Column: Kevin McCarthy may win the House speakership. But he can’t control the clown caucus he may keep around after it’s dissolved.
I thought it was interesting how many people said Kevin McCarthy would be a more effective speaker than John Boehner. One of the key differences between these two was Boehner’s ability to control his caucus. It is Boehner’s caucus, not Kevin’s, which will take the gavel.
That is, the caucus that will be voting next spring on whether or not to seat the speaker is an entirely different thing and one that Kevin McCarthy is probably not going to be able to control (and most likely, the more votes are given to him the more he fights and the more he votes the more he frustrates his caucus and the more he frustrates the caucus the less likely we will have him taking the gavel).
Let us hope John Boehner is able to put together a much more effective caucus, one that can be effective in controlling the gavel, and that they will vote on a speaker candidate (in other words, a candidate that will get the most votes in his caucus that will take the gavel).
But that is not the case.
The current House Republican caucus is essentially a bloc, with a majority of votes in all the various voting categories — a bloc that can easily swing the election. So Kevin McCarthy is going to have a much harder time than John Boehner, and he will probably not be able to maintain control of the majority of the voting caucus. And he is likely to have much larger support (as measured by the number of votes in most of the voting categories) from the Republican caucus that will vote on whether or not to seat the speaker.
But that will, of course, mean less of a problem for Kevin McCarthy.
Kevin McCarthy is an un-Republican. He is going to be a disaster for the Republican Party and likely for the country itself.
Pete Mervin says: June 27, 2014 at 1:46 pm “Let us hope John Boehner is able to put together a much more effective caucus, one that can be effective in controlling the gavel.”
John Boehner is a Republican. That alone makes him a Democrat.
Kevin McCarthy has already proven that he is as much an ideologue as Boehner and is, in fact, a perfect complement to him.
Pete Mervin says: June 27, 2014 at 2