Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023 | 2 a.m.
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It’s now been more than two weeks since Kevin McCarthy was ousted from his position as speaker, and House Republicans are still struggling to anoint a new leader.
Jim Jordan, the GOP’s latest nominee, failed a second time to muster enough votes to win the speakership in Wednesday’s floor vote. It now seems increasingly unlikely that he will become speaker. Denying the biggest election denier in Congress the gavel is a good thing for the country, but it does nothing to end the House’s current state of paralysis.
And so the circus continues.
What now? That’s the big question, and Republicans can’t seem to agree upon an answer.
There’s talk of a Band-Aid fix to bestow more power upon Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., who was appointed as temporary speaker following McCarthy’s untimely ouster. While it wouldn’t be a permanent fix, expanding McHenry’s powers would allow the House to, well, do its job as Republicans continue to squabble. The idea is to allow McHenry to oversee the passage of spending bills to avoid a government shutdown, since funding is set to expire in just under a month. McHenry says he doesn’t want that power, but he may not have much of a choice.
Of course, temporarily giving McHenry power is as much of a solution as temporarily funding the government. It avoids total disaster — for now — but it doesn’t actually solve the underlying problem. Still, it’s something. Some moderate Republicans are pushing to empower McHenry, and many Democrats seem open to it as well, though other Republicans may not be willing to go there just yet.
This unprecedented situation is all thanks to Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., and his Freedom Caucus friends, who have been singularly focused on bringing the House to its knees since January. Jordan was not the preferred candidate of a majority of House Republicans, but he became the speaker-designate after it was clear that a number of far-right holdouts would not support anyone else. Though he tried to distance himself from it in the end, Bishop helped bring about McCarthy’s downfall, despite the chaos he admitted would ensue. And chaos it is indeed.
Still, the entire Republican caucus shares in the blame. McCarthy clearly didn’t bother to account for the consequences of allowing a one-person motion to vacate back in January — even when it became obvious early on that his speakership would have an expiration date. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and his allies had no real plan for how to proceed if such a motion succeeded. And even the Republicans voting against Jordan now are largely casting protest votes instead of offering any real solution.
The result? Turmoil, gridlock and a complete inability to govern, playing out publicly on C-SPAN. The House cannot pass legislation, address growing international crises or do much of anything without a leader. That might be an ideal outcome for the House chaos caucus, who seem to prefer it when government does as little as possible (a few of them clapped when Democrats pointed out that Jordan hasn’t passed a single bill in his 16 years in Congress). But for anyone who likes it when their government actually works for them, it’s bad news.
Don’t look away. House Republicans are showing us that they are utterly incapable of doing the basic tasks of governing. For years, they’ve refused to sideline the extremists in their party, and this is the consequence.
Paige Masten is a columnist for The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer.
