House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is fighting a civil war on two fronts: with his own House caucus and with Senate Republicans. It’s a war of his own making, the result of courting and catering to the radical House Freedom Caucus, who will accept nothing less than total control of the whole congressional agenda. The rebellion on Tuesday from 11 of the hard-liners proved that, and provided a preview of the big battles yet to come.
That handful of Republicans shut down the House Tuesday when for the first time in 21 years they defeated a “rule,” the procedural vote that sets out debate plans and puts a bill on the floor. Defeating a rule vote is the equivalent of a Senate majority turning on leadership and filibustering a priority bill. It just doesn’t happen—until this week, when the maniacs organized enough to flex that muscle. They weren’t organized enough to have a cohesive message as to why they did it originally, but now they’ve proven to themselves and everyone else that they can do it. That means the threat of doing it again is very real.
The disarray from Tuesday’s revolt stretched into Wednesday, when House leadership was left without a plan for going forward. McCarthy valiantly tried to put some lipstick on that procedural pig in a tortured argument about how this would cause the media to underestimate him again and make his eventual victory seem bigger. “So in the end, when I look back, this may be a very big positive thing,” he blustered. Sure, Kev.
