The Never Kevin Campaign: Towards a Real Discussion on the HEK Speaker Bianchi #60/2022: A Phone Conversation with Jonaev

Trump encouraged others to support McCarthy and publicly endorsed his speaker bid. And his congressional allies have banded together in effort to act as a counterweight to the so-called Never Kevin movement, with various groups of lawmakers blasting out statements and letters vowing to vote for him no matter how many ballots it takes.

“We need to have a real discussion about whether he should be the speaker,” Biggs, who was in Washington, DC, last week for House Freedom Caucus meetings, told reporters. “I think we should have a very frank discussion internally about where we’re going to be going forward.”

Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado said it was a “red line” for her, but not everyone in the Freedom Caucus is united on whether to make that a hard line.

But the group’s push to extract concessions from McCarthy has exacerbated tensions inside the party. Said one senior GOP lawmaker: “They are a bunch of selfish, prima dona a**holes who want attention for themselves. They are trading effectiveness for the warm embrace of their social media followers.”

McCarthy has also spent the past five days working the phones to solidify support for his speakership bid, and he has spoken to former President Donald Trump multiple times since last Tuesday, according to GOP sources. The former president endorsed McCarthy for speaker the same day he endorsed Trump, in a attempt to sway his conference’s supporters.

Reply To CNN: Who Is Bringing to the House of Representatives? Or Why we should not give up on delivering the majority

CNN has yet to project which party will have control of the House of Representatives, though as of Friday morning, CNN has projected that Republicans have 211 seats to Democrats’ 198.

Norman said the group is hoping to codify a longer list of rules changes. McCarthy has not yet indicated if he will delay the internal leadership elections next week.

When asked whether McCarthy should get credit for delivering the majority, Norman responded: “The taxpayers that voted the representatives in deserve the credit.”

McCarthy argued that the rest of the conference can not support a threshold as low as one person. “It’s not about me,” the California Republican said. Gaetz was non-committal and said if it was a real offer, he would entertain it.

Gaetz said the C team should not be starting with just a slim majority. We need to make our stars shine bright so that we can attract more people to our policies and ideas.

The Case for a Delay in the White House: What Do We Need to Know About Reply to Rep. McConnell’s Proposal?

And yet, House Republicans are poised to kick off their new majority on Tuesday without a clear sense of who their leader will be – raising the prospect of a brutal, once-in-a-century floor fight that could delay establishing committees, conducting oversight or legislating. On Tuesday morning, the conference will gather one last time before the speaker vote, where McCarthy’s supporters are hoping for a last-minute resolution but are bracing for the worst.

A small, but vocal, group of GOP senators has been calling to delay their leadership elections so they can have a “family discussion” about why the GOP underperformed. And at least one Republican, Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, has publicly vowed to oppose McConnell’s bid for GOP leader.

GOP sources familiar with the matter say that a long-shot challenge to McCarthy may be on the table from a former chairman of the House Freedom Caucus. McCarthy’s team has been prepared for this possibility.

Florida Sen. Rick Scott, the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, is among those calling for a delay in the Senate leadership election scheduled for Wednesday, saying it “doesn’t make any sense” to have them this week.

A lot of people have called to see if Scott will run. “Here’s my focus, is we still got to win Georgia. I will not take anything away from the table.

The GOP reversal of fortunes and moment of reckoning: Emmer, McConnell, Scott, Pelosi, and the rest

It’s a stunning reversal of fortunes – and potential moment of reckoning – for the once-bullish GOP, with party leaders now scrambling to quell the brewing rebellions in their ranks and explain why the election did not go their way. And the disappointing results have scrambled other leadership races as well, with Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota – the head of the House GOP’s campaign arm – now facing a tougher time becoming the House GOP whip, a position that will only become available if Republicans indeed capture the majority – still not a guarantee.

“They’ve been measuring the draperies, they’ve been putting forth an agenda. Nancy Pelosi told CNN that they have not won it yet. Judgements will be made regarding how we go forward in our own parties, depending on who was in the majority during the election.

The finger-pointing is already happening as the full House and Senate head back to Washington this week, for the first time since the mid-term elections.

Many in the party blame Trump for Senate races that decided control of the Senate. Plus McConnell’s super PAC spent more than any other group in Senate races – while Trump’s group spent a tiny fraction of that – a realty not lost on the Kentucky Republican’s allies.

Pat said there was a correlation between big losses and those running for the presidency. “I think my party needs to face the fact that if fealty to Donald Trump is the primary criteria for selecting candidates, we’re probably not going to do really well.”

McConnell and Scott have been at odds over strategy all election year, with McConnell sounding the alarm about candidate quality while Scott chose to take a hands-off approach.

When pressed on whether he would challenge McConnell for the top spot, Scott didn’t rule it out — even though he would have little chance of succeeding.

McCarthy is still working to seal the deal, with enough hardliners threatening to deny him the top job on Tuesday and his allies growing increasingly anxious that he is giving away his power for nothing.

Doomsday: Detecting a “Doomsday” Candidate in the House Democratic Caucus via Approval

One senior Republican told CNN that the moderates and HFC can not be appeased at the same time. “If you straddle that fence, you better hope it’s not barbed wire.”

Trump reaffirmed his support for McCarthy’s leadership bid in an interview with Fox News last week and he has since been working the phones to persuade Republican allies to back him, particularly conservative members who remain skeptical of McCarthy.

A separate Republican source says that Trump has been asking to see which GOP lawmakers have supported him in the media. The highest ranking Republican has endorsed Trump’s bid so far.

Whoever is elected for the top leadership spot in the House Democratic caucus would serve as their party’s Speaker nominee. But if Republicans have a majority, that nominee would be expected to fall short in the vote by the full House in the Speaker’s election in January and would be poised to become House Minority Leader instead.

If Pelosi runs again for leader of the House Democratic caucus, it will be clear that she is not ready to back down from her position atop the caucus. Pelosi, a towering figure in Democratic politics, commands widespread support among her members and is viewed as an effective leader within her party.

Republicans are scheduled to hold a candidate forum on Monday evening, followed by leadership elections on Tuesday, November 15, according to a copy of the schedule shared with CNN.

But in the case of a doomsday scenario – where neither McCarthy nor Biggs can get 218 votes on January 3 and neither drops out – some pro-McCarthy Republicans are signaling support for a different approach. Some said they would be willing to help Democrats find a moderate Republican who could garner the 218 votes needed to win the speaker’s race.

House Democratic leadership elections have been announced for Wednesday, November 30. Voting will take place behind closed doors via secret ballot using an app.

A majority of those present and voting are needed for any position in Democratic leadership. If more than two candidates run and no one wins a majority, the candidate with the fewest votes after the first round of voting will be eliminated and voting will proceed to a second round. That process continues until one candidate wins a majority.

The California Democrat running for caucus chair in the U.S. House of Representatives: Emmer, Banks, Ferguson and Neguse

Emmer told reporters Tuesday he doesn’t know if a small majority will affect his bid. But his pitch to members is similar to McCarthy’s, saying: “we delivered.”

Emmer is running against Reps. Jim Banks of Indiana, the Republican Study Committee chair, and Drew Ferguson of Georgia, the chief deputy Whip, for the post.

It’s definitely true. Well, you know that I’m not asking anybody – people are campaigning, and that’s a beautiful thing,” the California Democrat told Bash. “And I’m not asking anyone for anything. My members want me to do that. Let’s just get through the election.

2 House Democrat, in the role of House majority leader, and a South Carolina congressman serves in that role as well. Massachusetts Rep. Katherine Clark serves in the role of assistant Speaker and New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries serves as House Democratic caucus chair.

Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse of Colorado, who currently serves as the co-chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, has announced his run for caucus chair to replace Jeffries who is term limited.

The race to lead the campaign arm of the Democrats is shaping up after incumbent Sean Patrick Maloney lost his reelection.

Democratic Rep. Tony Cardenas of California announced his race for the spot on Friday but others are being floated as well including Reps. Ami Bera and Sara Jacobs of California.

The Freedom Caucus: Conciliating Trump with Pelosi over a Democratic Candidate Whose Life is a White House Speaker

It also reflected the power that she has over other people, after she lined up to support McCarthy in his speakership. After moving to Congress as a fringe figure and quickly losing her committee assignments over her past violent statements against Democrats, she has become one of the most prominent faces of the new GOP majority. She can make comments to many people that are offensive and revoltist without fear of rebuke from her party leader. And it also shows that while Trump’s power may be waning elsewhere after a lackluster launch of his 2024 campaign, his influence over his followers in the House, like Greene, remains strong.

Several members of the Freedom Caucus met with McCarthy in his office Monday as they seek to extract concessions from him in exchange for their speaker votes.

Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Scott Perry said that while McCarthy has been willing to hear them out, he doesn’t see McCarthy cutting any deals until after Tuesday, when Perry is “99% confident” that someone will challenge McCarthy to show him he doesn’t have the 218 votes he would need on the House floor in January.

Rep. Bob Good, who said McCarthy faces “an uphill climb” to the speakership, said they’ve asked McCarthy to bring to them his proposal for running the House.

The main focus of the organization has been seeking rules changes that would empower individual members, and weaken the speaker.

To acknowledge how broken the situation is, we want to see a dramatic change in this place. “It’s incumbent upon anybody that wants to lead to kind of lay out their vision and how they would change their portion of it.”

But hard-right Republicans seized the opportunity to extract promises — and in some cases apologies — from their would-be leaders. If Mr. McCarthy were to lead a Republican-led House, would he investigate Speaker Nancy Pelosi?

Indeed, asked if Scalise would need to agree to the same concessions as McCarthy, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz told CNN: “Of course. The McCarthy concessions are a good place to start.

Mr. Scalise apologized and said he should have waited until he had more facts to comment, according to two people familiar with the exchange who described it on the condition of anonymity.

The Story of Kevin McCarthy, the House Minority Leader, and After the Decay of the Jan. 6 Attainment: Resolving a Democratic Scenario with Left-Right Symmetry

The turmoil underscored how Republicans were toiling to find a path forward after disappointing midterm results, and still grappling with the influence of Mr. Trump and his election lies on their party, including the fallout from the Jan. 6 attack. It came as the former Vice President Mike Pence had just made some harsh comments about Mr. Trump and his actions during the assault on the Capitol.

According to Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma, it will be a narrow one. You have to be very careful that you have somebody with superb political skills. Somebody that knows every part of this conference.”

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is hoping to pass a crucial test on Tuesday in his campaign to become House speaker despite an underwhelming midterm election performance that launched a search among conservatives for a challenger.

The Idaho GOP congressman said he would support McCarthy for leader. Simpson said that he had done a good job.

McCarthy stated that it was not only delayed but also delaying the recruitment of GOP candidates. “It’s being prepared to not only defend the majority, but grow the majority.”

Good said he would resist for just a few more hours what he had resisted in the past: comment on specific candidates. McCarthy is part of the problem.

McCarthy has made public promises about how he would rule over the House, such as threatening to launch an impeachment inquiry into Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and vowing to not take up bills from any GOP senators who backed the massive year-end spending package – both top priorities of the right.

Sources say that McCarthy and his allies have been trying to convince moderate Democratic congressman Henry Cuellar to switch to the Republicans in order to padding their slim margins. He flatly rejected the idea. (McCarthy’s spokesman said the GOP leader was not involved if these conversations took place and said this is not in any way part of their strategy for the majority or for his speakership bid.)

A source in the room said that at a private forum, Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer had been pressed on his vote for a bill to codify same-sex marriage. The divisive social issues shouldn’t be brought to the House floor.

Kevin McCarthy promised to never leave the speakership race even if the fight goes to many ballots on the floor.

The Republican Governance Group leader said the speaker’s fight had just been holding them up, and people wanted to get to work. “I have people who say they don’t care if it is 500 times, they are voting for Kevin. There is no one else.

One senior GOP source said that a move to run for the powerful position, if McCarthy fails, could hurt his ability to get the votes if he ran. The source predicted that since he is seen as more ideological than McCarthy, he would have an easier time in winning over the right-wing of the conference.

Sources say that the Louisiana Republican isn’t trying to hurt McCarthy’s bid by running for speaker while he’s still alive.

Jordan went further and said he would not jump in the speakership race even if Gaetz and other hardliners wanted him to.

“If we discuss the speakership, I will support Andy for speaker,” said Norman, who left a meeting in McCarthy’s office on Wednesday. He later added: “All this is positive. Regardless of what happens, we are having good change. And you’ll see more of it.”

Following that secret ballot vote, where McCarthy won 188-31, a bloc of five “hard no” votes strategically began to trickle out their public statements of opposition. A group of people formalized their demands in a letter to McCarthy, which is a sign of the pressure that is on him to cut a deal.

So showing voters in 2024 that GOP governance addressed key problems like inflation and the economy will be important. But while he has announced he will form a select committee to examine China’s growing threat, which could unite both parties, most of McCarthy’s recent rhetoric has focused on a relentless set of investigations of the Biden administration and conservatives’ interest in impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

The anti- McCarthy group still believes that a floor vote on ousting the sitting speaker is necessary since the far right in the congress was able to get rid of one of their own.

After weeks of negotiation, the California Republican agreed to a threshold of less than five people to initiate a motion to get the speaker to step down. CNN first reported last week that he was supportive of that threshold.

“I think that’s one of the reasons that we didn’t see a red wave … the idea that people are sick and tired of the noise, and they’re sick and tired of the fighting,” Rep. David Joyce, an Ohio Republican, said of the impact of a January 3 floor fight. “And I know I get that wherever I go in my district is, ‘why can’t you guys just get things done?’”

There is a question if McCarthy’s words reflect his lost authority or if they do, and it underscores the risk of a speakership being a weak one.

Republican Speaker Kevin Cuellar and House Republicans: What will he do next year? A rebuttal to Causal Reps. Hakeem Jeffries

Some Democrats have said they would entertain the idea, including Rep. Henry Cuellar, a moderate Democrat from Texas who told CNN some of his GOP colleagues have approached him “informally” about it.

Joyce said the members have reached out to him about running, but he dismissed it. Kevin is going to be the new speaker.

Hakeem Jeffries, the next House Democrats leader, said that he did not have behind-the-scenes talks with Republicans to put up a candidate. He refused to rule out the possibility that his caucus would play a role in selecting the next speaker if McCarthy did not get the votes.

Jeffries told CNN that Democrats were trying to organize the conference. “Republicans are in the process of organizing the Republican Conference. Let’s see what happens on January 3.”

Some of the potential consensus picks that have been floated included retiring Reps. Fred Upton of Michigan and John Katko of New York, who both voted to impeach Donald Trump for inciting the Capitol insurrection; Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, co-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus; and Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole, a veteran lawmaker and incoming head of the House Rules Committee.

But that would require agreement from every single Democrat and the help of five Republicans – no easy feat. Upton said he has no plans to be in Washington that day, telling CNN: “I’ll be skiing.”

Bruce Westerman said that it had happened before in Arkansas, where minority Democrats in the legislature joined with a few Republicans to choose a GOP speaker. Westerman made his case to colleagues in a closed meeting.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/09/politics/mccarthy-speaker-house-republicans-218/index.html

Reply to the Circumstellar Wrong Man”: Keeping the Fugitive Westerman from Running Against Defection

“I’m concerned about January 3 getting here and us not being able to form a Congress and organize committees and getting delayed in pushing the policy objectives that we want to push,” Westerman said.

Westerman added that the discussion over changing House rules is good for the party. But he added: “I’m not really excited about any type of destructive movement.”

Mr. McCarthy has not shared a plan with his leadership team, which some feel is a display of paranoia, because he has not announced his decision about the speakership race. He was spotted in recent days around the Capitol and the RNC headquarters with Jeff Miller, a GOP lobbyist who is close to him.

The South Carolina district offices have received calls from people who have received calls from someone who warns they could be in real trouble if McCarthy isn’t elected speaker. Those campaigns, Norman’s aide told CNN, have done nothing to influence the congressman’s position, but it does reveal the lengths some McCarthy backers have gone to exert maximum pressure on detractors.

When Nancy Pelosi in 2018 found herself about a dozen votes short of what she would need to secure the speaker’s gavel, she quietly picked off defectors, methodically cutting deals to capture exactly enough support to prevail. Ms. Pelosi, renowned for her ability to arm-twist and coax, won seven votes by agreeing to limit her tenure, picked up another eight by promising to implement rules aimed at fostering more bipartisan legislating, and won over her sole would-be challenger by creating a subcommittee chairmanship for her.

The California Republican made pledges to appease the right flank of his party. He called for Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, to either resign or be impeached. He promised to put Ms. Greene on the Oversight Committee, a plum spot since she was stripped of her committee assignments for making violent and conspiratorial social media posts.

He has threatened to investigate the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol, promising to hold public hearings scrutinizing the security breakdowns that occurred. He has been quietly meeting with ultraconservative lawmakers in an effort to win them over. And on Monday night, he publicly encouraged his members to vote against the lame-duck spending bill to fund the government.

Why is President McCarthy so ill-equipped to fight Greene? Why is Greene so rude to Trump and why is he so angry at him?

The tiny GOP House majority that takes over in January, after a disappointing midterm performance, would mean a fragile governing mandate for any party at any point in American history. The ideological struggle being waged by pro- Donald Trump extremists inside the party would make the majority more volatile.

Moderates on Sunday’s call expressed their frustration and said they would only swallow the concession if it would get McCarthy the votes. They worry that some of the hardliners won’t come through in the end, and that they’re not negotiating in good faith.

The California Republican is in a battle with some of his own members who want to change the vote process so that they can remove a speaker. He is also in a battle with those who would like to see ex- President Trump remain in office.

This silence is not a surprise. It perfectly sums up McCarthy and many in today’s GOP who seek power at any cost — with no regard for principle or the greater good of our nation.

This is one reason why the current year-end tussle over whether to fund the government for a full year – a bipartisan framework agreement for which was announced Tuesday night – or for just a few months is so critical since it could dump a fiscal crisis on the lap of a weak and easily manipulated new speaker next month.

Asked by CNN’s Manu Raju on Tuesday about Greene’s latest inflammatory comments, McCarthy shrugged them off: “Oh, I think she said she was being facetious,” the possible future speaker answered. His attitude was consistent with what he had been trying to do with his attempts to change the history of the worst attack on US democracy in modern times.

The same dynamic was at play when McCarthy declined to directly criticize the ex-president for meeting with white supremacist Nick Fuentes at a dinner also featuring Kanye West, the rapper now known as Ye, who has recently made a string of antisemitic remarks. In a histrionic performance at the White House after meeting Biden and other congressional leaders last month, the House Republican leader falsely claimed that Trump had condemned Fuentes four times, when he hadn’t done so once.

Still, given that Democrats should be able to pass a broader funding deal in the final days of their majority, McCarthy’s opposition could win him points with no long-term consequence – a potentially useful political situation. This became more likely on Tuesday after a framework agreement was announced for the omnibus appropriations bill.

The separation between the Republicans in the House and McConnell will likely make it harder for Republicans to vote for a spending deal now that conservative media has taken up McCarthy’s line.

On the radio on Friday, McCarthy said that if the detractors threaten to derail the entire House Republican agenda, there will be little choice but to get a new select committee on China up and running. McCarthy can only afford to lose four GOP votes on January 3, assuming all members are in attendance and vote for a specific member.

The five GOP members warned they may vote as a bloc on January 3 in order to keep control of the House of Representatives.

McCarthy said, “This is a presidential year and you only have so many months to really get out there and govern.” “And you want to hit the ground running. If you lose a quarter it doesn’t matter if you start strong or not. You don’t get new, strong candidates. You don’t get more resources to be able to supply those candidates to get the message out.”

“This is a lot of unfinished business this year that they would have to take care of next year and I know from having been over there, that wouldn’t be easy, especially when you’ have a narrow majority.”

We are in the silly season of a campaign. For most of us, that’s over after you get elected. He said that the silliness is still evident because he is running for speaker of the House.

The Dean Obeidallah Show: A CNN View of the Charges and Misdemeanors of a Republican Rep.-elect George Santos

Dean Obeidallah, a former attorney, is the host of The Dean Obeidallah Show. You can follow him at@Dean Obeidallah. The opinions expressed are of his own. View more opinion on CNN.

GOP Rep.-elect George Santos has been making headlines since December 19 — when The New York Times published its jaw-dropping article documenting his litany of false claims about his work experience, education and just about everything in between. Santos later admitted to faking his employment and educational background in order to improve his resume.

Santos also claimed that his grandparents fled the horrors of the Holocaust as Ukrainian Jewish refugees from Belgium — only to have this version of his family background contradicted by a review of genealogy records. (Santos’ campaign did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.)

Adding to the firestorm are recent developments that federal and state authorities have launched criminal investigations into Santos over his finances and fabrications. When he first ran for Congress unsuccessfully in 2020, Santos reported he had no assets, yet somehow he was able to lend his 2022 campaign $700,000.

McCarthy might have decided to not condemnSantos because he is desperate to get 218 votes to become the next Speaker of the House on Tuesday. (Before this scandal broke, Santos had pledged his support on Twitter for McCarthy’s speakership bid — but has since apparently deleted that tweet.) Given the incoming House GOP majority will be a razor-thin four votes, McCarthy needs Santos’ support if he is to have any chance of becoming speaker.

McCarthy has also criticized the Biden administration’s border policy and played up accusations on Fox Business that the FBI worked to suppress news stories hurtful to Democrats.

Imagine for a moment if an incoming Democratic member of Congress had been engulfed in such a scandal. McCarthy likely would be screaming about how this representative-elect should not be in Congress and how the Democratic leadership needed to denounce this politician.

Ben Pelosi and Ben Boehner: Electing Speakers with Less than 218 Votes in the Last 100 Years

For the past-110 years, no speaker has been elected with less than 218 votes, but there were a number of recent sitting speakers who did it. Last Congress, Pelosi was reelected speaker with 216 votes. It was the same for Boehner in 2015. Five speakers were elected with less than 218 votes in the last century.

A CNN/SSRS poll showed his net positive rating to be +30 points among Republicans. That’s certainly not bad. (Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell has notoriously low ratings among Republicans.) But a net favorability rating of +30 points isn’t really good either.

McCarthy has the second-lowest net favorability rating among his own party members of all first-time potential speakers in the last 28 years. Only Gingrich’s +24 points in late 1994 was lower. Net favorability ratings over 50 points for others such as Nancy Pelosi are common within the party.

Democrats are a pretty decent prize for GOP angst after losing the House majority. If nothing else, they’re watching a Republican Party that can’t seem to get its act together after a historically bad midterm for an opposition party.

Chirally Resolving the Dilemma of a Hardliner in the South Carolina House of Representatives: Closing the Rules Package

McCarthy published the final rules package later in the evening, as well as writing a farewell letter for his colleauges that was accompanied by additional promises about how he would govern as speaker.

In a “Dear Colleague” letter from the California Republican, he made his case for the speakership and offered additional promises, including ensuring that the ideological groups are better represented on committees.

Not long after Sunday’s call, a group of nine hardliners – who had outlined their demands to McCarthy last month – put out a new letter saying some of the concessions he announced are insufficient and making clear they’re still not sold on him, though they did say progress is being made.

“Thus far, there continue to be missing specific commitments with respect to virtually every component of our entreaties, and thus, no means to measure whether promises are kept or broken,” the members wrote in the letter obtained by CNN.

Moderates who fear that the motion to leave will be used ascudgel over McCarthy’s head voiced their displeasure on the call, sources said.

The South Dakota Democrat said he would swallow the low threshold if it helped McCarthy win the speakership. Other members made clear that the rules package that was negotiated will be off the table if McCarthy’s critics end up tanking his speakership bid.

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida pressed McCarthy on whether this concession on the motion to vacate will win him the 218 votes. McCarthy had said on the call that people were slow in moving in the right direction.

A second time, Gimenez asked McCarthy to answer the question. McCarthy’s response, according to sources, was that they have a couple days to close the deal, and they need to close.

Gaetz was asked if he would support McCarthy if he agreed to bring the threshold down to a single lawmaker. Gaetz replied that McCarthy had refused to entertain that idea, but if he is making that offer now, than he would consider it.

Restoring the ability to eliminate a government official’s salary, and giving legislators 72 hours to read a bill are some of the things in the package released late Sunday.

The process for discharge petitions, which lets lawmakers force a bill to the floor if they have the support of 218 legislators, should not be altered by the rules package.

Other notable items that might be of interest: The rules package prohibits remote hearings and markups, does away with staffer unionization efforts and allows the House Ethics Committee to take ethic complaints from the public.

The California Republican tried to appeal to his critics, even after he had offered concessions in order to win the speakership, four days before the vote.

But now with just one day to go, a group of at least nine Republicans have made clear that they’re still not sold – despite McCarthy’s warning and even after he gave in to some of their most ardent demands, which he outlined during a Sunday evening conference call.

We’re ready for a fight. Not the way we want to start out in our new majority, but you can’t really negotiate against the position of ‘give us everything we ask for and we won’t guarantee anything in return,’” Kelly Armstrong is a member of the Republican governance group, according to CNN.

Kevin received a lot of credit. He’s brought everyone in and worked really hard to figure out a way forward. This place needs a way to run better. I think that some people are not negotiating in good faith.

McCarthy spent the week in between Christmas and New Year’s in deal-making mode, working the phones with critics and supporters alike to find consensus on rules changes designed to win over holdouts.

The fight over the next speaker: the freedom Caucus of the House and the future of committee chairs in McCarthy’s time at the White House

He can only afford to lose four votes on the House floor, and so far, at least five Republicans have vowed to oppose him, with nearly a dozen other GOP lawmakers publicly saying they’re still not there yet.

The group wants a commitment that leadership won’t play in the primaries and that a single member be allowed to call for a vote to topple the speaker.

In another strategic move, McCarthy postponed races for any contested committee chairs until after the speaker vote. He said that it was to allow the rookies to have a say in the process, but other members felt that it was a way to shield himself from criticism from losing their races.

In phone calls and text messages during the holidays, McCarthy’s defenders vowed to him and each other they wouldn’t let a handful of members control their conference.

The Freedom Caucus has been split over McCarthy, and they have worked together in order to play hardball.

The committee in charge of administrative matters sent a letter last week outlining the practical implications and pitfalls of a drawn-out speaker’s fight. The memo said that committees wouldn’t be able to pay staff if the House Rules package hadn’t been approved.

Student loan payments for committee staff could not be disbursed if the rules package is not adopted in January, according to a memo obtained by CNN.

It’s just one of the many ways a battle over the next speaker could paralyze the House and the Republican majority from operating efficiently in their opening days with some of the harshest penalties falling on rank-and-file staffers.

boxes from McCarthy’s office were spotted by CNN being moved into the speaker’s suite last week as a sign that he’s committed to seeking the job.

The ongoing fight between pro- and anti-McCarthy groups has members calling it a bizarre game of chicken, where both sides ripped the steering wheel off the dashboard and were just going pedal to the metal.

The Assembly Select Committee on House Majority Leader Correlations II: McCarthy is not going to win 218 votes, but he is going to be open and transparent

The House of Representatives could take a break to meet privately, but it would require at least 218 votes to break the floor action. Or the House could continue to vote until someone gets to 218 – a scenario that hasn’t happened since 1923 when Frederick Gillet won the speakership on the ninth ballot. A source familiar with the matter said that the chamber has no plans to recess and will continue to vote until McCarthy wins 218 votes.

“Steve is trying to be very supportive,” said Rep. Don Bacon, a McCarthy supporter and Nebraska Republican. He has been public about his support for McCarthy. I think someday he wants to be speaker so he’s got to be tactful.”

He told CNN that their priority is to have it resolved by January 3. “And there’s a lot of conversations that everybody has been having, Kevin, surely, with the members who have expressed concerns.”

In a private House GOP call on Sunday, Scalise embraced his role as the incoming majority leader by laying out the agenda and the bills that would come to the floor this week – and even referenced McCarthy as the future speaker, according to a source on the call.

But some of the hardliners are not satisfied, pushing to lower the threshold to just a single member who can call for such a vote – something that other House Republicans fear would be a recipe for chaos and have vowed they wouldn’t support.

One Republican member said that people will become angry if it is clear that KMC won’t get their votes.

McCarthy allies in the conference are not happy that the hard-liners have refused to name the new candidate if McCarthy fails to win 218 votes.

“We shouldn’t be in a hurry to make a bad decision,” Good said, promising a new candidate would emerge on Tuesday. He refused to say who the member is and also did not say anything about the congressman.

Rep. Dusty Johnson, a South Dakota Republican, said that he found it “incredible” that the same members pushing for a more “open and transparent” GOP conference are getting behind a “shadow candidate” they plan to “ambush” Republicans with at the start of the new Congress.

Some of the holdouts are causing trouble, and I think members are growing frustrated with their intransigence, said Johnson.

One GOP lawmaker said that the people should not think that this is a noble cause. “No one should believe that this is anything other than self aggrandizement. They are pushing procedures that no one is interested in outside of Washington because they want to have more power.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/02/politics/mccarthy-floor-fight-steve-scalise/index.html

Stay put, but stay put – remarks of C.J. Mullin at the meeting he gave at the university of Michigan

Mullin met with McCarthy in his office on Monday. Mullin, who has been helping to lobby House members to back McCarthy, said he and others have been encouraging McCarthy with a simple message: “Stay put.”