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SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE | OCTOBER 7, 2023

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House Republicans Seek New Leader After Historic McCarthy Ouster

House Republicans made history this week by outsing their own speaker.

 

Actually, just eight of 221 House Republicans voted to strip Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) of the gavel. But they were happily joined by 208 Democrats, who seemed to enjoy watching the biggest Republican dustup since President Lincoln fired General McClellan.

 

This story has more angles than a 10th-grade geometry class, so let’s start with the most acute: the House of Representatives is shut down until further notice.

 

Immediately after Tuesday’s vote to vacate the chair, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) was declared speaker pro tempore, a Latin term meaning roughly "for the time being." He immediately gaveled the House into recess for one week.

 

Mr. McHenry has one job: to oversee the election of a speaker. That could happen later next week, but given the fact that it took 15 ballots over four days to elect Mr. McCarthy in January, a rapid return to normal is not guaranteed.

 

This could hardly come at a worse time.

 

A government shutdown was averted last Saturday only by the passage of a continuing spending resolution just hours before midnight. That temporary fix expires in 41 days.

 

During that time, the House must pass the remaining eight of 12 required appropriations bills, reconcile them with the Senate, which has so far passed none, and have them signed by the president.

 

Otherwise, the federal government will enter sleep mode. Or Congress could pass another continuing resolution, the very outcome the dissident group had hoped to avoid.

 

The last continuing resolution cost McCarthy his job as fiscal hardliners were angry at him for bringing it to the floor. They believed it would perpetuate the cycle of passing one continuing resolution after another, followed by a massive, omnibus spending bill that Congress has relied on since the 1990s.

 

Now that the speaker’s chair sits empty, another continuing resolution will likely be required, and possibly an omnibus bill following that.

 

The dissidents were convinced that would happen anyway. They didn’t trust the speaker to complete the appropriations process through regular order—presenting all 12 bills one at a time so members could debate them and offer amendments.

 

“I’m tired of these continuation budgets,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said on “American Thought Leaders,” a program produced by Epoch TV. “We haven’t passed a budget in 30 years.”

 

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who also voted to remove the speaker, wrote on X, “This isn’t about left vs. right. This isn’t about ideology. This is about trust and keeping your word. This is about making Congress do its job.”

 

Two candidates have entered the race to become the next speaker, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

Mr. Scalise is the majority leader, the No. 2 spot in the House. He is respected by colleagues as a trusted lieutenant to Mr. McCarthy and for having survived a mass shooting on the practice field for the annual congressional baseball game in 2017.

 

Mr. Jordan is chairman of the powerful House Judiciary Committee and the Weaponization of Government Subcommittee. He has pledged to get the appropriations process completed through regular order by Nov. 17, which fiscal conservatives will favor.

 

A former college wrestling champion and coach, Mr. Jordan is a co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus. He has been endorsed by President Donald Trump.

 

Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.) has been mentioned as a possible candidate but has not yet entered the race. He chairs the Republican Study Committee, the largest of the five major Republican caucuses.

 

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), seen as a rising star among House Republicans, has also been mentioned as a wild-card candidate.

Mr. McCarthy said he won’t enter the race. But some pundits theorize that there could be a move to draft him if no other candidate can claim a majority.

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Here’s what is expected to happen next week.

 

Tuesday, Republicans will meet in a closed-door forum to hear the candidates.

 

Wednesday, Republicans will take a vote amongst themselves.

If they quickly come to an agreement, a vote on the House floor could happen by Thursday.

 

Otherwise, they’re likely to keep hashing it out in private rather than repeat the spectacle of fighting amongst themselves on live TV.

 

While Republicans dither, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is pitching a plan for power sharing in the House.

 

Jeffries proposed a “reform of the rules of the House” to allow Republicans and Democrats to “govern in a pragmatic fashion.”

 

“The House should be restructured to promote governance by consensus and facilitate up-or-down votes on bills that have strong bipartisan support,” Mr. Jeffries wrote in an Oct. 6 op-ed in The Washington Post.

 

Either way, look for changes besides the speaker.

 

If Mr. Scalise is elected, Rep Tom Emer (R-Min.) is likely to become Majority Leader, and Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.) is the favorite to replace him as Majority Whip.

 

If Mr. Jordan is elected, his plum committee assignments will be up for grabs.

 

And heads could roll. Forty-five Republicans wrote a letter to their colleagues demanding “fundamental changes to the structure” of the GOP majority. They’re angry about the Republican civil war and determined to end the tyranny of the minority within their ranks.

 

“Ashamed and embarrassed by what happened on the Floor this week, we refuse to allow the eight members who abandoned and undermined our Conference to dictate every outcome in policy and personnel for the remainder of this Congress, including the upcoming selection of the Speaker of the House,” the group wrote.

 

Some members have said they want to change the rule that allowed a single member to file a motion to vacate the chair. Others have indicated they want action against those they see as responsible for the chaos.

 

“We’ve got to split these eight people to the side,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) told reporters on Oct. 3. “They are not governable. They don't want to be part of a governing majority.”

 

Responding to news of the letter, Ms. Mace wrote on X, “Bless their hearts,” then added, “The GOP is supposed to be the party of free speech and diversity of opinion. If kicking one of your strongest female voices off committees or out of the conference is how you want to show that, bring it.”

 

Oddly, that’s just what Mr. McCarthy said when threatened with a motion to vacate the chair.

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