(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Abbreviated pundit roundup: New session of Congress begins with Republican chaos [1]
['Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags', 'Showtags Popular_Tags']
Date: 2023-01-03
Ursula Perano and Sam Brodey at The Daily Beast dive deep into what they call McCarthy’s “hostage crisis”:
For months, there have been five hard ‘no’ votes against him—the “Never Kevins”—who have committed to voting as a bloc. But on top of those five—which would already be enough to stymie McCarthy if everyone voted—there are nine votes that appear to be leaning against McCarthy. That group of nine, led by Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), argued in a letter this weekend that McCarthy has not met their demands for proposed rule changes. “Thus far, there continue to be missing specific commitments with respect to virtually every component of our entreaties,” the group wrote on Sunday. “Nothing changes when nothing changes, and that must start from the top,” one of the signees, Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), tweeted. “Time to make the change or get out of the way.” Getting out of the way is more complicated than Perry suggests. In contrast to the five members who are “Never Kevin,” there are dozens of Republicans who’ve declared themselves “Only Kevin,” meaning they will only vote for McCarthy to be speaker—or so they say.
Catie Edmondson at The New York Times analyzes the key players:
Fueling the fight against Mr. McCarthy is a group of hard-liners who have long complained that the House’s power structures give leaders too much influence and have argued for changes that would make it easier for small factions of dissenters to obstruct and change legislation. Representative Chip Roy of Texas, the wonky former chief of staff to Senator Ted Cruz who is steeped in procedural knowledge, has been among the most vocal advocates of such an overhaul. So has Representative Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, the current Freedom Caucus chairman who played a key role in an unsuccessful plot by Mr. Trump to fire the acting attorney general who stood by the results of the 2020 election.
Li Zhou at Vox:
Igor Derysh at Salon looks at the extremists in the GOP who may be seated or even lead committees in the Republican majority:
Trumpist election deniers were soundly defeated in competitive midterm races this year, for the most part. But there's no shortage of far-right MAGA diehards who are joining Congress this week, mostly elected from safe Republican districts and states. [...] Republicans have already vowed to put far-right lawmakers like Greene and Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona back on key committees and to launch aggressive investigations into the Biden administration and his family. McCarthy will need the most extreme Republican members in order to pass any legislation, and given the GOP's slim margin, his speakership (assuming he gets there) will be subject to their whims. Here are six new Republicans to watch in 2023.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/3/2145085/-Abbreviated-pundit-roundup-New-session-of-Congress-begins-with-Republican-chaos
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
