Kevin McCarthy may have received the votes needed to secure his speakership, but at what cost?
New House rules aside, McCarthy did something that will almost certainly prevent him from governing effectively: McCarthy chose appeasement over collaboration.
Behind closed doors, he should have been negotiating for votes as early as mid-November. Then, had he been smart, he could have worked with the original 20 holdouts to reduce the hardcore “no” votes to the final six (which he never did get ) before they held the first House floor vote. That’s what Pelosi would have done.
In addition to sparing us the unsettling spectacle of a potential brawl on the House floor, McCarthy could have reduced the torturous voting process from 15 rounds to two and saved the Republican Party from much embarrassment.
Instead, he relied on positive thinking and crossed his fingers. When that failed 13 times, he started giving stuff away. Two rounds later, McCarthy got the votes he needed.
The appeaser-in-chief gave away his power for a title
The problem with appeasement is that it puts the appeaser in a weakened position. The very act implies that the other party has the power. McCarthy, who believes voting is all there is to governing, gave away his power for a title.
This is the same Kevin McCarthy who stood on the floor of the House on January 6 and laid the blame for the violence that unfolded that day squarely on the shoulders of Donald Trump. Yet, three weeks after the riot on Capitol Hill, McCarthy was at Mar-a-Lago, kissing the ring of the disgraced twice-impeached ex-president. Now we know why.
McCarthy needed Trump to whip up votes for his speakership. Remember the big red wave that never happened? McCarthy was counting on it to gain the majority in the House. And he knew that without Trump’s help, he wouldn’t have the votes to become the speaker. So, McCarthy did what any amoral, self-serving Republican would do — he appeased Trump.
When the big red wave fizzled, McCarthy found himself in a predicament. He would need the help of every Republican in their unexpectedly small majority to secure the votes needed for his dream job. If Republicans had taken the House with a majority of 20 or 30 seats — as predicted — McCarthy would not have needed to appease 20 hardcore naysayers. But they didn’t. The only way for McCarthy to become the speaker with such a slim majority was more appeasement. How much more is hard to say, partly because, despite McCarthy’s claim of wanting transparency in the House, his appeasement went beyond what’s been publicly shared.
A former Senate Budget Committee aide, Zach Moller, told The Hill that McCarthy made “additional private concessions” to secure his speakership — concessions that could be found in “a secret three-page addendum included in the new House rules package.”
If McCarthy’s public concessions seem too extreme, one can only imagine what he might have secretly agreed to.
McCarthy’s concessions will make for a contentious but ineffective Congress in 2023
As for the concessions we know about, it’s hard to say which will cause the most trouble. If the behavior of Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, and Marjorie Taylor Greene is any indication, the rule allowing a single member of the House to challenge the speaker will probably be abused the first time one of them wants something they can’t have.
Another rule McCarthy agreed to publicly would allow the House to oversee the Department of Justice during ongoing investigations. As bad as this one sounds, it’s nothing but a pipe dream of Republicans who are worried about being investigated by the DOJ for their participation in the events on January 6.
The Department of Justice has strict rules prohibiting discussions with anyone (even members of Congress) regarding ongoing investigations. So, if Congress wants to form a committee to investigate wrongdoing by people at DOJ after the investigations have concluded, they are free to do so. But they will get nowhere asking DOJ to hand over evidence or hold discussions related to ongoing cases.
The most urgent danger this rule presents lies not in what may happen at the DOJ. Instead, it lies in the message it sends to the American public — specifically, to the angriest among us and the most likely to use violence — it sends the message that they shouldn’t trust the DOJ, the FBI, the police, or the president.
Inaction would be a best-case scenario for this group of Congressional Republicans— unless we need to raise the debt ceiling to pay for the debts we’ve already incurred. Of course, that will be a big problem in September — but a lot can happen between now and then.
Most of what Republicans promise in their new rules will amount to nothing of substance once the Senate, President Biden, and the Supreme Court weigh in. Unfortunately, Republicans will still have the power to waste a tremendous amount of time and money attempting to discredit Democrats and escape accountability when they should be working to make life better for the American people.
The 2023 Congress will likely be known for argumentativeness, ineptitude, and wasted resources. But don’t tell Kevin McCarthy that. He thinks he’s on a roll.
Just moments after he secured the votes he needed to become Speaker of the House, McCarthy said the following — with a straight face:
“Because it took this long, now we learned how to govern. So now we’ll be able to get the job done.”