As House speaker, Kevin McCarthy will be an empty suit beholden to the far right | Opinion

Kevin McCarthy has won every congressional race he has run since he was first elected to the House in 2006. His closest race was in 2018, when he got 64% of the vote.

But those were not the races the Bakersfield Republican cared about most. Getting a majority of his GOP colleagues to make him the speaker of the House of Representatives was his abiding ambition. McCarthy dreamed for decades of assuming a post that is second in the line of succession to the presidency.

On Friday night, he achieved his long-sought goal, but not without great struggle. McCarthy finally prevailed on the 15th ballot, making this the longest such process since before the Civil War. Doing so required the new speaker to surrender so much of the position’s traditional power as to render the victory of questionable value.

For the first time ever, the lofty federal position will be occupied by someone from California’s San Joaquin Valley. McCarthy’s new 20th District extends from Kern County to Fresno County.

Under normal circumstances, this would be a time for rejoicing by San Joaquin Valley residents. Talk about hometown pride.

But don’t be deceived by appearances. McCarthy takes the podium as an empty suit. He had to make so many concessions to hard-right conservatives to get the votes he needed that he has effectively negotiated away most of his power.

Among those concessions is a dramatically lowered threshold to call for his ouster. It will take only one of the 435 House members to force a no-confidence vote. The far-right caucus characterizes that as proper accountability; moderate Republicans see it as a recipe for chaos.

Another reported concession was the reinstatement of the “cut as you go” methodology originated years ago by the GOP. It requires all mandatory spending hikes to be offset by cuts in expenditures.

Far-right firebrand and Trump loyalist Steve Bannon predicted that Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, who opposed McCarthy in the balloting, would team up with Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to serve as the actual leaders of the House. That’s because McCarthy’s many concessions to their demands will make them the de facto speakers, Bannon said.

Greene is known for espousing outlandish ideas like the one about Jewish space lasers starting California wildfires. And Gaetz has been under investigation for allegedly paying for sex with a minor; he has denied the allegation, and charges have yet to be brought.

McCarthy continues partisanship

Americans fed up with the partisan warfare of past Congresses will likely be sorely disappointed with McCarthy as speaker. He has said for months that he plans to operate in a partisan fashion to placate hard-right members.

McCarthy says he plans to investigate Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Justice Department over what he called “an intolerable state of weaponized politicization.” The threat came in the wake of FBI agents’ search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate for government documents he had not returned as required by federal law.

Some of the hard-right House members want McCarthy’s blessing to bring impeachment proceedings against President Joe Biden. Greene has already introduced five articles of impeachment falsely accusing Biden of abusing his power while serving as vice president to benefit his son Hunter’s business dealings in Ukraine. Other conservatives are disingenuously bashing Biden over the southern border or the disjointed withdrawal from Afghanistan. According to The New York Times, a total of 10 House Republicans have either introduced or sponsored a total of 21 articles of impeachment against Biden and his top officials.

Other goose chases could be coming under GOP control of the House, and McCarthy will be powerless to prevent them.

In an op-ed published by the Daily Caller last month, Gaetz wrote: “Every single Republican in Congress knows that Kevin does not actually believe anything. He has no ideology. Some conservatives are using this fact to convince themselves that he is the right leader for the moment, as McCarthy is so weak he’ll promise anything to anyone.”

District focus needed

One place McCarthy should be focusing his attentions is his district. Ranging from Kern County through Tulare and Kings counties to Clovis, in Fresno County, the 20th is the safest Republican district in California. It also has high poverty, low educational attainment and poor medical services. He could certainly do more to address those problems.

But given the demands of managing the far-right Freedom Caucus, his chief opposition, McCarthy will have little time for us.

McCarthy’s portrait will join those of previous House speakers displayed at the U.S. Capitol. But his speakership will be more image than substance. That is a tragedy for McCarthy and his country.