California Republican Kevin McCarthy's precarious hold on remaining the House speaker appears to be slipping as he battles with his own leadership team over a budget proposal while potential rivals for his job sit back and watch him sink.
According to MSNBC political analyst Hayes Brown, a combination of poor leadership skills mixed with the concessions McCarthy made to far-right extremist elements in his caucus, has quickly come back to haunt him just months after being elected to his leadership position after a bitter fight.
McCarthy's sniping at Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX), the chair of the Budget Committee, and top lieutenant Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) has increased the chances, as Brown put it, that the Speaker has a "dwindling window" to get his act together before he faces ouster.
"Beneath the obvious 'Mean Girls' atmosphere in the Capitol, several bits of intrigue are playing out. There’s a certain irony in Arrington’s disenfranchisement. Since the Republican Revolution in 1994, the House GOP has often chafed at the centralization of power in the hands of the speaker. One of the proposed solutions has been to devolve power back to the committees, whose chairs used to rule over them as their personal fiefdoms," he wrote.
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According to Brown, Scalise doesn't appear to have the support to replace McCarthy but his time may come soon.
"It makes much more sense for Scalise to simply bide his time as the pressure on McCarthy most likely increases over the coming weeks," Brown added, "McCarthy’s lack of skill at moving his caucus forward could otherwise be seen as the feel-good event of the spring — except there’s the looming debt ceiling crisis. Because while his ineffectiveness in most policy areas is a benefit for the Americans who would be most affected by the draconian cuts the GOP is pushing, a failure to lift the debt ceiling would have repercussions for us all."
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