Speaker McCarthy: Wait, Why Does He Want this Job?
Five Things to Know About Kevin McCarthy's Very Late Win
It is done. Kevin McCarthy is now Speaker of the House of Representatives. After days of political bloodletting, he won in a dramatic Friday night vote. The victory came shortly after Reps Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert surprised McCarthy by withholding their support on the 14th round, and another member had to be physically restrained from lunging at Gaetz. McCarthy resorted to some last minute deal cutting and finally got the gavel. It took only 15 tries! His first words as Speaker: “That was easy, huh? I never thought we’d get up here.”
We can forgive him for saying the quiet part out loud.
I’m sharing five things to know. Please note that I am sending this at 12am on a Saturday without a copy editor – so if you spot a typo, thanks in advance for your understanding
Chaotic, Sloppy, But that’s Democracy: To those who say this Speaker election was a sign that democracy is failing — hard disagree. This was the process at work and, notwithstanding closed door deals, it was conducted in the public eye for all to see….endlessly on cable, day after painful day. True, a Speaker vote hasn’t dragged on this long for more than a century. But parliamentary systems do this sort of thing all the time and function. Score one for transparency.
No, That Was Not Easy: Instead, this was a failure of leadership – McCarthy’s. My favorite tweet of the week came courtesy Elie Mystal. It read “Ever leave a job and secretly hope everything will fall apart once you’re gone? Nancy Pelosi is living your dream.”
Let’s compare. Last time, when Democrats were in charge of the 117th Congress, Pelosi had a comparably slim majority and put down challenges to her bid well before the vote. In the prior Congress, she put down a full on revolt within her ranks by building an alliance with the most progressive and potentially rebellious members of her caucus and locked in their support – or enough of it —to win on the first round of voting despite defections. She protected her power. McCarthy, in contrast, was still horsetrading after 5 days of failed votes and six years of kowtowing to the bomb throwers. He had trained them to expect obeisance and they didn’t give up until they got it. (I’ll get into some of his concessions below.) Pro Tip: No one hire this guy to do strategy when he leaves Congress.
