At the moment, it remains unclear who will win the speakership of the House of Representatives. Outgoing House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has battled a small but fierce group of intraparty dissidents opposed to his taking the speaker’s gavel this week. A polished salesman desperate to become speaker of the House, McCarthy recently held conference calls and private meetings to lobby for the 218 votes needed to vault him into that cherished position.
Regardless of the outcome, the fight was worth having.
Initial reaction to the results of the midterm elections faulted Donald Trump for the unrealized red wave, but congressional Republicans, including McCarthy, were the real culprits. Lackluster messaging coupled with equally lackluster energy failed to motivate the base where needed; half-hearted attempts to fight the Biden regime over the past two years—not to mention a long list of missed opportunities during the Trump Administration—finally caught up with party leaders. Unconvincing promises to “hold accountable” rogue federal agencies using their authority to punish Trump and his supporters fell on deaf ears this time around.
Turns out, writing strongly worded letters left unanswered without consequence isn’t a winning political strategy to appease Republican voters who “want blood.”
McCarthy, to be fair, isn’t solely to blame. Party leaders again learned the hard way that reckless absentee voting isn’t going away; grassroots concern about election fraud in 2020—the overwhelming majority of Republicans still believe Joe Biden did not legitimately win the White House—was ignored. Republican candidates in key races were massively outspent, prompting questions about fundraising and allocation of resources. And who knows what sort of closed-door chicanery between Silicon Valley and the government rigged the scales in favor of Democrats, similar to what happened in 2020.
But no GOP leader continues to do more to sabotage his own party than Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a wildly unpopular figure on both sides of the political aisle who nonetheless wields massive power in Washington and among the donor class. His toadies, including Senators John Thune (R-S.D.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), solemnly lurk behind McConnell during Capitol Hill press briefings where McConnell rattles off legislative priorities in direct contradiction to those of Republican voters. A long-distance trip to pledge America’s support in defending Ukraine’s border? Done. A short-distance trip to Texas to pledge support in defending America’s border? Nope.
McConnell did nothing to halt the most controversial Biden appointees. For example, 48 of 50 Republican senators voted to place longtime Obama loyalist and Russia collusion hoaxster Lisa Monaco in charge of the Department of Justice in a tacit endorsement of her six-year criminal pursuit of Trump and his supporters.
Tepid criticism of Joe Biden stands in stark contrast to McConnell’s harsh condemnation of Donald Trump. McConnell, whose role in the events of January 6 remains unclear although his office is primarily responsible for Capitol security, signaled support for the January 6 select committee’s criminal referrals against the former president, insisting Trump was “responsible for that day.”
The 80-year-old Beltway lifer also insisted Trump’s dinner with Kanye West and Nick Fuentes was a disqualifying event. “Anyone meeting with people advocating that point of view, in my judgment, are highly unlikely to ever be elected president of the United States,” McConnell said on November 29 alongside his dutiful Senate GOP dupes.
Which leads to the biggest challenge House Republicans will face after January 3. Their number one enemy is not Democrats in Congress or the Biden regime but the 49 Republicans senators working on the other side, literally and figuratively, of the U.S. Capitol. One would be hard-pressed to name a more contemptible, craven assembly of elected officials in political history. Democrats must chortle every day at their good fortune in having such hapless opposition, empty suits with equally empty heads fiddling while Rome burns.
Look no further than the 18 Republican senators who helped pass, with unanimous Democratic support, the $1.7 trillion omnibus package in the waning days of the 117th Congress. Among other betrayals, the bill authorizes another $47 billion for Ukraine, bringing the grand total to nearly $100 billion, and boosts funding for the Department of Justice, including a more than half-billion dollars raise for the corrupt FBI.
In defending his support for the bill, Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah), the emptiest of all empty suits—and that’s saying something considering stiff competition from Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), all of whom voted yes—placed the blame on his congressional GOP counterparts.
“House Republicans say they want to craft a budget but they haven’t yet been able to select a speaker,” Romney said in a typically nonsensical video message posted on December 22. “And I’m not sure they’ll be able to take on the budget for this year as well as next year at the same time.”
New flash, two-time presidential loser: Serious people are able to accomplish two things at once.
Prior to the final vote, 13 House Republicans threatened to work against the legislative priorities of any GOP senator who supported the omnibus; McCarthy endorsed the effort. That promise, unlike so many in the past, must be kept.
Meanwhile, the full force of the corporate media, Democratic Party, and Biden regime is preparing to derail House Republicans particularly related to planned investigations. White House lawyers just notified incoming Republican committee chairmen that any requests for records made prior to January 3 will be ignored.
“Congress has not delegated such [oversight] authority to individual members of Congress who are not committee chairmen, and the House has not done so under its current Rules,” Biden’s general counsel wrote to Reps. James Jordan (R-Ohio) and James Comer (R-Ky.).
Longtime Democratic Party hustler David Brock assembled what he calls a “SWAT Team” of fellow lowlifes to counter Republicans efforts and threaten news organizations who dare to fairly cover any subject matter by “putting the mainstream reporters on notice that they will be held accountable if they simply buy into Republican propaganda.”
Of course, that won’t be a heavy lift for Brock or anyone else. The media already is trying to knock Republicans off their wobbly game by fixating on the largely fabricated background of Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), who will join many profligate résumé-enhancers in Washington.
House Republicans would do well to rebuff those distractions. Constantly chasing the latest scandal du jour manufactured by the media is the Achilles’ heel of the Republican Party. Don’t fall for the banana in the tailpipe, guys and gals.
They also need vocal backing from state Republican officeholders, especially popular figures such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and GOP attorneys general who can lend legal support. (The lawsuit filed by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt—soon to take his oath of office as U.S. senator—and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry is an example to follow.) Crises such as immigration, election fraud, and brazen violations of the Bill of Rights are under the purview of state authority; House Republicans cannot, and should not, act alone.
For now, Republican voters are rightfully wary that a Republican-led Congress will fail to fulfill campaign pledges and refuse to go to the mattresses on issues that matter most. Let’s hope for a pleasant surprise in 2023.