Steve Scalise's woes may be 'way worse' than Kevin McCarthy's: report

Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) is having trouble cobbling together enough votes to become speaker of the United States House of Representatives and Punchbowl News' Jake Sherman reports that his speakership bid is facing serious headwinds.

In fact, Sherman writes that Scalise's problems with his own caucus may be "way worse" than McCarthy's were when the California Republican was forced to sit through more than a dozen votes on the House floor before finally getting enough to win the election.

At issue, writes Sherman, is that Scalise's initial strategy for securing the speakership seems to have already fallen apart.

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"Scalise’s gamble appears to be this — once he became the party’s nominee for speaker, Republicans would fall in line behind him," Sherman explains. "But that’s simply not happening."

Scalise also doesn't have as much time to grind out a win the way that McCarthy did back in January because there is simply more urgency to get a speaker in place given the war that American ally Israel is now fighting against terrorist group Hamas and given that the government is due to shut down in a little more than a month without congressional action.

In fact, the early signs are all so bad for Scalise that Republicans are already whispering about alternatives.

"The conversation has already picked up about fall-back options if Scalise can’t get to 217," writes Sherman. "The usual suspects are being bandied about — Speaker Pro Tem Patrick McHenry, Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) or Majority Whip Tom Emmer."