic faced the last two Republican speakers, Paul Ryan and John Boehner. Today's narrow majority, however, compounds the problem.

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The conservative editorial board of The Wall Street Journal captured the dilemma last week in an editorial aptly entitled “Who’s Crazy Enough to Be a Republican Speaker?” “The problem any GOP leader faces today is that too many Republicans don’t really want to hold and keep political power,” The Journal wrote. “They’re much more comfortable in opposition in the minority, which is easier because no hard decisions or compromises are necessary. You can rage against ‘the swamp’ without having to do anything to change it. This is the fundamental and sorry truth behind the Speaker spectacle and the performative GOP politics of recent years.”

 

More specifically, the hard-right segment that Mr. McCarthy further empowered in order to gain the Speakership is comprised of a disproportionate number of members who advanced the Big Lie, including Scott Perry(R-PA), Matt Gaetz, and Andy Biggs (R-AZ),  who provided active support for Trump’s efforts to cling to power. As a  New York Times analysis found, “More than half of the lawmakers who voted against Mr. McCarthy explicitly denied the results of the 2020 election, compared with about 15 percent of the 222 total members in the Republican caucus.   

 

These are the members whose opposition was overcome only by giving them more seats on the important rules committee, agreeing to a separate sub-committee with robust funding to investigate the FBI, and by adding impossible-to-meet spending reduction requirements to the passage of any increase to the debt limit, making it more likely that the United States will default on its fiscal obligations for the first-time in its history with potential disastrous financial consequences.  Additionally, they maintain maximum leverage over the Speaker, since Mr. McCarthy also agreed to a rule that gives a single member of Congress the ability to trigger a vote to remove him at any time during his two-year term.
 

 

The likely ongoing dysfunction in the Republican House provides political benefits for President Biden.  The marked and advantageous contrast last week between President Biden and Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, joined by an array of other  Republican and Democratic elected officials, appearing together to highlight the commencing of long overdue bridge improvements on the Brent Spence Bridge, connecting  Covington, KY and Cincinnati, OH, made possible by the adoption of bipartisan federal infrastructure legislation, and the debacle playing out on the House floor, gave us a preview of White House messaging.   "It sends an important message to the entire country: we can work together,” said the president at the event. “We can get things done. We can move the nation forward if we just drop a little bit of our egos and focus on what is needed for the country."

 

Still, one must hope that Speaker McCarthy overcomes all that is stacked against him and manages to somehow make the House at least minimally functional.  Otherwise, the risks of disruptive and damaging government shutdowns and debt defaults, among other damaging outcomes, are too great.  This may require giving some of the moderates in his caucus space to cut deals on these issues with the Democrats.  That would create risks to the speaker’s job security and putting his speakership at risk would be out of character. 

 

But sometimes, when given great responsibility, people rise to the occasion. While I am not betting on it, there remains the possibility that now that Mr. McCarthy has achieved his long-time political dream, he will surprise me and put the country first.