Kevin McCarthy must be a statesman, not a partisan, to get the House in order | Opinion

It has been over two weeks since Kevin McCarthy was unceremoniously booted from the one job he wanted most in Washington, D.C. — speaker of the House.

The Republican congressman from Bakersfield witnessed members of his own party, the ultra-right wing of the GOP, turn against him. Given the razor-thin margin that Republicans hold in the House — 221 GOP members to 212 Democrats — McCarthy could only lose four votes and withstand the mutiny. He didn’t.

In the two weeks since, House Republicans tried to coalesce around Republican Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana as the new speaker. But when Scalise realized he did not have enough votes he dropped out. Jim Jordan of Ohio, a firebrand congressman who helped form the far-right Freedom Caucus, then tried to win the speakership. But he failed on the first two votes, as his divisive politics turn off moderate Republicans.

No matter how the quest for a speaker winds up, the Republican-led House has been on full display as one stuck in chaos. Without a speaker, new bills have not been be heard. This at a time when world crises are demanding the attention of Congress, such as the Israeli offensive in Gaza against the Hamas terrorist group over its recent attacks on Jewish settlements.

Imagine one half of the legislative branch of our government being unable to function.

As it stands, McCarthy will go down in American political history as the only speaker ever removed from the office. But he can redeem a measure of his standing by using any influence he has left to make the House a fully functioning branch of government again.

To do that, McCarthy will need to act in a bipartisan manner, as when he negotiated the stop-gap funding measure to keep the federal government solvent.

He should forge an alliance with Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York toward the goal of making the House work again and not held hostage to just a handful of members on the far right. There are several ways McCarthy can do just that.

Republican power sharing

Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent outlined several steps for McCarthy and House Republicans to consider.

First, work with Democrats to end the ability of any single House member to call for a vote to remove the speaker. That is what doomed McCarthy. Florida’s Matt Gaetz, no ally of McCarthy’s, forced a full floor vote of the House, known as a “motion to vacate,” on whether to remove McCarthy. The measure passed by six votes.

McCarthy should support a plan that a majority of the party in power must approve any vote on a speaker. Otherwise, the threat will hang over anyone who holds the office, be it Jordan or another member.

Second, McCarthy should accept the idea of power-sharing with Democrats by agreeing to equal representation on the powerful Rules Committee. It decides what bills get heard on the floor of the House.

By reforming the motion to vacate and allowing some shared governance, McCarthy and those backing him would nullify the tyranny of the minority that far-right members now enjoy.

“Any mechanism that would guarantee votes on the floor for certain measures would break the veto power that now exists for the lunatic fringe,” congressional expert Norman Ornstein told Sargent.

The House could function again. This becomes particularly timely in less than a month, when the stop-gap funding runs out and funding the federal government once again faces a deadline.

McCarthy legacy

Will McCarthy actually act in this way?

Given that Democrats did not support his speakership, it seems unlikely. But he negotiated with President Biden to avoid a default on the national debt, and achieved the stop-gap funding needed to keep federal agencies operating. Both steps involved working with Democrats, and were condemned by Freedom Caucus members.

Americans are tired of the petty drama being waged by far-right representatives like Gaetz. The Floridian likes to boast he is acting for the good of the nation, but witness weeks of the House being frozen in time to see the real impact of Gaetz’s actions.

It is time for McCarthy to put on the mantle of statesman and move beyond his partisan past. McCarthy can lessen the sting of losing the speakership by acting for the good of his 20th District and the American people.

This story was originally published October 17, 2023 at 5:30 AM.