“Reinvigorating the leadership” is how one senior House staffer described the ascendency of Steve Scalise, the Louisiana Republican who won a first-ballot victory for the position of GOP whip. The staffer went on to portray Scalise as not a member of the Washington establishment. Indeed, Scalise is a former chair of the Republican Study Committee, the conservative caucus in the U.S. House. He has had a meteoric rise, and he is someone to be reckoned with.
Scalise’s win follows Kevin McCarthy‘s first-ballot victory for the GOP majority-leader slot. And here’s something I did not know: As whip, Scalise gets to appoint his chief deputy whip, a leadership position most recently held by Illinois Republican Peter Roskam (who lost out to Scalise for majority whip). So it could be, when all is said and done, that two conservative RSC members are part of the GOP leadership.
