Analysis: McCarthy offered up obscure-but-critical changes to House rules, but those changes could lead to his speedy exit from speaker’s suites with little to show for his tenure, further destabilizing an already dysfunctional institution.
The California Republican offered up a set of obscure-but-critical changes to House rules that could put him back on a path to eventually win. But those changes could lead to McCarthy’s relatively speedy exit from speaker’s suites with little to show for his tenure, further destabilizing an institution that is already generously described as dysfunctional.
“Kevin McCarthy has nothing left to give away. He’s given away everything including his dignity, and it’s still not enough for these guys,” said Democrat Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee for the last five years. “And the problem is, if it’s not McCarthy or whoever else they decide to put up there, he is now locked into these crazy rules changes and is going to have to follow all these nutty demands.
Cloud, along with a group led by fellow Texan Chip Roy, have won concessions that will transfer the speaker’s office from someone often described as the most powerful of the last 60 years, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, to someone who will by dictate be the weakest speaker in memory. Traditionally, every member of the majority votes exactly as the speaker intends on the Rules Committee, unless there is an extraordinary circumstance related to a lawmaker’s personal beliefs or something central to their district.By custom, the House speaker simply never loses a vote in the rules committee — but McCarthy’s antagonists are trying to make that a possibility.
Longtime observers expect a similar deadlock to happen if McCarthy, or whoever claims the gavel, tries to open up the amendment process. And it will basically shut down the process for funding federal agencies, raising the risk of government shutdowns or forcing them to continue operating on the previous year’s budget.
That can be difficult when a few dozen ideologues decide it’s time to boot the speaker, as happened in 2015 when Freedom Caucus members wanted to force a vote against Boehner. He resigned rather than face the divisive vote.
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