Weekly Opinion Editorial
KNOW WHEN
TO WIN!
By Steve Fair
The Speaker of the U.S.
House of Representatives is the presiding officer of the body. The
office was established in Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution. The
Speaker is the political and parliamentary leader of the House, as well as the
presiding officer. The Speaker serves as the de facto leader of the
House majority Party and the head of the administration for the
House. The Constitution does not require the Speaker to be a member
of the body, however all thus far have been.
There are 435 members of the U.S.
House. A Speaker must normally receive 218 votes to be elected (a
simple majority). Most Speakers are elected on the first
ballot. There have been 14 instances in U.S. history where the
Speaker’s race required multiple ballots- the last time in 1923, when Rep.
Frederick Gillett, (R-MA) was elected on the ninth ballot.
The 2023 race for Speaker took a
similar turn. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, (R-CA), the House minority leader the
past four years failed to reach the 218 votes on fourteen ballots. This
after former President Trump publicly urged Republican members to
unite behind McCarthy. Trump’s endorsement of McCarthy did not
get him one vote on the next ballot. Ultimately, McCarthy was elected on the fifteen
ballot, with six Republicans voting
present and McCarthy getting 216 votes, a majority of those voting.
Twenty Republican members of the
House, including newly elected Rep. Josh Brecheen, (R-OK), refused to
coalesce/unify behind 200 other Republicans to elect McCarthy. These
hold-out members constitute the ‘Freedom’ caucus. It appeared
McCarthy wasn’t going to be elected without their support. The 20
member Freedom caucus demanded the threshold needed to call a vote of
confidence in the Speaker be lowered to just one member (McCarthy agreed to do
that). The Freedom caucus called for lower taxes, a reduction of the
national debt, and a lowering of the federal budget deficit. They
also have demanded seats on powerful committees. McCarthy agreed to virtually
all of their demands, but in doing so angered some of the more moderate members of
the Republican caucus. Three observations:
First, a legislative body requires
teamwork. No individual member of a 435 member body can get much
accomplished. They have to work with others to accomplish
anything. Collaboration, negotiation, and cooperation are necessary
skills to get legislation passed. Failure to work with other members
of the body will limit effectiveness of a member. Too many uncooperative
team members kill a team’s goals and objectives. Effective
governing requires willingness to give and take. Being obstructive
is not constructive. Helen Keller said, “Alone we can do so little;
together we can do so much.”
Second, some people will take
nothing instead of something. Some people are not wired to
negotiate. They consider any concession an unnecessary
compromise. They are intolerant of an alternate
viewpoint. Bargaining is for the feeble. They would rather
lose than compromise their convictions. They are willing to accept a
liberal over a moderate to prove their point.
Third, the tail wagged the dog in
the Speaker race. The twenty members of the Freedom caucus constitute just 10%
of the House GOP caucus, yet they were able to exercise proportionally more
power than their numbers dictate. All of their goals are worthy ones,
but it remains to be seen if those goals will be accomplished, after their angering
many in their own caucus.
Fortunately, Rep. McCarthy did not
withdraw and a ‘moderate/centrist’ GOP candidate for Speaker get elected with ‘blue
dog’ Democrat support. That would have created a circus in the
House. Speaker McCarthy’s challenge is
to ‘herd the cats’ and move the House forward.
With a single member having the ability to call for a confidence vote on
the Speaker, his challenge of unifying the GOP will be formidable.
There is a fine line between negotiating and quibbling. If negotiating gets personal (and it clearly did in the Speaker’s race), both parties lose. Good negotiators are tough, but they know when to quit. For a good negotiator, it’s not all or nothing. They understand the art of the deal. Six Republicans have shown they throw the long ball on every play and don’t subscribe to incrementally moving the ball down the field.
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