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up front Monday 9 January 2023

Speaker McCarthy: A weakened leader or emboldened survivor?

Continued from Front deficit.
McCarthy helped recruit
In the end, McCarthy the tea party class, and he
emerges as a weakened went on to become the
speaker, one with less au- third-ranking Republican,
thority on paper than those part of the “Young Guns”
before him. That’s par- with Ryan of Wisconsin and
ticularly true because he then-Rep. Eric Cantor of
agreed to give the hard- Virginia.
right holdouts a key con- Fueled by the tea party,
cession: restoring a rule that they went on to lead House
allows any single lawmaker Republicans into crisis af-
to make a “motion to va- ter crisis with efforts to cut
cate the chair,” essentially federal spending during
a vote to oust the speaker the “fiscal cliff” of 2012
from that leadership post. and federal shutdowns in
But in some ways, the son 2013 as they tried to repeal
of gritty Bakersfield, an oil- Obama’s health care pro-
and-agricultural heartland gram.
in central California, also In 2015, when then-Rep.
becomes emboldened as Mark Meadows, the North
a survivor who withstood Carolina Republican who
one of history’s most brutal led the Freedom Caucus
brawls for power and who House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of Calif., gestures towards the newly installed nameplate at his and later served as Trump’s
prides himself on being an office after he was sworn in as speaker of the 118th Congress in Washington, early Saturday, Jan. last chief of staff, threat-
7, 2023.
underestimated political Associated Press ened a “motion to vacate
fighter. the chair” — a vote to oust
“Apparently, I like to make of must-pass bills to fund come together to accom- against McCarthy. “I in- the speaker — Boehner
history,” McCarthy quipped the government, restock plish big priorities. But more tend to keep that promise.” chose early retirement.
at one point during the rau- a military whose supplies often it results in brinkman- Good was one of six Re- McCarthy tried to take
cous week. have been depleted by ship that has led to stale- publican who voted “pres- Boehner’s place, but he
McCarthy staked his po- decades of war and aid mates, standoffs and shut- ent” in the final roll call. dropped out of the race
litical career on early back- to Ukraine, authorize farm- downs. McCarthy has been here when it was clear he would
ing of Trump, and it was ing programs and raise the House Republicans are before. In 2011, tea party not have support from con-
the former president who nation’s borrowing limit to eager to confront Biden Republicans took control servatives. Ryan ended up
delivered when needed, avert an unprecedented with oversight of the White of the House, confronting with the job. But he, too, re-
making late phone calls federal default. House’s handling of the the agenda of President tired in the Trump era.
to holdouts and “help- For the first time as presi- U.S.-Mexico border, the Barack Obama and his Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-
ing get those final votes.” dent, Biden will face a di- COVID-19 crisis and other vice president, Biden. The Calif., did away with the
When it was finally over, vided government, with issues, along with investi- movement opposed the “vacate the chair” rule
when McCarthy walked the House in Republican gations of Biden, his family Washington political estab- when Democrats regained
into the speaker’s office at hands and the Senate still and his administration. lishment and espoused a the majority in 2019. A sea-
the Capitol, the sign bear- controlled, though narrow- “I came to Washington to conservative and libertar- soned legislator who had
ing his name already was ly, by Democrats. challenge the status quo,” ian philosophy, advocat- made history as the first
hanging. Divided government can wrote Republican Bob ing for less spending, lower woman to be speaker, Pe-
Plenty of tests await. be a time of bipartisan Good of Virginia in an op- taxes and reducing the losi ran the House with the
Congress faces an agenda deal-making as the parties ed before his many votes national debt and budget strength of experience.q

Outgoing Sen. Sasse knows Trump

criticism shapes his legacy

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Ne- publicans to vote to con- I’m sad for him to be that
braska’s outgoing U.S. Sen. vict the former president at needy and desperate. But
Ben Sasse knows he may his impeachment trial after at a policy level, I always
be remembered more for the 2021 Capitol riot. Those loved that he kept his word
his criticisms of former Presi- criticisms led to Sasse being on the judges. ... And so we
dent Donald Trump than for sharply criticized by his own got to work closely on judg-
the policies he supported political party in Nebraska es.” Sasse said he is espe-
during his eight years in of- even though Sasse voted cially proud of his work with
fice. Sasse talked about his with Trump 85% of the time the Senate Intelligence
political legacy with the and helped get his three committee that included U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., listens during a confirmation hearing
Omaha World-Herald as U.S. Supreme Court nomi- setting up a commission for Supreme Court nomineeKetanji Brown Jackson before the
Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington,
he prepared to leave the nees confirmed. on cybersecurity. He said March 23, 2022.
Senate Sunday to become “I’m just sad for him as a 120 of that group’s 190 rec- Associated Press
president of the University human because obviously ommendations have been
of Florida. there’s a lot of complicated passed into law. Harvard, Yale and Oxford the Senate, Sasse led the
Sasse was a prominent stuff going on in that soul,” The University of Florida — to return to academia at small, private Midland Uni-
Trump critic who joined Sasse said to the newspa- job will allow Sasse — who a much bigger institution. versity in his hometown of
with a handful of other Re- per. “Just at a human level, studied American history at Before he was elected to Fremont, Nebraska.q