Who Runs the House GOP?

Is Kevin McCarthy willing (or able) to keep Republicans in line?

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Good morning. We’ll get back to some interesting policy stories next week, but for today’s Uphill, we thought it was time to take a look at the current House GOP conference and how leaders have handled the fringiest members in their ranks this year. (Spoiler: not very forcefully.)

Is McCarthy Willing (or Able) to Keep Members in Line?

When Rep. Paul Gosar spoke at a conference organized by a white nationalist last month, House GOP leaders released statements publicly refuting racism. But that was about as far as they went in responding to it. Gosar did not face any real consequences for his decision to attend.

The event Gosar spoke at was put together by far-right personality Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist who was at the deadly 2017 rally in Charlottesville and was outside the U.S. Capitol on January 6. (He claims he did not go inside the building.) Gosar discussed immigration and social media during his remarks. Fuentes spoke after the congressman, arguing that the United States needs a white demographic majority and praising the mobbing of the Capitol.

“I saw hundreds of thousands of patriots surrounding the U.S. Capitol building, and I saw the police retreating, and we heard that the politicians voting on the fraudulent election had scurried to their underground tunnels away from the Capitol,” Fuentes said. “I said to myself: ‘This is awesome!’” 

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  1. Avatar photo
    Devin H

    I would really like to know how deeply the investigation into January 6th is looking into Gosar, Biggs, and Brooks. It seems like they may have had their hands a little to deep into that pie to come out completely clean.

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    1. Alex DeLarge

      Hmm . . . sounds like you have a "conspiracy theory." You know those are automatically invalid. I mean, unless they involve Russian agents or white supremacists.

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    C C Writer

    I view McCarthy as one of them. No tent can be big enough to hold Trumpies and the ethical adults who should be in charge.

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    1. Alex DeLarge

      You and David French should start an "Ethical Adults Who Should Be in Charge Party." You might get 5% of the vote because people don't necessarily agree with the people who think they should be in charge.

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    SEnkey

    I rarely comment and I'm late to this party but here is my two cents: I've met Paul Gosar several times as a congressman back in 2014-2016. I was not impressed. I worked as a principal in his district in Arizona. The first time I met him my impression was that he wasn't very smart - at all. He was like the candidate that Ben and April go to work for in Parks and Rec, he had preprogrammed talking points and that was it. One of his people asked me to hang around after a townhall so we could chat some more. My impression got worse. He wasn't able to take in new information, but was very interested in how to get reelected. He didn't come off as smart, or empathetic, or understanding, he just seemed like a small person who couldn't believe people didn't see things the way he did.

    No one is as bad as their worst moments or as good as their best. The three or four times I interacted with Gosar on a personal level he was out in public talking to a mixed group of voters- I'm sure it was stressful. But don't we want more from our leaders than walking away so unimpressed?

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    Ed P

    QAnon, or perhaps Satan, would have a better chance at herding those cats. The GOP is a total disaster.

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  5. Anthony Pasquini

    Any time the two parties want to stop the "big tent" BS is fine with me. We need strong and viable multiple third parties. This way leaders would not be put in illogical positions on their members acting out.

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    BrettH

    Thanks Haley, this is all a head shaking and depressing joke.

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    Greg Hurley

    McCarthy is a Welcome mat. It says the same thing, “Welcome”, no matter who you are or what you wipe on it.
    Many civic clubs have a predictable cycle. They start when some people are galvanized around getting something done about a particular issue. Their zeal and progress attract more members creating a positive feedback membership loop, each new tier of members being further removed from the original reason for the very existence of the club and are less and less committed. They bellyache about the food, the speakers, the meeting space and everything else. The opposite dynamic sets in and members stop showing up, stop participating in civic activities, gripe about the food not being worth the dues and then start quitting in the reverse order that they joined until the club returns to a core of members committed to civic improvement and the benevolent cycle begins again. The GOP is in the atrofy phase. At least I pray that they are.

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  8. Avatar photo
    Kbroot

    Saved this to read when I had time to think. Again, clear writing on what is and is not happening in Congress. After a week of hearing multiple news sources, this piece gives me information!

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    1. Avatar photocircle-angle-nib
      Haley Byrd Wilt vertical-nib Author

      Thanks for reading! :)

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  9. John F. Kunze

    This article uses the term “refute“ several times seeming to mean “deny“.

    I grew up thinking that “refute” means to “prove false”, not just to deny vociferously.

    Granted that the language has moved on somewhat, wouldn’t it be better to stick to words like “deny“ and “prove false“ and avoid the now less meaningful term “refute“.

    Saying, “I deny the allegation“, doesn’t sound as strong as, “I refute the allegation”, but why should it, if you are only offering a denial and neither presenting evidence nor logic?

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  10. Avatar photo
    Bill Dyer (aka Beldar)

    Q: Is Kevin McCarthy willing (or able) to keep Republicans in line?

    A: Probably not, and definitely not.

    Paul Ryan was the indispensable man for the House GOP caucus, but in a very different way than Newt Gingrich was: Ryan had way less sizzle and bombast, but more than compensated for that through persistence, innate and almost inexhaustible good humor, and a wonky streak that made Bill Clinton or Barack Obama sound like second-graders in comparison. Compared to him, Kevin McCarthy isn't just an empty suit, but an empty suit made of used Kleenex.

    The VERY BEST that can be said for McCarthy in particular, and most of the House GOP in general, is that their pratfalls and nonsense are no crazier than those of the House Democratic Caucus.

    Put them all together and the United States House of Representatives puts all of the clowns Barnum & Bailey has ever employed to shame on a daily basis.

    Both the House Democrats and the House Republicans are going to fuel their opponents' fundraising and grandiose posturing. And they are indeed going to affect candidate selection for open seats, and fundraising and turnout for the 2022 midterm primary and general elections. So neither group is harmless.

    But with the Senate split 50/50 during this indeterminite period before Joe Manchin inevitably craters on his opposition to nuking the legislative filibuster, the House remains mostly inconsequential when it comes to actually enacting legislation.

    As a conservative I'm a big fan of Senate gridlock right now. The House is a hot frying pan, and as such produces many flashes-in-the-pan. I'm not ignoring them, but I'm not letting them get me very worked up right now, either.

    And I frankly encourage those who cite the sorry state of the House GOP caucus as their reasons for publicly disassociating themselves from the Republican Party to take a broader view that includes more context, and that isn't focused exclusively inside the Beltway. If you can't bear to identify with either major party any more, that's a coherent and entirely defensible position. But if you want to be a player in what is, and will remain, a two-party system, and you therefore are inclined to identify with either, I respectfully submit that awful as they are, the House GOP is not bad enough to justify becoming a Democrat.

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    1. Jaybrown

      "Put them all together and the United States House of Representatives puts all of the clowns Barnum & Bailey has ever employed to shame on a daily basis."

      Yep, or as KDW recently observed "Get enough clowns in one place and a circus is bound to break out."

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