n Show Ending? // (John Hinderaker)
The House of Representatives fiasco may be over. 14 of 21 Republicans who conspired with Democrats to stop the organization of a Republican House are now awake. There are only a few more to wake up and Republicans can begin fulfilling the duties for which it was elected.
How much damage has the small minority of soldouts done to our country? It seems quite a lot. The GOP has been mocked by Democrats non-stop over the last week. Their inability to organize Congress has given credibility to one of their main criticisms: Republicans are fine as back-bench bomb-throwers, but they cannot govern. If you haven’t noticed, today’s GOP doesn’t stand high with most voters. This week’s clown show clearly hasn’t helped.
The bigger question is whether the Speaker’s power has been diminished. I was able to console myself about the narrow GOP win in November by reflecting on the fact that the House is not like the Senate in terms of how large a majority you have. The Speaker is the head of the House, according to House rules. The Speaker is responsible for all matters that come up for a vote. This is why the Democrats were able in recent years to govern the House with effectiveness, despite having a small majority. I thought that Republicans control the House, regardless of the size or composition of the majority.
Kevin McCarthy had to make concessions in order to win over the egomaniacal 19, or 20, as it turned out. These are summarized.
How important are they? They are all minor and some are great ideas. The agreement that any one member of the House can call for a vote against the Speaker is perhaps the most damaging to his authority. This applies only to Republicans. Democrats are not so dumb. I don’t know what impact this change will have, but it is likely to have a minimal effect since the threshold currently stands at five votes. It is yet another example of how Republicans continue to lose the political battle against Democrats because they don’t know how effective to fight.
Let’s all hope that House Republicans can get to work by Monday. Let’s also hope that the caucus’s small group of egomaniacs won’t do permanent damage and will not work with Democrats in future. And I believe that they should be expelled from the party as soon as possible.
