‘Seinfeld’ strategy helped McCarthy pass the GOP debt ceiling bill — but it's not clear whether it will work with Democrats

George Costanza during a "Seinfeld” episode famously pledged “I will do the opposite” after concluding that his own instincts can’t be trusted. “Every decision I’ve made in my entire life, has been wrong,” the fictional character said.

That strategy may have helped House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Ca.) secure a hard-fought victory within his own caucus over the debt ceiling limit, The New York Times reports.

After watching his GOP House Speaker predecessors John Boehner and Paul Ryan, alienate the party’s far-right flank, Catie Edmondson writes for The Times that a person familiar with McCarthy said the Speaker has taken Costanza's "opposite" approach.

Edmondson writes that “Whatever Mr. Boehner did, the person said, Mr. McCarthy would do the reverse,” likening McCarthy’s approach to the debt ceiling debate within his own party to the Seinfeld episode.

Rather than pick fights with the party’s far right, Edmondson writes that McCarthy used an “all-carrots, no-sticks leadership strategy of courting and elevating influential, arch-conservative lawmakers.”

“In 2011, when he was facing a debt ceiling breach and conservative Republicans were balking at raising the ceiling, Mr. Boehner sought to sideline the hard-right flank of his conference and negotiate with President Barack Obama to avert a catastrophic default. In return, his hard-right members tormented him,” Edmondson writes.

“Mr. McCarthy has done the opposite, making concessions to the right from the beginning. It is a strategy that carries significant risks. Some of the same concessions Mr. McCarthy made to become speaker could be used against him if conservative lawmakers grow unhappy with how he handles negotiations with Mr. Biden.”

Considering the narrow majority House Republicans enjoy, McCarthy didn’t have much choice but to appease ultraconservative Republicans.

But McCarthy now faces a different quandary.

He’ll now need to convince far-right Republicans to go along with any deal he makes with Democrats to resolve the debt ceiling crisis.

“Whether the peace can hold in the coming months is an open question,” Edmondson writes.

Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), who was among four Republicans who voted against McCarthy’s debt bill, told The Times that considering it took all McCarthy had just to get a win in his own caucus, the Speaker faces a formidable challenge.

“It is going to get harder,” Buck said, noting that should McCarthy reach an bipartisan agreement over the debt ceiling, it’s “going to be a very tough vote for people.”