Three weeks into speaker stalemate, Barr wants unity while Massie announces support
Andy Barr had had enough: He wanted a speaker — any speaker — to end the stalemate in the leaderless U.S. House.
So at the start of the week, Lexington’s congressman signed a pledge to support whichever member Republicans sent to the floor, “regardless of who that candidate is.”
Thomas Massie had also had enough. The conservative ideologue from northern Kentucky, who had enthusiastically backed Ohio’s Jim Jordan for speaker, indicated he was “done thinking about” the contest until someone had a plan to secure the 217 votes necessary to clinch the speakership on the House floor.
He had not moved on from Jordan, even though the hardliner’s bid was foiled last week, and predicted the newest candidate set to receive a vote, Louisiana’s Mike Johnson, was “uniquely positioned to lose 30 votes on either side of the conference.”
The evident frustration at both ends of the party crystallized the three-week leadership impasse that is increasingly undermining Republicans’ governing authority with the public.
“This is a conference that does not give up easily, does not learn lessons easily. When you think you’ve hit rock bottom, they think you can keep digging. So they’re going to keep digging for awhile,” said Brendan Buck, who advised former House Speaker Paul Ryan, on his podcast, “Control.”
House Republicans are now in their third week of a game of political “Survivor,” in which a fourth candidate to replace Kevin McCarthy — Louisiana’s Johnson — faces the same risk when his name is brought to the full House floor on Wednesday. On Tuesday, after more than two dozen Republicans signaled they opposed Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, he became the third candidate to pull out of what’s becoming an agonizing race for the Republican Party.
“Republicans have to unite and get our act together or we’ll be in the minority and Democrats will have control,” Barr warned. “That’s what this chaos causes.”
Barr, who initially supported Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise before switching to Jordan, fell in line with Emmer and now Johnson, simply as an attempt to unify the conference and put an end to the drama.
But although Massie is part of the conservative bloc who aren’t prone to falling in line easily, the Kentuckian revealed his support for Johnson Wednesday morning.
“After speaking with him this morning, I’m committed to vote for Mike Johnson,” Massie tweeted. “He has my full support.”
Whereas Barr believes nearly any option is preferable to a continued vacancy, Massie sees the vote as a powerful vehicle to change how Congress operates.
Once a speaker is chosen, the House will need to move quickly to address a slate of government funding bills and a White House request for $106 billion in foreign aid for Ukraine and Israel.
Massie wants separate votes on the different spending proposals, avoiding an “omnibus,” which is the way Washington describes an all-encompassing bill that combines unrelated priorities into a single giant spending package. It’s the way Congress moves quickly when facing a tight deadline, but conservatives have long complained it obscures wasteful spending and thickens the deficit.
It’s unclear who will blink first — the conservative brigade or the more traditional breed of Republicans — but some feared the standoff could continue not just days, but weeks.
“We’ve wasted three weeks,” Rep. James Comer, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, told Fox Business. “This could stretch out another two or three weeks. It’s limited the ability of the committees not only to meet, but my committee to do subpoenas or things like that … This is unfortunate and I’m ashamed that we’re in this position.”
This story and headline has been updated to reflect Rep. Massie’s support for Rep. Mike Johnson, which he revealed just after publication on Wednesday morning.
This story was originally published October 25, 2023 at 10:10 AM with the headline "Three weeks into speaker stalemate, Barr wants unity while Massie announces support."
