A couple of days ago, Jonathan Chait wrote how the GOP has turned increasingly into an authoritarian party. “During Trump’s first term,” he wrote, “violations of democratic norms came in sudden dramatic bursts attracting wide news coverage, and these efforts were often undone by a lack of planning and haphazard execution. January 6 is the most vivid example. The episode dramatized Trump’s desire and determination to secure an unelected second term, but the coup attempt lacked the firepower to pull it off. Since Trump left office, the Republican Party’s anti-democratic turn has accelerated, but it has taken place quietly and deliberately with little drama or media attention. It has had the benefit of planning and the formation of a partywide consensus. And it is more insidious than anything a reelected Trump could come up with in a fit of pique.”
And speaking of a fit of pique, the childish members of the House Freedom caucus fucked up the whole GOP conference yesterday by preventing a vote of a rule that would have allowed votes on bills that they support— the REINS Act (H.R. 277), an assault on regulations that protect consumers and workers, Separation of Powers Restoration Act (H.R. 288) and two nonsensical bills about protecting gas stoves (H.R. 1615) and (H.R. 1640m which is actually called the “Save Our Stoves Act.”
206 Republicans voted for the rule. Punchbowl's take this morning: "The GOP conference has once again devolved into nasty internecine conflict between hardline conservatives and everyone else. This split calls into question how Republicans can ever coalesce around their agenda or even whether they can govern at all over the coming six months... McCarthy’s slim, five-seat majority gives [extremists] plenty of opportunities to make McCarthy, Scalise and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer’s lives miserable. The right has effective veto power over McCarthy’s ability to bring anything to the floor. And they showed that they are unafraid to use it— even if they agree with the underlying legislation. [Extremists] keep screaming that McCarthy has violated several terms of the agreement he made when he became speaker. McCarthy and his allies say that’s not so. It would be great to know which side is not being truthful, but we’ll never know that because the deal they made was not committed to paper and is not public. This was a strategic error by both sides that will continue to be problematic." As expected all the Democrats voted against it, put without warning, 11 nihilists and fascists voted “no” defeating the routine procedural bill.
Andy Biggs (R-AZ)
Dan Bishop (R-NC)
Lauren Boebert (R-CO)
Ken Buck (R-CO)
Tim Burchett (R-TN)
Eli Crane (R-AZ)
Matt Gaetz (R-FL)
Bob Good (R-VA)
Ralph Norman (R-SC)
Matt Rosendale (R-MT)
Chip Roy (R-TX)
Not even Andy Clyde, Scott Perry, Paul Gosar, Andy Ogles, Ronnie Jackson or Byron Donalds, usually part of this crowd, joined them for this little game. This was what they did instead of demanding a vacate the chair motion to remove McCarthy as Speaker. They wanted to show him that he can’t get anything done without them— unless he goes to the Democrats… which would be the end of the road for him.
A trio of Washington Post reporters wrote that it was “a surprise rebuke for McCarthy and the rest of GOP leadership [and] “was the first rule vote to fail since November 2002… The outcome underscored the anger that several members of the House Freedom Caucus still harbored toward McCarthy over his handling of a bipartisan debt ceiling bill.
“We’re not going to live in the era of the imperial speaker anymore,” Rep. Matt Gaetz said afterward. “We took down the rule because we’re frustrated at the way this place is operating. … We’re concerned that the fundamental commitments that allowed Kevin McCarthy to assume the speakership have been violated as a consequence of the debt limit deal.”
Afterward, Rep. Ralph Norman declined to answer directly when asked if his opposition to the rule vote had been retaliation for the debt ceiling.
“It’s about a lot of things,” he said.
Rep. Ken Buck, another GOP lawmaker who opposed the rule vote Tuesday, said that McCarthy had promised when he became speaker to keep federal spending at 2022 levels.
"He broke that commitment with the Biden-backed debt ceiling ‘deal,’” Buck tweeted Tuesday. “How can he govern if House Republicans can’t trust him to honor his word? How are we supposed to stay unified?”
…As the rule vote headed toward failure Tuesday afternoon, several senior Republicans— including Scalise and Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN)— huddled with about a dozen Freedom Caucus members in the back of the chamber for an extended negotiation.
But rather than changing minds, GOP leadership lost support. Reps. Lauren Boebert and Tim Burchett switched their votes to no, bringing the opposition to nearly a dozen hardcore conservatives.
After most had left the chamber, Scalise huddled in the two back chairs on the center aisle with Rep. Andrew S. Clyde (R-GA), who accused Scalise last week of threatening the future of gun legislation that Clyde had sponsored if Clyde opposed the rules vote on the debt ceiling legislation.
Scalise’s last action on the House floor Tuesday was to set up the ability to reconsider the rule vote at some point later, but it is unclear when that will be. House leaders then adjourned the chamber to keep talking to the GOP renegades.
Dan Bishop added that they hadn’t decided whether or not to end McCarthy’s speakership. “There’s no decision… but the problem that has been precipitated entirely by the speaker’s approach to the debt ceiling is going to have to be dealt with.” He added this the extremists wanted to “enforce the agreement we reached in January under which Kevin McCarthy assumed speakership… As you’re seeing right now. The majority cannot function without unity. So to pull a pin from the grenade, and roll it under the tent of the Republican unity as was done last [week] on the debt ceiling is untenable for leadership.”
A trio of Politico writers reported that “At the center of the dispute that broke out during Tuesday’s procedural debate was an accusation by Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) that GOP leaders had threatened to sink his bill to repeal a Biden administration gun regulation unless he supported advancing last week’s debt deal. Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) had denied Clyde’s allegation hours before the vote, sparking an unusual, high-profile rebuke from the Georgian. Scalise was later seen in animated conversation on the House floor with the group of conservatives as they tanked the procedural vote on gas stoves in protest. Rep. Matt Gaetz, who joined the rebellion, warned that threatening a fellow Republican’s bill to strong-arm him on the debt vote was ‘debasing,’ adding that: ‘We’re not going to live in a system where our members are subject to this type of petty punishment.’ ‘It was an issue dealing with a member who was being threatened,’ said Rep. Tim Burchett, another of the conservative no votes on Tuesday, in a reference to Clyde. ‘So I sent a clear message.’”
After the GOP drama ended, Ted Lieu, a member of the House Democratic leadership, said, “Democrats in array. Republicans in disarray, again.”