CNN (“McCarthy commits to key concession in call with frustrated lawmakers but it’s no guarantee he’ll win speakership“):
House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy outlined some of the concessions that he has agreed to in his campaign for speaker on a Sunday evening conference call – including making it easier to topple the speaker, according to multiple GOP sources on the call. But McCarthy could not say whether he would have the votes for the speakership, even after giving in to some of the right’s most hardline demands.
Later Sunday evening, House Republicans unveiled their rules package for the 118th Congress, which formalizes some of the concessions that McCarthy has agreed to. The House adopts its rules package only after it selects a speaker, which McCarthy has not locked down, so there could be additional compromises made in the coming days.
In a “Dear Colleague” letter from the California Republican, he made his case for the speakership and offered additional promises, including ensuring that the ideological groups are better represented on committees.
Not long after Sunday’s call, a group of nine hardliners – who had outlined their demands to McCarthy last month – put out a new letter saying some of the concessions he announced are insufficient and making clear they’re still not sold on him, though they did say progress is being made.
“Thus far, there continue to be missing specific commitments with respect to virtually every component of our entreaties, and thus, no means to measure whether promises are kept or broken,” the members wrote in the letter obtained by CNN.
This group is still pushing to give a single lawmaker the power to call for a vote toppling the speaker, and they also want a commitment that leadership won’t play in primaries, among other things. Since McCarthy can only afford to lose four votes on the House floor, it means he still has a lot of work to do before Tuesday.
The California Republican had told his members in Sunday’s call that after weeks of negotiations, he has agreed to a threshold as low as five people to trigger a vote on ousting the speaker at any given time, known as the “motion to vacate” the speaker’s chair, and pitched it as a “compromise.” CNN first reported last week that he was supportive of that threshold.
Some moderates – who fear the motion to vacate will be used as constant cudgel over McCarthy’s head – pushed back and expressed their frustration during the call, sources said.
McCarthy is a cowardly weasel whose only seeming fealty is to his own ambition. By trying to have it both ways on insurrection, he has pleased nobody. But his party is going to have a razor-thin majority of on House of Congress with a Democratic Senate and White House. The Speaker has to be powerful for the party to have any influence at all.
If McCarthy had any intestinal fortitude—alas, see above—he would tell these idiots to pound sand. If they had an alternative that could get the support of a majority of the caucus, they’d put him up. So, they either give McCarthy the power due a Speaker or he and three others hand the job to Hakeem Jeffries.
