By Michelle Cottle
Ms. Cottle is a member of the editorial board.
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Pity poor Kevin McCarthy. Having sold his soul and torched his dignity to win his dream gig, the fledgling speaker of the House is struggling to find his groove.
Even as the House gears back up after recess, Mr. McCarthy is having relationship troubles with key members of his own team. These notably include Steve Scalise, the majority leader, and Jodey Arrington, who, as chairman of the Budget Committee, is in charge of putting together Republicans’ hotly anticipated spending proposal. (Or, more accurately, their proposal for slashing spending.) The speaker is said to have lost confidence in — and been privately dumping on — both men, The Times reported. (Mr. McCarthy has rejected that family fissures exist.)
Some Capitol Hill denizens suspect Mr. McCarthy remains disgruntled about his messy speaker’s race, during which, The Times noted, Mr. Arrington reportedly floated Mr. Scalise’s name for the top job. Whatever their origins, such tensions risk exacerbating Republican leaders’ struggles to rally their fractious, scrawny majority around legislative initiatives.
Indeed, the early report cards for this Congress have been underwhelming, prompting an unflattering assessment of Mr. McCarthy’s tenure compared with those of past Republican speakers such as Newt Gingrich and John Boehner. This conference has managed to pass its top legislative priority, a sprawling energy package that has a snowball’s chance of advancing through the Senate. But, thanks to internecine squabbling, Republicans have had to delay several major measures they had aimed to address early on, including a border security bill and a budget plan. Likewise, their orgy of investigations into all things Biden has had trouble gaining traction. Some Republicans have begun voicing concerns about the conference’s overall focus.
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These are high-stakes times not only for Mr. McCarthy but for many of his team leaders as well. To which one can only say: Welcome to the majority, fellas.
Being in charge is hard. Sure, life in the House majority means you get to set the rules and shape the agenda for the chamber. But you also are expected to occasionally get stuff done, which is way harder than most folks realize.
Back in 2009, the minority leader at the time, Mr. Boehner — who by then had endured a couple of spins through the majority-minority cycle — stressed to me the burden of running things. “One of the great shocks of 1994 was — we had won the majority, and no one in our caucus had ever been in the majority — no one realized how much more work it is,” he recalled. “You hand the football off to a fullback, and he’s gotta run with it.”
And as most politicians can attest, it is easier to rally disparate factions around saying “no” than to figure out something they will all say “yes” to — especially when it comes to complex legislation.
Mr. McCarthy is laboring under especially adverse conditions. It’s tough enough that his majority is thinner than Fox News’s journalistic credibility. Complicating matters, a huge number of his members have never served in the majority before and have no idea what they’re doing. Legislating is a skill — maybe even an art — for which it’s useful for members to have experience with something beyond mouthing off and posing for cheesy photos with their favorite firearms.
Story continues below advertisement
Continue reading the main story
Ms. Cottle is a member of the editorial board.
Sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter Get expert analysis of the news and a guide to the big ideas shaping the world every weekday morning. Get it sent to your inbox.
Pity poor Kevin McCarthy. Having sold his soul and torched his dignity to win his dream gig, the fledgling speaker of the House is struggling to find his groove.
Even as the House gears back up after recess, Mr. McCarthy is having relationship troubles with key members of his own team. These notably include Steve Scalise, the majority leader, and Jodey Arrington, who, as chairman of the Budget Committee, is in charge of putting together Republicans’ hotly anticipated spending proposal. (Or, more accurately, their proposal for slashing spending.) The speaker is said to have lost confidence in — and been privately dumping on — both men, The Times reported. (Mr. McCarthy has rejected that family fissures exist.)
Some Capitol Hill denizens suspect Mr. McCarthy remains disgruntled about his messy speaker’s race, during which, The Times noted, Mr. Arrington reportedly floated Mr. Scalise’s name for the top job. Whatever their origins, such tensions risk exacerbating Republican leaders’ struggles to rally their fractious, scrawny majority around legislative initiatives.
Indeed, the early report cards for this Congress have been underwhelming, prompting an unflattering assessment of Mr. McCarthy’s tenure compared with those of past Republican speakers such as Newt Gingrich and John Boehner. This conference has managed to pass its top legislative priority, a sprawling energy package that has a snowball’s chance of advancing through the Senate. But, thanks to internecine squabbling, Republicans have had to delay several major measures they had aimed to address early on, including a border security bill and a budget plan. Likewise, their orgy of investigations into all things Biden has had trouble gaining traction. Some Republicans have begun voicing concerns about the conference’s overall focus.
Story continues below advertisement
Continue reading the main story
These are high-stakes times not only for Mr. McCarthy but for many of his team leaders as well. To which one can only say: Welcome to the majority, fellas.
Being in charge is hard. Sure, life in the House majority means you get to set the rules and shape the agenda for the chamber. But you also are expected to occasionally get stuff done, which is way harder than most folks realize.
Back in 2009, the minority leader at the time, Mr. Boehner — who by then had endured a couple of spins through the majority-minority cycle — stressed to me the burden of running things. “One of the great shocks of 1994 was — we had won the majority, and no one in our caucus had ever been in the majority — no one realized how much more work it is,” he recalled. “You hand the football off to a fullback, and he’s gotta run with it.”
And as most politicians can attest, it is easier to rally disparate factions around saying “no” than to figure out something they will all say “yes” to — especially when it comes to complex legislation.
Mr. McCarthy is laboring under especially adverse conditions. It’s tough enough that his majority is thinner than Fox News’s journalistic credibility. Complicating matters, a huge number of his members have never served in the majority before and have no idea what they’re doing. Legislating is a skill — maybe even an art — for which it’s useful for members to have experience with something beyond mouthing off and posing for cheesy photos with their favorite firearms.
Story continues below advertisement
Continue reading the main story
Opinion | Speaker McCarthy Is Feeling the Heat
House Republicans are realizing it’s hard to legislate when their members are more interested in chaos-making than governing.
www.nytimes.com