John Surdu: Thoughts on the Speaker Kerfuffle

John R. “Buck” Surdu

In previous articles, I have been quite outspoken that there is little difference in my mind between the Demonic Democrats and the Repugnant Republicans. In particular, I predicted in at least two articles that the highly anticipated “red wave” was going to be a red trickle. Simply put, the midterms were the Republicans’ to lose, and they did so with flying colors. If the Republicans couldn’t pull off a red wave with the train wreck and clown show that is the Biden junta, they deserve to be marginalized and denigrated. The reason: the Republican party stands for nothing! Without a clear message and platform, you cannot lure independents and Leftists to your camp. “We don’t suck as much as those other guys” is not a winning strategy – as evidenced by the dismal outcome of the midterms.

The Republicans stand for nothing.

I asserted that they needed a positive message of tangible, coordinated, actionable initiatives they would take to fix the economy, stop the weaponization of the federal cabal, stop the war on American industry, stop the war on fossil fuels, close off the border, curb crime in the cities, and uphold the sanctity of the Constitution. They provided nothing!

Contrary to my friend’s criticism of my “new covenant with America” notion, this is not a Marxist notion of Stepford Congressmen. Parties have platforms. That doesn’t mean that every member of the party believes every line of the platform, but in general, it tells you something about the party at an aggregate level. While the Republicans nominally have a platform, they stand for nothing.

It bears repeating that the current Republican party stands for nothing.

That brings us to the current kerfuffle over who will nominally lead the Republicans in the House. Conveniently forgetting the battle that Nancy Pelosi waged to become speaker several years ago, the Left and the media (but I am being redundant) are gleeful in their criticism. Debate and disagreement are no longer permitted in a Republic, it appears. We are no longer tolerant of democratic debate and sausage-making. Kevin McCarthy was so confident that he was going to waltz into the position of swamp leader that he had already occupied the office. When this first became news, I sent a message to a friend, “The Republicans are doing what they always do when they get power. They are spending all their energy on infighting. The decision about the speaker should have been made behind closed doors weeks ago.” I must lay that blame at McCarthy’s feet. He knew since November that the Repugnant Republicans had narrowly eked out control of the House, and he should have been working the issue immediately. As a status-quo, Quisling Republican, he is instead more interested in power than service to the American people.

In fact, The Hill reported that McCarthy rejected a compromise that could have avoided this mess several weeks ago.

Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), a critic of House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (Calif.) bid to become Speaker, argued ahead of the House leadership vote that McCarthy has “rejected” his opportunity to win the Speakership.

Perry said in a statement Tuesday morning that he and a group of other Republicans have “worked in good faith for months to change the status quo” but asserted McCarthy has “sidelined or resisted” them.

He said “any perceived progress” on their initiatives “has often been vague or contained loopholes that further amplified concerns as to the sincerity of the promises being made.”

“In his 14 years in Republican Leadership, McCarthy has repeatedly failed to demonstrate any desire to meaningfully change the status quo in Washington,” Perry declared. 

Perry’s statement comes after he and eight other current and incoming House Republicans criticized McCarthy’s response to a letter calling for various changes in the House that they had sent to GOP colleagues weeks earlier.

They called for initiatives like a plan to end “limitless” spending, forming a committee to target “weaponized government” and allowing a single Republican member to make a motion to vacate the chair, forcing a vote to oust the Speaker at any time…

He said he and other GOP members who have been skeptical of McCarthy approached him with an offer to get him to the 218 votes he needs to win the Speakership, asking for “firm” commitments to hold votes on four policy proposals. 

The policies are creating a balanced budget; replacing national income, payroll and estate taxes with a national sales tax; approving a plan from Texas House Republicans to address a surge in migration at the southern border; and pushing for term limits for members of Congress. [My emphasis added.]

But Perry said McCarthy refused them as well as proposals to allow “transparent” votes on earmarks and ensure all amendments on cutting spending receive consideration on the House floor. He said McCarthy also refused to not oppose competitive conservative candidates in open Republican primaries. 

Sadly, the spokesmen for the HFC who have been interviewed on television have not articulated these four policies. This has enabled the media to portray them as disloyal brats instead of patriots interested in the future of the nation. I think most Americans could get behind all four of these policy pillars; although, personally, I think term limits will only give more power to the unelected and unaccountable swamp creatures.

Now, I am no apologist for the name-calling and tantrums from both those who back McCarthy and the “rebels” and “holdouts.” Neither are terrorists nor traitors for wanting to debate the future of the party or the nation. Despite the assertion on Fox News that the insurrectionists are holding the nation hostage, a week or two of government inaction while this important issue is resolved is not catastrophic. Since the federal government rarely does anything positive for Americans, inaction might be a good thing.

It seems inevitable that McCarthy will eventually get the speaker’s gavel.

Rep.-elect Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, summed up the situation nicely when he said, “Kevin McCarthy will be [our] speaker at the end of the day, may not be this day. But it will be soon.”

The concessions and changes to the status quo the “rebels” extract are very important. By 6 January, pundits were reporting progress in that direction. As reported by Fox News,

[House Freedom Caucus] Chair Rep.-elect Scott Perry of Pennsylvania tweeted late Thursday that time would be needed to assess what’s before them. “We’re at a Reagan moment – ‘trust but verify,’” he wrote. “The devil is in the details, and we’ll take our time to ensure it’s right, not easy. One way or another, the status quo must go.”

The House Freedom Caucus “rebels” represent a sizable portion of the electorate – something that seems to be lost on Quislings like McCarthy and McConnel. As reported by PJ Media:

The Republican establishment that still believes they can manage voters’ expectations to maintain the status quo may want to do a reality check. The base had high expectations in 2022, and the elections did not meet those expectations. Many voters suspect that at least some establishment Republicans put a greater emphasis on ensuring that candidates tied to President Trump did not win than on winning back the Senate and a more significant majority in the House.

Then, the GOP members they did manage to elect voted to keep the wildly unpopular Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) as Senate Republican Leader. Then, with a RealClearPolitics average favorability rating of -33%, McConnell turned around and betrayed Republican voters by helping Democrats pass a $1.7 trillion Omnibus package along with 17 of his colleagues.

No one should be surprised that Republican voters are fed up. They organized the Tea Party and elected candidates who promised fiscal responsibility. When that did not work, they elected a reality television star as president. Yet the incumbents in Washington still don’t learn. So while CNN wrings its hands about Republican chaos and Karl Rove lectures the Freedom Caucus on TV, voters want change and are getting ready to close their wallets.

“Republican voters are furious about the failure of their party to deliver results in 2022 — especially given the disastrous mismanagement of the country by the Biden Administration and their allies in Congress. Voters believe the only way to hold the GOP accountable for its failures is to make way for new leadership,” says Mark Meckler, President of the Convention of States [my emphasis again]…

“Grassroots activists have known for a long time that GOP leadership in Congress and at the RNC aren’t focused on fighting for conservative principles, or even winning a majority, but rather keeping themselves in power and funding the permanent political consultant class,” said Meckler.

McCarthy has made the following promises, according to The Hill:

• Motion to vacate: McCarthy has offered to lower the threshold to bring up a move to force a vote on ousting the House Speaker down to just one member, a change from a threshold of five members that was revealed in a House rules package over New Year’s weekend.
• That was also lowered from a threshold of half of the House GOP conference that was agreed to in November.
• Floor vote to establish term limits for all House lawmakers: Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), who has introduced a term limits bill, said McCarthy made that commitment.
• Floor vote on a border security bill: In a House GOP conference call on Friday, Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.) said there will be movement on legislation encompassing a border security plan crafted by Texas Republicans, according to a source.
• Commitment to move bills through regular order: McCarthy has pledged to bring up 12 regular appropriations bills individually and also made commitments on an open amendment process.
• Create subcommittee on “Weaponization of the Federal Government”: Housed under the House Judiciary Committee, the panel is a response to a request from GOP members who have withheld support for McCarthy to form a “Church-style” committee to investigate alleged government abuses, in reference to a 1975 Senate select committee named for former Sen. Frank Church (D-Idaho) that investigated intelligence agencies.
• Require 72 hours from release of final bill text before a vote on the House floor.
• Bring back the Holman rule: A recently released House rules package brings back the Holman rule, which allows members to propose amendments to appropriations bills that cut the salaries of specific federal workers or funding for specific programs down to $1, effectively defunding them.

I am sad that the tax reform idea seems to have been forgotten.

By and large, you know a politician is lying because his lips are moving. Promises are cheap in the swamp. McCarthy will almost inevitably become the speaker. It is important that the real patriots in the party hold out a while longer to extract more concessions and reforms from the status quo, establishment Republicans. In this case, the real conservatives have won.  They have force the establishment Republicans to make concessions.  Maybe then the Repugnant Republican party will start to stand for something and offer voters positive policy initiatives beyond more and incessant investigations and “we don’t reek too badly.”