Solving chaos in House may be up to voters

The chaos on Capitol Hill would be entertaining if the consequences weren’t so serious.

The speaker of the House is second in line to the presidency and since the founding of the Republic, the position has been one of the most important in government, key to national security and domestic tranquility.

Now a band of about three dozen conservative hard-liners, exploiting the partisan divide, has essentially hijacked the chamber, reducing the speaker’s role to that of a figurehead subservient to their wishes.

This isn’t a leadership battle; it’s a coup.

The real question, then, is not why Kevin McCarthy withdrew from the race. It is why anybody would want this thankless job.

John Boehner, after finally getting the prize he desired, spent the next 4 ½ years in misery, perpetually badmouthed and badgered by the “Freedom Caucus” and other conservative malcontents. When he finally announced his retirement last month, he did it singing “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah.”

Boehner’s understudy, Eric Cantor, would have been speaker today — but his position in leadership made him a fat target for conservatives, and he was ousted in a primary in his own congressional district.

Now McCarthy has been deposed by a conservative rebellion before he even got to hold the speaker’s gavel.

And Paul Ryan, the man best suited for the job, says he doesn’t want to be speaker. Can anyone blame him? If he were to take on the assignment, there’s every reason to believe that within months somebody would be drawing a chalk outline around him, too.

The next speaker — whoever that may be — will have to pick between two poisons: Defy the few dozen conservative zealots who hold the balance of power in the House and thereby lose his gavel, or surrender to the conservatives and take the Republican Party (and perhaps the country) into a quagmire of default and shutdown.

“I feel good about the decision,” McCarthy told reporters Thursday, minutes after withdrawing from the race. His smile seemed genuine enough, and he made no effort to conceal his reasons.

“There’s calls into the districts,” he explained, referring to the efforts by conservative groups to depose him before he ever took the throne. “I don’t want to make voting for speaker a tough one. I don’t want to go to the floor and win with 220 votes.” (A bare House majority is 218, and there are 247 Republicans.)

Even if Ryan or another figure can temporarily unite the caucus, the conservatives’ demands will inevitably lead to chaos. They’re seeking not just showdowns over spending but procedural changes that would bring anarchy, including unlimited freedom to amend legislation, a ban on legislation that doesn’t have the support of a majority of GOP members, and a refusal to take up compromise legislation worked out by the Senate.

For all the grousing about Boehner cutting deals with Democrats, the outgoing speaker often yielded to the conservative holdouts. They got their shutdown, and they got their Benghazi select committee — which McCarthy, in an unwise moment of honesty last week, acknowledged was for the purpose of damaging Hillary Clinton politically. Before departing, Boehner is making good on a promise to give conservatives the Planned Parenthood select committee they desire, even though three committees were already investigating the group and the chairman of one of them said he had no evidence that the group had broken the law. Call it the Planned Benghazihood committee.

Boehner often had little choice: With Democrats voting as a bloc, the loss of just 30 Republicans would bring legislation to a halt. Boehner occasionally defied the malcontents, but he eventually chose to quit rather than to seek a coalition with Democrats that would sideline the conservative holdouts.

If Boehner wasn’t strong enough to do that, it’s hard to imagine that a successor could. McCarthy — who gave his benefactor a grade of B-minus in a Fox News appearance — clearly was terrified of the hard-liners.

For good reason: They’re a rough crowd. Among the many tactics employed against McCarthy in recent days was a letter from Rep. Walter Jones of North Carolina saying a candidate should withdraw “if there are any misdeeds he has committed since joining Congress.” This was widely interpreted as targeting McCarthy.

The only thing that will likely end the thuggish tactics is public anger — and punishment at the polls — when the conservative hard-liners are blamed for shutdowns, defaults or whatever else results from their coup.

And who would want to preside over that?

Dana Milbank is a Washington Post columnist.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Opinion

toon
Editorial cartoons for Tuesday, March 19

A sketchy look at the news of the day.… Continue reading

Students use a 3D model to demonstrate their groups traffic solutions at Hazelwood Elementary School on Wednesday, March 29, 2023 in Lynnwood, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Editorial: Your choice, drivers; slow down or pay up

More traffic cameras will soon be in use in cities and highways, with steep penalties for violations.

Protect Affordable Care Act by rejecting Trump

The stakes are high in this year’s presidential election. If candidate Donald… Continue reading

Support candidates who support schools

I promised I would stop writing these letters because the gates of… Continue reading

Biden must stop supplying weapons to Israel, Ukraine

Bad foreign policy will come back to haunt us in the long… Continue reading

Comment: Flow of U.S. guns into Mexico is other border crisis

Guns, legal and illegal, are contributing to crime and instability in Mexico, driving many to seek asylum.

RGB version
Editorial cartoons for Monday, March 18

A sketchy look at the news of the day.… Continue reading

Carson gets a chance to sound the horn in an Everett Fire Department engine with the help of captain Jason Brock during a surprise Make-A-Wish sendoff Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023, at Thornton A. Sullivan Park in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Editorial: Everett voters will set course for city finances

This fall and in coming years, they will be asked how to fund and support the services they use.

Devotees of TikTok, Mona Swain, center, and her sister, Rachel Swain, right, both of Atlanta, monitor voting at the Capitol in Washington, as the House passed a bill that would lead to a nationwide ban of the popular video app if its China-based owner doesn't sell, Wednesday, March 13, 2024. Lawmakers contend the app's owner, ByteDance, is beholden to the Chinese government, which could demand access to the data of TikTok's consumers in the U.S. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Editorial: Forced sale of TikTok ignores network of problems

The removal of a Chinese company would still leave concerns for data privacy and the content on apps.

Rep. Strom Peterson, D-Edmonds, watches the State of the State speech by Gov. Jay Inslee on the second day of the legislative session at the Washington state Capitol, Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024, in Olympia, Wash. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Editorial: Legislature has its own production of ‘The Holdovers’

What state lawmakers left behind in good ideas that should get more attention and passage next year.

Comment: Measles outbreaks show importance of MMR vaccinations

The highly contagious disease requires a 95 percent vaccination rate to limit the spread of outbreaks.

Harrop: Should ‘affordable’ come at cost of quality of living?

As states push their cities to ignore zoning rules, the YIMBYs are covering for developers.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.