Freedom Caucus “Free-Dumb” Antics Cost Them Their Leverage

President Biden signed the appropriations legislation sent to him and yet again an unnecessary game of brinksmanship is over. The government will be funded through the end of the fiscal year. The “mighty” House Freedom Caucus which was so full of itself at the beginning of the current Congress just got its balls whacked. Worse, the person who did it was the presumably milquetoast Speaker Mike Johnson who the Free-Dumb Caucus had assumed it could control even more easily than it had his predecessor Keven McCarthy. Johnson chose to work around them and suddenly this group of chest thumping asshats are realizing the appropriations bills recently passed are just the beginning!

My how the mighty have fallen. USA Today has an interesting article that digs into the changing landscape in the House, and how the Freedom Caucus finds its influence, its power to dictate terms to the Speaker and frankly the entire government significantly diminished:

One House Republican who spoke to USA TODAY on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly said the Freedom Caucus should have seen their waning influence coming after their antics.

“Some of these guys are super savvy operators who understand leverage,” the GOP lawmaker said. “Others of them are more interested in being chaos agents. In which case, rational thought isn’t really their thing.”

Let’s all remember January, 2023 and how the Freedom Caucus and Matt Gaetz in particular put Kevin McCarthy through a days long public humiliation with round after round of votes before finally letting him have his precious Speaker’s Gavel. McCarthy craved that gavel more than anything, and gave away seemingly everything to get it. However, part of the price was putting his “family jewels” on a chopping block and gifting the crazies with a meat cleaver. Specifically a change in House Rules that allowed any one Representative the power to file a privileged motion to Vacate the Chair. (Note that word privileged) Over and over they threatened McCarthy with their power to file such a motion which meant no more than two days could pass before it was taken up.

There were cooler and smarter heads in the Freedom Caucus who didn’t agree with both the initial public humiliation of McCarthy after their demands had been met, and they grew furious with Gaetz for engineering enough of a holdout to force extra votes to confirm McCarthy. Nor did they approve of the periodic rubbing of McCarthy’s face in the pile of sh*t they created in the House just to flaunt their power. Some felt it could engineer a lot of bad will that would wind up being counter-productive. Sure enough that’s how it worked out.

For all his faults, McCarthy had a lot of support with even the bulk of the Freedom Caucus for his prodigious fundraising skills. Many were furious with Gaetz for filing his privileged motion to Vacate last fall, fearing just the kind of ensuing chaos we’ve seen since. It’s worth bearing in mind that for all the bluster of the budget compromise McCarthy made with the WH and the (Democratically controlled) Senate what likely drove Gaetz was his fury that McCarthy wouldn’t force the Ethics Committee to drop its investigation into his sexual misconduct. (Perhaps crimes?) What matters in the end was that at a crucial time the House was brought to a standstill before the then unknown Mike Johnson was handed the gavel.

While at first disappointed a firebrand like “Gym” Jordan didn’t become Speaker and shut down the govt. (which most of the House Republicans regarded as a horrific mistake to do) they thought they had someone even more compliant than McCarthy. It’s sure seemed that way. Johnson, who long before becoming Speaker was pro Russia/Putin and had opposed aid to Ukraine refused to allow an aid package with wide bi-partisan support to the floor for a vote. He also seemed willing to shut the govt. down if they (the Freedom Caucus) didn’t get their way on some pretty drastic cuts to spending. To break the deal McCarthy had made.

I’m sure as hell no fan of Speaker Johnson. But he seems to have grown a bit of a spine. Word has been circulating for a while now that most House GOPers don’t have the stomach to go through another debacle like last fall when they couldn’t find a replacement for McCarthy. And Leader Jeffries had signaled a willingness to help Johnson survive a vote to take away the gavel in exchange for getting some important stuff done. Johnson I think realized the Freedom Caucus had overplayed its hand. He didn’t care about the country in general being tired of their antics. However he DID care that the vast majority of his caucus had grown tired of the drama. Including some of the semi-sane members of the Freedom Caucus!

Between resignations and the expelling of George Santos an already slim majority had been reduced to almost nothing. Republicans already face strong headwinds when it comes to holding onto control of the House this fall and Johnson isn’t stupid. A shutdown, which is what a small part of the Freedom Caucus AND in the middle of primary season would ensure it. Hakeem Jeffries had been biding his time, and was ready to have a serious chat with Johnson.

Jeffries assured him he could provide most of House Democrats’ votes on the budget and it seems secured a promise to bring up the aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan and Johnson had his way to get around his crazies – suspend the rules! Under such circumstances two-thirds of the House must vote for a measure to approve it. With Jeffries providing a couple hundred Democratic votes he only needed roughly eighty of fellow GOPers to go along and that’s exactly how it played out. Per USA Today:

One of the few things conservatives could do was tank procedural rule votes on the House floor and freeze the lower chamber as a way to express their anger at leadership, but that can only been effective for so long.

In response, Johnson has been forced to opt for a procedural tactic called suspension to muscle legislation to the floor with little debate. Any legislation advanced this way requires a two-thirds majority to pass, sidestepping conservatives.

As I said, there are Republicans privately saying the Freedom Caucus’s waning influence is of its own making. I’m convinced that had they been more reserved they’d still wield outsized power/influence. But they just HAD to show their ass and now it’s been spanked. Even some of their colleagues feel they blew it, and dare I say it that it’s about time:

“It’s really hard for me to listen to people that are complaining that the train’s not on time when (they) were the people … blowing up the tracks all the way,” Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., told USA TODAY. “Now we’re at the station here, so don’t complain the train’s not on time.”

Well, the realization has been setting in for the part of the Freedom Caucus that have some like me calling it the Free-Dumb Caucus. We can call this handful of jerkwads the Crazy Caucus. Even some of them are starting to worry that before this Congress is over we could see a Democratic Speaker! Remember when I said to take note of the word “privileged” when it comes to a motion to Vacate the Chair? MTG didn’t file her motion as a privileged one. So the House doesn’t have to take it up. Instead it’s been referred to committee which is where it will sit unless she decides to refile it at privileged. However, even Matt Gaetz is worried about the consequences:

Gaetz, the ringleader of the ousting of McCarthy, said Thursday he wouldn’t support a motion to vacate and said, “If we vacated this speaker, we’d end up with a Democrat,” also suggesting some Republicans would vote for Jeffries for speaker.

He hasn’t been the only one to go on record saying that either. For all their bluster, it looks like even the craziest element of the Freedom Caucus knows it doesn’t have the clout it thought it would have. Not anymore. Don’t get me wrong – they can make a LOT of mischief and no doubt will do so in the months ahead. However, even McCarthy pal Patrick McHenry (among others) thinks Johnson is starting to grow into the role of Speaker. That might or might not turn out to be a good thing.

However, now and for the foreseeable future (if not through the remainder of this Congress) it seems on critical matters Johnson will, when he has to cut a deal with Jeffries to get the votes needed to pass legislation under suspension of the rules.  The Freedom Caucus has been cut down to size, and they were the ones wielding the knife!