The House Way Forward: Steve Scalise, the House Speaker, and the Loss of the House Financial Funding Fringe on Dec. 21
There is no Republican nominee for speaker and a government funding deadline looms, making the House frozen. Republicans will meet Friday morning to discuss the path forward.
Less than 24 hours after a narrow majority of House Republicans selected Steve Scalise, R-La., as “speaker designate,” his chances of winning enough votes to be elected speaker in a vote on the House floor seemed to be shrinking. Any candidate would need roughly 217 votes to be approved.
Mr. McCarthy is urging members to back Mr. Jordan over Mr. Scalise. Mr. McCarthy and Mr. Scalise have an ongoing rivalry and it is something Capitol Hill keeps a record of. At key moments over the past few months, Mr. McCarthy boxed Mr. Scalise out of decision making, describing him to colleagues as ineffective, checked out and reluctant to take positions.
If you missed it, “Leverage” is a Washington euphemism for blackmail. By holding the country’s credit hostage, or shutting down government functions, a small band of wrecking-ball ideologues can try to get a win on some unrelated matter. The anti-McCarthyites said that he never used his speakership to rewrite the rules of government.
Rep. Jim Jordan: From the fringe to the epicenter of congressional politics, and what you think about what you don’t: A candidacy forum on Capitol Hill
Speaker of House hopefuls were invited to the candidate forum with Representative Jim Jordan in the Longworth House Office Building.
Ms. Houchin became president of the freshman g.o.p. class after becoming a member of the Main Street Caucus. She was a stalwart ally of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, voting for the debt limit deal he forged with President Biden, pushing for her Republican colleagues to get behind the stopgap funding measure to keep the government open and generally cheering on the party agenda.
But on Wednesday as Republicans met to select a new speaker to replace Mr. McCarthy, Ms. Houchin was set to deliver a nominating speech for Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, the right-wing hard-liner who co-founded the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus.
She is a member of the group of lawmakers who think they are pragmatic centrists, but who are now backing Mr. Jordan because he is aligned with former President Donald J. Trump.
Dusty Johnson of South Dakota, the chairman of the Main Street Caucus, and Stephanie Bice of Oklahoma, the vice-chair of the group, have not publicly said who they are backing. But they pushed unsuccessfully for a rule change that would have made it more difficult for Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 House Republican who is viewed as the more traditional choice to succeed Mr. McCarthy, to prevail over Mr. Jordan in the race.
They are close allies of Mr. McCarthy. As members of the Main Street group, their stated purpose is “to develop common sense, pragmatic legislation and promote kitchen-table policies in Congress.” Mr. Jordan was branded by former Republican Speaker John A. Boehner as a “legislative terrorist,” but forged a deal with Mr. McCarthy that moved him from the fringe to the epicenter of politics on the Hill.
This strange alignment is the ultimate reflection of how much of what happens on Capitol Hill is dictated more by what clique you belong to — and who you or your friends have a personal beef with — than where you sit on the ideological spectrum.
Both the candidates and their supporters were looking to unite their conference and move beyond their personal feelings that have become a defining feature of Republican-on-Republican warfare in the House.
It was not clear Thursday evening whether Jordan would reenter the race, but he would likely face similar difficulty in securing 217 votes. At this point, it’s unclear that any Republican could achieve that level of support within the divided conference.
A Conversation with Steve Scalise during his First Year at the U.S. House Minority Leader’s Discommendation About Multiple Myeloma
The House recessed at 3 p.m. Wednesday. Patrick said that he hoped a vote on the speaker could be held as early as today.
The former systems engineer got his start in politics at Louisiana State University, where he was twice elected speaker of LSU’s Student Government Association. He served as a member of Louisiana’s state Legislature for 12 years before being elected to the U.S. House.
Scalise is well-versed in adversity. The congressman was shot at a baseball practice by a man in Alexandria, Va. He drew upon that experience in his letter to colleagues asking for their support of his nomination saying, “I firmly believe this Conference is a family. When I was shot in 2017, it was Members of this Conference who saved my life on that field. … When I was in the hospital for nearly 15 weeks, it was the possibility of getting back to work with all of you that kept me motivated to get better.”
In August, Scalise said he’d been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a “very treatable blood cancer” for which he has begun treatment. “I have now begun treatment, which will continue for the next several months,” he said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
The biggest challenge for Majority Leader Steve Scalise is unifying a rowdy conference which just earlier this month ousted Kevin McCarthy as House speaker.
Georgia Republican Newt Gingrich held the position of speaker from 1995 to 1999 and if he were elected, it would be the first speaker from the South in a decade. He would be the first Speaker of the House from Louisiana. That could give Southern Gulf states an important voice in Congress and help highlight important issues like flood protection and coastal restoration. He’s worked to protect federal flood insurance, and he has pushed back against rate hikes that the program that operates under FEMA sets.
Scalise’s district is home to Port Fourchon, one of the nation’s leading oil and gas seaports that supplies about one-sixth of the nation’s oil supply. The Republican-backed energy bill passed in the House earlier this year was celebrated by Scalise as a sign that it would increase U.S. energy production. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the legislation was “dead on arrival” in the Senate and the White House threatened to veto the bill, saying that it would “empower big companies to skirt the Clean Air Act.”
But in a letter sent earlier this month to his GOP colleagues asking for their vote to nominate him as speaker, Scalise touted the bill’s House passage as an example of his priorities and leadership style.
“I have a proven track record of bringing together the diverse array of viewpoints within our Conference to build consensus where others thought it impossible,” he stated in the letter.
She thinks Scalise meant to imply that while he shared Duke’s disapproval of affirmative action and entitlements, he rejected racism and anti-Semitism. Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina said on CNN that she cannot vote for someone who attended a white supremacist conference and compared himself to David Duke. I would make a huge disservice to the people I represent in South Carolina by doing that.
His time with the group, and his adjacent association with Duke, has been dredged up again as he looks to move into the No. 1 role in the House. Louisiana politics writer Jessica Grace recalls a young congressman describing himself as “David Duke without the baggage” in one of her columns.
Grace mentioned in her column that Duke is from Louisiana, just as Scalise is from there. At the time Scalise made that comment in the ’90s, Grace noted that Duke had recently lost in a runoff to be Louisiana’s governor and said Scalise’s comment was likely reflective of his effort to appeal to a conservative voter group that supported Duke.
Grace, who supports Scalise’s bid for speaker, characterizes him as a “conservative guy” who supports a lot of mainstream conservative policy, including opposition to affirmative action and efforts to keep same-sex marriage illegal.
Scalise’s relationship with Cedric Richmond, a former Democratic Congressman from New Orleans, is often cited as an example of this bipartisanship. The bayou brothers, as they are called, served in the Louisiana Legislature and in Congress together. The person who works for the Democratic National Committee is not going to comment on this story. But when Scalise was previously criticized for talking to a white supremacy group, Richmond defended Scalise, saying he doesn’t have a “racist bone in his body.”
House Republicans once hoped they could quickly select a new Speaker of the House and quell the drama within their ranks, but by Thursday afternoon an easy resolution seemed to be slipping further away.
If he is able to secure a majority, he can only lose a few Republicans. And as the vacancy drags on, it is raising concerns about not only Republicans’ ability to govern, but their ability to convince voters that they deserve to stay in power next year.
“We are living in a dangerous world. The world is on fire. McCaul said that our adversaries like what we do. We need to put a speaker in the chair. The day goes by more dangerous.
The Congress will need a speaker soon to act on more aid to Israel, warned McCaul. He warned that instability undermines U.S. image abroad.
McCarthy told reporters that even though he won, he wasn’t getting the support he had promised. It is a distinction that speaks to the fragility of Scalise’s position.
Members who worked to win votes for one of their members have been open about the fact that the only way forward is to force a vote on the floor.
Defending Socialism in the Light of September 11, 2001 Events: The Scalise Legacy of America’s First Day in Congress Revisited
“We need to know the numbers,” he said. “People can say one thing, tweet something else. We are all over the map on this thing.
Womack’s comments come after a number of members, including those who voted for Scalise, started airing concerns on Twitter or in conversations with reporters.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., has been clear that Scalise’s health is part of her motivation in opposing him. Trump has been in contact with a close supporter of Jordan, and he has tried to influence the House GOP leadership race.
McCarthy was endorsed by the president in January, but he still had to endure 14 rounds of voting before Trump spoke to him about the position.
In past moments of crisis, such as the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, lawmakers have been able to set aside personal and political differences, if only temporarily, to show a unified front to reassure the country and the world. The Republicans were not ready to end their fighting despite the press of world events and it was uncertain how they could right the ship after Mr. Scalise’s decision.
Trying to stem the momentum against him, Mr. Scalise on Thursday had summoned his colleagues for yet another private meeting that stretched long into the afternoon in what one Republican described as an airing of slights big and small worthy of Festivus, a parody holiday. Lawmakers warned they were hurting not only their own image, but the nation’s as well.
If voters see the party being incapable of governing as a signal, the Nebraska Republican could be in danger of losing his swing district seat. “We’re not a governing body and we should be.”
The concern about what is happening as Israel engages with Hamas and Russia is real. Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware, was in Europe during the Senate recess and faced questions about the U.S. commitment to the regions and the instability in the House.
“I was very clear we have to have everybody put their agendas on the side and focus on what this country needs,” Scalise told reporters in the Capitol. “This country is counting on us to come back together. This House of Representatives needs a speaker, and we need to open up the House again.”