It is a rare day indeed when none other than the bastion of conservative journalism, the Wall Street Journal, bashes the House Republicans as mercilessly and as wittily as any liberal blog, but that day has dawned. The Journal is the voice of the old school Republican party and evidently it hopes that the old school will somehow rally and chastise the rabble before they destroy the House of Representatives — or rout them out, in any event, who cares about chastising?
The Journal has long decided that the era of Trump is over and that its cost is presently too dear to pay. If the New York Times is the Grey Lady, the Journal is the Grim Lady, eager to rally the GOP troops and get them pointed in some sane and healthy direction again. That goal, alas, is not shared by this iteration of the GOP-led House, which is in an all out brawl over something as basic as the Speaker’s gavel. Hence this entertaining op/ed from the Editorial Board, dripping with contempt and parental scorn.
After the election, Kevin McCarthy won the GOP caucus vote to become House GOP leader against Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs, 188-31. But Mr. Biggs won’t take resounding defeat for an answer, and he is now planning to run against Mr. McCarthy for Speaker on the House floor on Jan. 3. A handful of other backbenchers say they’ll also oppose Mr. McCarthy, which could lead to multiple ballots and perhaps even a Democratic Speaker.
What’s bizarre is that the dissenters don’t have major policy differences with Mr. McCarthy or a plausible alternative candidate for Speaker. Mr. Biggs has no chance. He and his rump group also don’t seem to have any constructive reason to oppose Mr. McCarthy beyond a desire to grab the media spotlight or blow everything up.
Their main demand is so self-defeating it could have come from Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The dissenters want Mr. McCarthy to concede that any Member could call the chair vacant and insist on a vote to replace the sitting Speaker. In order to get the votes to become Speaker, Mr. McCarthy is supposed to weaken himself so much that he wouldn’t be able to govern as Speaker.
Yet a narrow GOP majority of only 222-213 requires a leader who can enforce party discipline. That’s how Nancy Pelosi has been able to govern with the mirror-image majority in the last two years. Too many House Republicans are too dimwitted to understand the uses of power and how to wield it. They’d rather rage against the machine to no useful effect.
We will pause here to wipe our eyes and stop shaking for a moment or two. OMG. The Journal is coming out and acknowledging the less than rousing intellectual caliber of so many of the GOP’s sitting House members? I must purchase a fainting couch for moments such as this.
Then the editorial goes on to take a shot at Mitch McConnell for allowing the omnibus spending bill and accuses him, in essence, of knee capping Kevin McCarthy. Oh, the intra party infighting has gone deep if the Journal is trashing McConnell.
The new House GOP majority wouldn’t be able to use their power of the purse to influence priorities until fiscal 2024. The higher spending, and thus larger budget deficits, would also make pro-growth tax cuts that much more difficult to sell politically. If there’s a recession, Democrats will propose even more spending, and Republicans will propose what?
Umm….if you don’t know we sure don’t. It sounds, as a matter of fact, like the Journal is saying that the Republicans have no policies, no platform, and no strategy. Good to know. That was pretty much what everybody else had concluded, just on its face, but now we have the bastion of number one conservative newspaper ratifying the idea. Excellent. Maybe we will arrive at some kind of a national consensus about the GOP in the next two years, against all odds and regain some kind of a moral compass in the post-Trump era. Politics makes for strange bedfellows and right now the Journal sees the congressional clown show the same way we do.
It’s been proven that “pro-growth tax cuts” for the rich and corporations grow THEIR bottom line and leave the rest of us in the hole. Why are R goobers too stupid to get that?
I think it’s because the repubs know how do a counter-narrative. Whenever dems try to enact something to increase taxes on the rich or corporations, the repubs say “they are raising taxes on the middle class and working people!” Their constituents believe them.
good article.
Elect clowns, expect a circus.
And this, in turn, makes me think of my dream scenario of a lot of Republican congresscritters going down for J6 or anything else Trump-related. Think maybe folks on both sides of this GOP Not-So-Civil War are trying to pull a PR campaign to beat the eventual charges?
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. is much smarter than ANY GQP & a warrior for Progressive policy! IMO, one day soon, we’ll TAX the RICH, their FAIR share, the way it used to be & should be RE-instated! The Majority is getting very tired of the SOS from Centrist, Capitalist Democrats & stupid, selfish & GREEDY RW!
Agree, the smoke and mirrors bs that the RW use on the working class needs to be shattered. Giving the 1% wealthiest a free pass should be nonsensical to the 99%.
They could have left out that potshot at AOC. She’s a lot smarter than any of the GOP in the House.
The WSJ hates AOC of course, but their point was not about her intelligence or lack of same. What they are saying is that the Five Horseman of the House GOP Acopalypse are so dumb, they are doing AOC’s work for her: they are defeating their own party.
Hmmm. Biggs won’t take a loss as, well, a loss. Sounds to me like he’s a typical republican so what’s the WSJ bitching about? Funnier still is that rag thinking McCarthy is any kind of a “leader”.