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The humiliating days-long spectacle of allowing the top candidate for House speaker to go down in flames in failed vote after failed vote is an unprecedented public display of intra-party dissension – at least this century. But it’s not entirely unexpected.
House Republicans have a recent history of engaging in bruising battles with their own leaders that wounded previous GOP speakers and left others rushing for the exits.
Perhaps this propensity to hobble those entrusted with authority comes with the territory – distrust of governmental power is an integral part of the modern GOP’s DNA. But this week it hasn’t been a pretty picture.
The House adjourned Wednesday night after six consecutive votes over two days failed to pressure any of a recalcitrant group of 20 Republicans to change their minds and hand the speaker’s gavel previously held by Nancy Pelosi to her fellow Californian, Kevin McCarthy.
If anything, McCarthy appeared to lose a little ground as the embarrassing roll calls repeated themselves with no movement from the rebels. Rep. Victoria Spartz, an Indiana Republican and McCarthy supporter, voted “present” beginning in the fourth round to encourage Republicans to stop voting, take a break, gather as a conference, and come up with a new plan.
Rep. Mike McCaul, a mainstream Republican from Texas and the incoming chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, appearing on Fox News, deemed the unpredictable ordeal an embarrassment on the international stage.
Yet, for the group of disruptors, it was all according to plan and part of well-worn quarter-century-long House GOP practice. Starting with Newt Gingrich, who was responsible for helping Republicans win back the majority for the first time in 40 years, and continuing with nearly every GOP speaker since, a small group of fractious House hardliners hasn’t hesitated to punish their top GOP leaders for missteps – real or imagined.
Some of the offenses that have spurred modern-day GOP mutinies include underperforming in elections, the ambiguous charge of ineffective leadership, or consolidating too much power in their leadership roles.
Over the last several days, Fox News and CNN pundits alike, along with McCarthy’s supporters, have derided the spectacle of watching McCarthy go down in defeat multiple times. Rep.-elect Dan Crenshaw, a Texas Republican, labeled the holdouts “terrorists” and “enemies of the state.” Rep.-elect Don Bacon of Nebraska, another McCarthy ally, upped the ante, dubbing the conservative rebels the “Taliban 20.”
The last time the House failed to elect a speaker was 100 years ago, and McCarthy has negotiated with his critics and capitulated to most of their demands. But the small band of GOP McCarthy opponents has stood firm.
“We’re doing exactly what the people want us to do … trying to make sure we stand up and represent our constituents against a swamp that is basically rolling over them – with a $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill,” Rep.-elect Chip Roy, a Texas Republican and a top leader of the conservative revolt against McCarthy this week, told Fox News’ Bret Baier Wednesday night.
Roy was referring to the decision by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to cut a deal with Democrats just before the holidays to fund the government until September. The bill’s timing forced fiscal hawks in the conservative Freedom Caucus to vote yes or no on a 4,000+ page bill containing 7,200 earmarks for pet projects in lawmakers’ districts – that they had no time to sift through.
If the Senate had not foisted that bill on House Republicans, McCarthy likely wouldn’t be facing such an effective revolt, some fiscal hawks argue.
“Ultimately, the battle is over whether we’re going to have a powerful speaker who can dictate anything that the House is going to do,” said Richard Manning, president of Americans for Limited Government, an organization with close ties to several of the McCarthy opponents.
