Once more into the breach

Daniel Desrochers

The last time it took more than 10 votes to elect a Speaker of the U.S. House was 1859.

James Buchanan was president. The border war was going on in the Kansas Territory. Within a few months, John Brown would be hanged for his raid on Harper’s Ferry and tensions between the north and south were building into what would become the Civil War.

The vote for House speaker lasted for eight weeks as Congress went through 44 rounds of voting. It may have gone a little faster back then. There were 235 members, instead of today’s 434 (there’s one vacancy right now). There were also six political parties represented — along with the Republicans and Democrats, there were some Know Nothings, Anti-Lecompton Democrats, Independent Democrats and Opposition Party.

Post Civil War, the two national parties became more cohesive and over the past few decades, the leaders of those parties have been able to exert more control over their members and the legislation that passes the chamber.

When Republicans took only a narrow majority in the House last November, it gave each member a little more power. Now, if the Republicans are attempting to do anything without the help of Democrats, they can only give up four votes.

Both parties have factions. For the Republican Party, there are some Reagan-era conservatives whose top priority is lowering taxes and helping businesses. There are some that model themselves after former President Donald Trump and are working toward a more populist Republican Party. And some members are focused on completely reforming the way Congress works and disrupting the institution.

The blockade against McCarthy is largely being driven by members of the House Freedom Caucus, an ultraconservative wing of the Republican caucus. But it isn’t every member of the caucus — some, like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Rep. Jim Jordan, are working to get McCarthy elected speaker.

Of the 21 Republicans who are refusing to support McCarthy, some of them just don’t like him. Others, however, seem to have a concerted goal to change the way committees are assigned (they want more members of the ultraconservative House Freedom on powerful committees, when usually positions are given out by seniority) and they want to have an easier time getting rid of a speaker if they don’t support them.

By Thursday morning, McCarthy had given in to many of their demands, but still hadn’t gotten any to budge.

“I think actually it’s going to improve the functioning of our majority,” Rep. Andy Barr, a Republican from Kentucky, said of McCarthy’s concessions. “But bank the win. Let’s bank it. At some point, you got to take yes as your answer. They’ve achieved a lot, now let’s declare victory and move on.”

Still frustration was growing among Republicans on Thursday, and seemed to be waiting for the 20 members opposing McCarthy to fold. In the meantime, their staffers were fielding calls but they were limited about how they could help constituents. They weren’t able to get committee assignments to start working on legislation. And they were unable to get classified briefings.

Newly elected Missouri Republican Eric Burlison was going through the same frustrations of all the other members of Congress as he was left in limbo.

But it wasn’t the first time he’d experienced a similar stalemate. When he was in the state Senate in Missouri, he was part of a faction of conservative Republicans who prevented the Missouri legislature from passing a redistricting bill for months.

Amid the inability to name a speaker, Burlison said he still might be interested in joining the House Freedom Caucus after he’s officially sworn in.

“I think iron sharpens iron and they’re all conservative minds that I want to spend time with,” he said.

More from Missouri

The stalemate over who will be the next Speaker of the House led to a weird week for all new members of the 118th House of Representatives, but especially for those coming to Washington for their first term. Freshman Republican Eric Burlison, who still hasn’t been sworn in, said he was ready to get the speaker vote over with and get to work passing conservative legislation.

Here are headlines from across the state:

And across Kansas

Kris Kobach is officially back. He takes the oath of office to become Kansas attorney general next week, taking over an office where he’ll be the state’s top law enforcement official. What will he do with this new power? His past suggests he’ll wield it with national political hot spots in mind.

The latest from Kansas City

In Kansas City …

Have a news tip? Send it along to ddesrochers@kcstar.com

Odds and ends

New member fashion

When Sen. Eric Schmitt strode into the Capitol on Tuesday to take his oath of office to officially become a U.S. senator from Missouri, he did so with some added state pride.

Schmitt, who stands 6’6, was wearing black cowboy boots emblazoned with the Missouri state seal. The seal was adopted in 1822 and has three bears in it: one inside a center shield (along with a silver crescent moon and a bald eagle holding arrows and olive branches) and two bears outside the shield, holding it. The two on the outside are supposed to symbolize Missourians’ strength and bravery.

He’s not the only member of the Senate who owns cowboy boots with the state seal. Sen. Rick Scott, a Republican from Florida, has been seen in black boots with his state’s seal.

The boots got some negative reviews on Twitter. Former chairman of the Democratic Party, Stephen Webber poked fun of the fact that Schmitt was wearing the boots given the fact that he attended De Smet Jesuit High School, a private school in St. Louis County.

Rep.-elect Mark Alford, who once operated a custom clothing business, took a more understated approach. He wore a light gray suit and red tie, but added some flair by wearing a French cuffed shirt.

Committees? What committees?

Because the members of the U.S. House can’t be sworn in until the chamber elects a speaker, none of the members are officially members right now. That has led to all kinds of confusion. Chief among those is committee assignments.

Rep. Jason Smith, a Republican from Salem, is in the running for a position as the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. That vote won’t be held until after the speaker is decided (McCarthy didn’t want to alienate any additional votes). He’s spent the week as an advocate for McCarthy, meeting with the holdouts and attempting them to switch over their votes.

Incoming Reps. Eric Burlison and Mark Alford still have no clue what committees they’ll be assigned. Alford, who is replacing former Rep. Vicky Hartzler, is hoping to end up on the House Armed Services Committee. He doesn’t know if he’ll get that assignment.

But even on the Senate side, where things went smoothly Tuesday, Schmitt is waiting for his committee assignments. The Senate gathered on Tuesday to swear in the new members, but doesn’t meet again until January 23.

Cori Bush

Rep. Cori Bush became the center of a side drama in the House this week. A faction of conservative Republicans nominated Florida Rep. Byron Donalds in their effort to prevent House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy from winning the speakership. Bush rebuked the hard-right Republicans after they portrayed Donalds’ nomination as historic, calling Donalds a “prop.”

That led to a moment on the floor where Rep. Dan Bishop, a Republican from North Carolina, said Bush was employing “grotesquely racist rhetoric.”

Bush later doubled down, after Donalds said on Twitter that she should let a Black man rise, even if she disagrees with him.

“You’re being used,” she wrote. “It helps you politically at the expense of our community. THAT’S what’s shameful.”

Happy Friday

Here’s a funny article about the existential crisis in the House. Try an interesting spin on a Manhattan. Rolling Stone recently put out a questionable list of the 200 greatest singers of all time. When I wondered out loud to a friend whether Van Morrison was ranked too high, he was outraged and told me to listen to Listen to the Lion.

Enjoy your weekend.

Daniel Desrochers is the Star’s Washington, D.C. Correspondent
Daniel Desrochers is the Star’s Washington, D.C. Correspondent

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