Speaker McCarthy Defies Media Predictions of Weakness

AMAC Exclusive – By Barry Casselman

As has so often been the case in recent media political forecasting, new Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy is proving predictions of weakness and failure in his leading the small House majority to be off the mark.

After the protracted four-day, fifteen-ballot ordeal to win the speakership, the establishment media, parroting the Democratic caucus minority, proclaimed that McCarthy faced constant tumult in managing his GOP caucus, and in fulfilling the deals he made with insurgent conservative members who demanded he commit to a more transparent rules reform and a more confrontational approach to Biden administration proposals and policies.

In the first days of his stewardship, however, McCarthy has followed through impressively by enacting many of the reforms, and has done so with a hard-hitting articulate energy that his detractors, both to his left and right, didn’t think he had.

A recent exchange with a hostile liberal reporter on his decision to bar Democratic Congressmen Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell from sitting on the House intelligence Committee, a video of which went quickly viral, drew lavish praise from even some of his harshest GOP critics.

McCarthy has also made several changes in House rules and procedures, including ending proxy voting by members not willing to be present, allowing amendments to be made on the floor, opening sessions to the public (curtailed by previous Democrat Speaker Nancy Pelosi), and appointing several of his insurgent colleagues to key committees and chairmanships, including investigative and oversight committees that will now examine many Biden administration activities over the past two years. Articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas were filed.

A major issue for McCarthy opponents, resisting a vote to raise the national debt limit, was also predicted by most in the media to be a major stumbling block for Speaker McCarthy. It was assumed that failure to agree to this legislation would not only in effect shut down the government, but be, as it has been in the recent past, very unpopular with voters and backfire on the Republicans. McCarthy had committed to obtaining spending reduction concessions from President Joe Biden, but the president has refused to do so.

A new poll by the respected and usually accurate Rasmussen Reports organization, however, indicates there has been a sea change in public opinion on the subject of the national debt — with a significant majority of 56% even favoring a government shutdown in order to reduce federal spending and the national debt. Federal officials say they can put off requiring a debt limit vote until June. Mr. McCarthy’s hand in his confrontation with the president, however, has now been noticeably strengthened, and this potential sore point within his caucus reduced.

In spite of his surprising early success, however, Speaker McCarthy is likely to face challenges with his members in the weeks ahead. The 25-30 members of the more conservative Freedom Caucus will continue to use their leverage to press for more confrontation with the Democratic agenda. 

President Biden, who enjoyed a brief post-midterm election surge in the polls, has seen his favorable poll numbers sink again in the wake of disclosures that he took classified documents home when he was vice president. He is now even being criticized by leaders in his own party, and efforts to prevent him from running for re-election have been renewed by many Democrats. Mr. Biden also no longer enjoys control of both houses of Congress.

Even after the narrow loss of the House, Biden’s expectation that the Republican opposition there would be weak and ineffectual under Speaker McCarthy is so far not occurring.

Despite the jeers of Democrats, led by Hakeem Jeffries, and the predictably sympathetic media expectations, the new Speaker seems to be reveling in his confrontations with the liberals and their agenda, and he appears to be building new support within his own fractious caucus as the next election cycle approaches.