DIVIDED GOP: Kevin McCarthy and the decision that could cost him the speakership
Just weeks before the Jan. 3rd vote on who the next Speaker of the House will be, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is being pressured to reinstate the motion to vacate — a 200-year-old parliamentary rule that gives authority to any member of Congress to bring a vote to unseat the current Speaker.
That’s something that should worry McCarthy.
The flip-floppy congressman’s desire to be the congressional top dog is no secret, and Republicans don’t just know it – they’re using it to gain concessions from the GOP squish in exchange for their vote in support of his leadership.
218 votes are needed to become Speaker, and Rep. McCarthy is still coming up short. At least five Republicans have publicly said they oppose his leadership, CNN reported.
McCarthy did manage to maintain his role as House Minority Leader after beating challenger Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) in a 188-31 vote.
That’s ten votes shy of what he needs to secure the position of House Speaker.
Those critical of reinstating the rule, claim it could be used to keep McCarthy — or whoever might be in the position — from being effective.
It would also be a tool the Democrats can use when, and if, they regain majority control in 2024.
“There’s a reason the motion to vacate already got debated. You can’t govern with a gun to your head and that is what they are asking for,” Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) said. “That is what they are asking for. It makes us highly unstable, and it lays out the potential for Democrats to take advantage of this and create absolute chaos.”
No Dan, being an agent of chaos is more of a right-wing MAGA thing.
Unsurprisingly, McCarthy has been ambivalent about where he stands on the issue.
“I think as a conference, we continue to talk together,” he deflected. “We continue to talk together, we look at all the rules. We’re going to have another rules forum tomorrow as well,” CNN wrote.
The issue will be debated again on Wednesday, with the divided caucus hashing out whether to reinstate the outdated rule.
The motion to vacate was introduced as a parliamentary rule outside of the U.S. Constitution by then-Vice President Thomas Jefferson during his tenure from 1797 – 1801. It would be adopted as a rule by Congress 36 years later.
Despite laying almost ignored for a century, members of the Republican Party attempted to use it twice in recent political history.
According to the political information website, Ballotpedia, the motion to vacate was almost used in 1997, on then-Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-MS) as the GOP grew as tired of his leadership as the rest of the country.
For two days in July, party members met in secret with the intention of removing Gingrich, until their plan was exposed by then-Republican Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX), who alerted his colleague to the plot. The attempted Speaker coup was then abandoned.
The last known record of its use was in 2015 when former Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) filed a resolution to vacate then-House Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-OH).
Though the motion was never voted on, it was enough to force Boehner’s resignation – opening the door for former Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) to win the position.
But that move was not without conditions.
Ryan claimed he would only run for the top spot if the rules were changed.
“No matter who is speaker, they cannot be successful with this weapon pointed at them all the time,” he said.
GOP members of Congress couldn’t agree, and the matter was tabled, and Ryan was eventually sworn in as House Leader in October of that year.
Disunity in the Republican Party has been growing and playing out for all of America to see.
With the increasingly fringe Freedom Caucus turning the chamber — and the United States government — into a playground for performative and partisan politics, McCarthy has an uphill battle ahead.
Being pulled in multiple directions, the desperately seeking Speaker candidate appears to be in a lose/lose situation.
Original reporting by Lauren Fox and Melanie Zanona at CNN and by Charles Aull at Ballotpedia.
Follow Ty Ross on Twitter @cooltxchick
