The hardline 'Nutjob Caucus' holding Republican feet to the fire

To supporters it is a conservative North Star -- that rare example of a political movement willing to put the little guy first and stand against corruption and waste in Washington.

To its detractors, the House Freedom Caucus is a far right, democracy-threatening cabal with a predilection for anarchy and nebulous aims beyond burning down the establishment.

Love it or loathe it, the renegade Republican faction is impossible to ignore. Just ask party leaders blaming its antics on Capitol Hill for a political deadlock that almost led this weekend to a damaging government shutdown.

Angered at the deal their party leader, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, struck with Democrats late Saturday to prevent the shutdown, the group now intends to push for his ouster in the week ahead.

Birthed in the cauldron of ultra-conservative Tea Party politics in the Obama era, the invitation-only bloc launched in 2015 under the working title "The Reasonable Nutjob Caucus," according to founding member Mick Mulvaney.

The group of roughly 40 lawmakers -- it doesn't make its membership public -- accounts for just one-fifth of the House Republican conference.

But it wields outsize power as the party has a majority of just four seats, and it takes only a few lawmakers to throw the agenda of the House leadership into chaos.

Its members, moreover, tend to represent safe Republican seats, giving them the leeway to stir the kind of controversies that more precariously placed lawmakers would shy away from.

This gets them noticed on cable news, which in turn bolsters their online profiles, creating a feedback loop that keeps the fundraising dollars spinning.

Three of the bloc's most prominent members and allies -- Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert -- are social media stars with a combined following on X, formerly known as Twitter, in excess of 10 million.

Whereas once they might have relied on the Republican National Committee or the Washington conservative establishment for help with fundraising, now they can appeal directly to their fans, giving them significant autonomy from the party whip.

- Rightward lurch -

This year alone, 19 Freedom Caucus members threatened to sink McCarthy's bid for the speaker's gavel, and a handful forced a government debt crisis that almost led to a catastrophic US debt default.

The zealous pursuit by many of those same lawmakers of deep and unpopular spending cuts was behind this weekend's shutdown drama that would have disrupted the lives of millions of Americans.

Now they are furious with McCarthy for the stopgap compromise he made with Democrats to keep the government funded for another 45 days at current spending levels.

And McCarthy is vulnerable because, in order to secure the speaker's post, he had made a key concession to the caucus -- a rule allowing individual lawmakers to call a snap vote to remove him.

"I do intend to file a motion to vacate Speaker McCarthy this week," key caucus ally Gaetz told CNN on Sunday.

"I think we need to move on with new leadership that can be trustworthy," he said.

- Agent of chaos -

Lately, the fringe group has inveigled itself into the upper echelons of the party, with founding member Jim Jordan becoming chairman of the powerful Judiciary Committee.

Jordan has been spearheading an impeachment investigation against President Joe Biden that has irritated mainstream colleagues, as witness after witness called by Republicans has undercut their narrative that the president is corrupt.

The Freedom Caucus is not immune from the schisms that beset every political grouping, with cracks emerging over alliances and tactics.

Members voted to boot out Greene, the far right Georgia flamethrower, in July for calling Boebert "a little bitch" during a caustic exchange on the House floor.

And Boebert herself reinforced the group's rabble-rousing image when she was thrown out of a performance of "Beetlejuice: The Musical" in Colorado in September after openly vaping and being disruptive at the family show.

Mulvaney argues, however, that some of the attention the group has received has been unfair and that its reputation as an agent of chaos is inaccurate.

"The Freedom Caucus has rules. Some are unwritten, but most exist in writing," he said in an op-ed for politics news outlet The Hill last week.

"I know because I wrote them."