The current tempest in the Washington teapot is the apparent inability of the slender Republican majority in the House of Representatives to elect a Speaker to replace Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is the front runner but he has fallen short of the 218 votes needed to win the post.
Some 20 GOP House members have consistently, over six different ballots so far, voted for someone else. Meanwhile slightly over 200 voted for McCarthy. Neither number seems to budge, and we are treated to the inelegant spectacle of the party’s tail wagging the dog.
Digging deeper, at least 80 House Republicans are viewed as McCarthy loyalists, who will vote for no other so long as he continues to allow his name to be put forward. He appears to believe he will eventually wear the opponents down, and shows no sign of withdrawing from the ballot.
As others have noted, a Republican majority in the House can do little except block legislation when the Senate and Presidency are held by the other party. Thus, we have the situation similar to that belittled by Henry Kissinger in his description of academic politics, which he described as vicious “because the stakes are so low.”
You could argue this deadlock occurs because House Republicans really have no important work to accomplish beyond voting “no” on whatever the Democrat-controlled Senate passes. Since nothing much important is at stake, why not pummel the party leader the 20 hardliners believe is an insufficiently militant pushover?
