Kevin McCarthy's Chaos

Ineptitude is Showing

Another update: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3800136-mccarthy-negotiations-with-detractors-progress-ahead-of-seventh-speaker-vote/

Update, Michael Knowles reveals the history on McCarthy

Update, pollster Rich Baris comments as well (https://peoplespundit.locals.com/upost/3306849/kevin-mccarthy-goes-down-on-fifth-ballot)

At least six times now, McCarthy has failed to secure the position of the Speaker of the House. The news media is filled with opinions, accusations, and so forth. Many Republicans are angered and fans of McCarthy see this as so unfair. Congressman Bacon is inflamed by the situation and appears to be willing to compromise with Democrats (https://www.iheart.com/podcast/53-ian-swanson-85544919/episode/rep-don-bacon-with-harshly-critical-106760432/). The legacy media is drooling at seeing Republicans in conflict and intentionally feed the divide.

Nebraska Congressman Mike Flood was a bit more cogent on this topic compared to most (https://www.ketv.com/article/washington-dc-nebraska-rep-mike-flood-talks-gop-difficulties-in-electing-new-house-speaker/42399084). Political Dick Morris has also stepped into the fray (https://www.dickmorris.com/republican-house-dissidents-have-not-made-a-case-against-mccarthy/) without making a case for McCarthy.

However, no matter how you slice it, if McCarthy had the skills to be House speaker, he would have collected the votes he needs to be speaker, but he has not. The problem with McCarthy is he has not lived up to expectations and the Republican Party barely took over the House. This is why conservatives are demanding more. While he has become more conservative over the last few years, he was not always so (https://www.clubforgrowth.org/scorecards/legislator/M001165/Kevin-McCarthy/). At the same time, McCarthy has fed into his ineptitude

Club for Growth explained the opposition viewpoint quite well in an email.

“Specifically, the conservative Members who are voting against Kevin McCarthy want the following three reforms: 

1. Return to the rules of the 114th Congress, including restoring a vote of “no confidence” that was part of the House rules for 200 years, but taken out by Nancy Pelosi so she could run the House like a dictator. They also want Members to have the right to offer amendments on all major legislation, such as appropriations. It is unacceptable that in the last six years there have been no – zero – amendments on legislation permitted from rank-and-file Members brought to a vote;

2. Congressional Leadership Fund – known as Kevin McCarthy’s Leadership PAC -- should be prohibited from spending money or providing grants to any super PAC to oppose conservative Members or conservative candidates in Republican primaries. (Note, there has been progress on this point. See https://www.clubforgrowth.org/clf-club-for-growth-come-to-key-agreement-in-support-of-kevin-mccarthy-for-speaker/)

3. Give conservatives a seat at the table. A true conservative Representative must also be included in House Republican Leadership so that voters who elected them will have their voices heard over the Washington Lobbyists.”

Do these requests sound extreme to you? This email went out to all Club for Growth members. If McCarthy cannot accommodate or negotiate over these issues to gather the votes to be House Speaker, the Republicans in Congress need to find a better candidate.