An anti-establishment conservative minority in the GOP had the clout to drive out House Speaker John Boehner, and they also have the power to block the party establishment from replacing Boehner with Kevin McCarthy, a protege of Eric Cantor and the current House majority leader.
But conservatives also knew they didn’t have a great candidate for speaker: Raul Labrador, Jeb Hensarling, Tom Price, and Jim Jordan have all been mentioned, but none of them will run. The Tea Party candidate in the speaker race at this point is Rep. Daniel Webster of Florida. McCarthy would beat Webster overwhelmingly in a vote within the Republican caucus. But if Tea Partiers are willing to hold out on the House floor, then can block McCarthy’s election by keeping him from getting to 218 votes.
So, Tea Partiers have some leverage, but they also couldn’t really install their own speaker. When I spoke to House conservatives last week, they made it clear they wanted something in exchange for going along with McCarthy after McCarthy wins the caucus vote. Specifically, they said they wanted a leadership role to go to one of them. It looks like such an offer is taking shape, as Paul Ryan has lined up behind Tom Price as House majority leader.
So, fittingly, Ryan could be the peacemaker between the establishment and Tea Party, and other majority leader candidates Cathy McMorris-Rodgers and Steve Scalise could be the losers of this peace.
Timothy P. Carney, The Washington Examiner’s senior political columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]. His column appears Tuesday and Thursday nights on washingtonexaminer.com.
