Kevin McCarthy has jumped through hoops the far right wing of his party has set up before — just to become Speaker of the House (after 15 votes), McCarthy agreed to myriad Freedom Caucus demands, including the rule change that makes him so vulnerable at present: It takes just a single Congressperson from either party to bring about a vote to oust the Speaker, which vote then only requires a simple majority to complete his dismissal.
As Jake Sherman writes in a post titled ‘McCarthy Handcuffed’, “some expect a motion to vacate to be filed” as early as this week.
[NOTE: The New York Times reported in January, after McCarthy’s razor-thin Speaker victory that “the protracted fight foreshadowed how difficult it would be for him to govern with an exceedingly narrow majority and an unruly hard-right faction bent on slashing spending and disrupting business in Washington.”]
☀️ AM: MCCARTHY HANDCUFFED@SpeakerMcCarthy's orbit has become increasingly convinced that his opponents are sparking a shutdown to push him out of the speakership.
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) September 19, 2023
Some expect a motion to vacate to be filed THIS WEEK
McCarthy has very little room to maneuver. But is…
McCarthy is now ostensibly trying to avoid a government shutdown, a shutdown his more conservative rivals seem willing to swallow as the only the medicine that might really get Congress to take spending cuts seriously.
McCarthy says he understands their objections, but he doesn’t get why the right-wingers refuse to even discuss measures to address the problematic issues. If you don’t like the defense spending bill — and a lot of lawmakers don’t — then why not bring it to the floor and discuss it or fix it, McCarthy asks.
“If you oppose the bill, vote against it in the end. You have over 170 amendments — you can change it if you don’t like it,” McCarthy says. “But the idea that you vote against a rule to even bring it up, it doesn’t make sense to me.”
A rattled Kevin McCarthy today shaken after right-wingers voted against bringing the defense spending bill to the floor. pic.twitter.com/6f6P1cc0tp
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) September 19, 2023
