Our latest book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics. Among other things, it discusses state and congressional elections. It also discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good. Kevin McCarthy faces intraparty opposition for the speakership.
the big problem for House Republicans right now is that if Kevin McCarthy is elected speaker, it will be a trainwreck. And if he's not elected speaker, it will be a trainwreck.
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 23, 2022
Politico Playbook quotes Rep. Bob Good (R-VA):
— IDEOLOGY: “Kevin McCarthy is not a conservative; he doesn’t have an ideological core,” Good told us, echoing a criticism that’s been made many times over. “He kind of just floats with whatever’s politically expedient.” Worse, he said, is that “even those who are supporting him will privately tell you they know he’s untrustworthy,” Good said, citing conversations with colleagues who include a committee ranking member. He posited that McCarthy delayed key organizing decisions until after the Jan. 3 vote because “I suspect he’s promised … multiple people the same thing.”
In April and May of last year, the House GOP leader dispatched a trusted ally, New York Rep. John Katko, to negotiate the terms of an independent commission to examine the Jan. 6 attack. As regular readers may recall, McCarthy made sure to include unreasonable demands he expected Democrats to reject.
When Democrats agreed to Republicans’ terms anyway, McCarthy refused to take “yes” for an answer and rejected the compromise he’d asked for.
At that point, lawmakers moved on to Plan B: They’d create a bipartisan, special select committee to uncover the facts that McCarthy said he was eager to learn. As part of the process, GOP leaders were invited to recommend a slate of House Republicans to participate in the investigation, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had the final call on whether or not they qualified.
McCarthy picked five members, two of whom were rejected for being anti-election radicals, though Pelosi was willing to accept the other three Republicans chosen for the panel. Outraged, McCarthy quickly announced a boycott of the committee.
In other words, Pelosi offered him an opportunity to have three conservative Republicans participate in this investigation. He instead chose to have zero.
A year later, it became clear to much of the GOP that McCarthy failed to think this through. A senior House GOP aide told NBC News in the spring, for example, “I would say it’s absolutely a strategic mistake.”
The unsung hero of the Jan 6 committee, is @GOPLeader Kevin McCarthy, who pulled his choices to obstruct the investigation allowing for a smooth bipartisan investigation and presentation to America. Thanks Kevin!
— Adam Kinzinger #fella (@AdamKinzinger) December 23, 2022
