Can’t Beat Someone With No One
There’s a lot of grumbling among Republicans about leadership in the U.S. Congress. They’d love to see someone other than Kentucky’s Sen. Mitch McConnell lead the GOP caucus in the Senate…and they don’t think California’s Rep. Kevin McCarthy has what it takes to be an effective speaker.
There’s merit to those arguments…but it also comes down to the old saying, “you can’t beat someone with no one.” In other words, until there’s a viable option, what else are you going to do?
There was a brief challenge to McConnell within the GOP Senate caucus, but it didn’t go anywhere…apparently not even close to the 25 votes needed to deny him the role.
Same thing in the House…McCarthy got a majority of votes of Republicans, so he’s their leader.
But here’s the difference…the Speaker has to be approved by a majority of Representatives. For McCarthy, that means 218 votes…and there will only be 222 Republicans voting. So he can lose 4 and still get the gavel. Any more than that, and it’s potentially time for a compromise candidate.
But who? Democrats are not going to vote for any Republican; they just want to watch the GOP unravel before it gets started. Will Republicans vote in nearly unanimous fashion for someone else—again, a someone else who has yet to be named? Sure, there are a couple of folks making noises about it…but beyond denying McCarthy a first-ballot victory, what traction could they get?
Again, it’s fair to have a good conversation and multiple candidates. But until there’s a new someone out there…there will be no change.
