Meanwhile, Festivus’ airing of grievances came early as the GOP conference met again Tuesday.
Rep. Ralph Norman, seen here whining that his people just aren’t getting enough attention, is one of the four definite “no” votes for McCarthy on Jan 3. The Washington Post’s whip count still stands at four definite no votes and one “very likely no.” Another possible no, Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, went on Fox Radio on Monday and bashed McCarthy as part of leadership that apparently dropped the ball ahead of the Jan. 6 insurrection.
“Where was the leadership in December 2020, when we were barreling towards chaos and we all knew it and some of us were saying it out loud? … I’m just saying you need leadership in this town, and I ain’t seen it,” Roy said. Roy was an early Big Lie proponent, pushing the Trump team hard to “find the fraud” after the election, and ended up being a reluctant opponent of Trump’s fake electors scheme. So he’s … not wrong in his assessment, which is a very strange thing to be writing about Chip Roy. He might be opposing McCarthy out of actual principle. Go figure.
At any rate, they all emerged from Tuesday meeting in even more chaos than when they went in, with the Freedom maniacs coming up with even more petty complaints. However, what also emerged according to Politico’s sources who have been involved in all this is that McCarthy’s “allies are starting to doubt that McCarthy can survive the gauntlet needed to win the gavel.”
So that’s fun. But McCarthy’s allies are also warning the maniacs that they could be forcing a speaker that they’ll hate even more if they keep this up. That presumes there are enough of them to pick their person, and that there will be help from Democrats. There will not be any help from Democrats.
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