House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., speaks in…
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Instead, in too many instances, conservatives have seen their views ignored and the Republican leadership in both houses knuckle under to Democrats out of fear of being called names or getting blamed for a government shutdown.
In a stunning move, Boehner informed fellow Republicans on Friday that he would resign from Congress at the end of October, stepping aside in the face of hardline conservative opposition that threatened an institutional crisis.
A chaotic scramble is on to fill the top GOP jobs in the House following Speaker John Boehner’s surprise resignation.
But a few House conservatives have a message for McCarthy: Not so fast.
The behind-the-scenes chatter also highlights how House and Senate Republicans have quickly turned their robust majority on Capitol Hill into a growing internal feud that threatens the rest of their party’s agenda in the 114th Congress.
Boehner said his imminent retirement will not change his decision-making process in any way, and “if there’s a way to get a few things done so I don’t burden my successor, I’ll get them finished”. And in his eight years in the House, the 50-year-old McCarthy has developed deep relationships through the different ideological factions in the House, a major reason why his rapid ascent seems all-but assured.
“We spend 16 months or more figuring out who should be the nominee of our party for president, I think… we need to spend more than a week to figure out who the candidates for Speaker are”, Rep. Mark Meadows, R-North Carolina, told CNN.
All House Republicans will huddle Tuesday evening for a special conference meeting to discuss what comes next in a post-Boehner House, but no date has been set yet for the leadership election. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington and Tom Price of Georgia. This group wants more time to develop a plan for how the House GOP would operate going forward before holding an election for a new slate of leaders. It’s unclear whether it will vote as a block, but its members want to extract a few promises in return for their support.
Before the new leadership team is officially elected, Boehner could presumably try to resolve a number of hot-button issues – namely raising the debt ceiling or reviving the controversial Export-Import Bank.
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McCarthy said he reached out to each members of the Republican conference over the weekend to seek their opinions. For a few Republicans, that message could resonate. “I’m a little younger”.
