Newt Gingrich (R-GA), former Speaker, former Representative, and quitter, is considered in some quarters to be the grandfather of the modern GOP. If he is, it appears that he’s lost control of the grandkids:
Newt Gingrich called every anti-Kevin McCarthy Republican, “a blackmailing idiot.” pic.twitter.com/zYDOT3sFkp
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) January 4, 2023
And perhaps even more telling is Rep Boebert (R-CO) telling off her former idol, Donald J. Trump:
“Even having my favorite president call us and tell us we need to knock this off, I think it actually needs to be reversed,” Boebert said as she nominated Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., ahead of the fifth round of voting. “The president needs to tell Kevin McCarthy that sir, you do not have the votes, and it’s time to withdraw.” [MSN]
At that time …
McCarthy needs 218 Republican votes to become Speaker, however, he remains stuck at 201 votes after the fifth round of voting. Twenty House Republicans voted for Donalds.
And since then, today, McCarthy has flipped 15 votes back to himself. How? I believe I saw one report that said it was by having the former President call each of those Representative-elects to exert pressure, and not through further concessions.
I suspect those were threatening calls and not nice ones. McCarthy had been serving up entirely too much frosting and not nearly enough baseball bats.
But it’s also telling that the peak of the rebel population has been a mere twenty, less than ten percent of the GOP caucus, and they are effective only due to the failure of the GOP to fulfill the optimistic predictions of their leaders. Unless potential joiners are laying low for strategic reasons, no one wants to join them. In truth, these rebels are few and unpersuasive. It’ll be interesting, in a year and a half, to see how many of them make it out of primaries, and then how many persuade independents that they deserve another term. I know extremist conservative commentators want me to believe this is a great victory, but I remain unconvinced.
The game isn’t over just yet, but I expect some time tomorrow we’ll come to the end of this little drama. The trick for the audience is to not let antipathy for the rebels cloud one’s judgment of the extracted concessions. There may have been some justifiable complaints, such as permitting huge bills be voted on just after introduction, that will be remedied. It’s worth keeping an open mind.
