The problem for McCarthy, though, is that he does not have the 218 votes needed for him to be the next Speaker of the House. He needs to court the vote of Marjorie Taylor Greene by promising her committee assignments she lost for saying Obama, Pelosi, and other prominent Democrats should be executed.
However, Greene's spat with Lauren Boebert over who is the real sophomoric drama queen, is causing McCarthy trouble with Tea Party RINOs who are concerned that McCarthy is really a Republican in drag. He assures them that he is not, and he has the voting record to prove it, but now Boebert has joined team Matt Gaetz in opposing McCarthy for the position. McCarthy cannot afford for the hypocritical idiot vote to be split like that.
The bigger obstacle for him, though, is that the Senate passed the spending bill that triggers his threat that he cannot control without uniting the Tea Party RINO vote without losing any of the Republican votes. He needs almost all the votes, and he doesn't have them. The votes he doesn't have include several RINOs who think McCarthy does not go far enough. It has pitted intellectual equals like Greene and Boebert as rivals, and McCarthy needs to woo Boebert without losing Greene in a jealous fit of rage.
Despite being called out by McCarthy, Mitch McConnell endorsed him to be speaker. Of course, McConnell also endorsed Trump after he slurred McConnell's wife, but what else would we expect from someone who voted against legislation that protects his marriage from a Supreme Court ruling? Speaking of Trump, he also threw some political boner pills McCarthy's way, but they are at the least expired, and at best are placebos intended for the controlled group.
If I have adequately described an impotent person trying to appear well-endowed to impress a group of immature drama queens without losing the votes of real Republicans, then I have conveyed my opinion of the situation such that you see it from the same frame of reference that I do. He doesn't have the power to do that which he says he will do unless he can convince 218 representatives to vote for him, and his promises to the radical element of the party may cost him votes from the more reasonable party members.
Though it is more likely that McCarthy will secure enough party votes to eventually get the position, there is another possibility. A Democrat could be elected to be Speaker of the House if they could secure the Democratic vote and five GOP votes. It is doubtful that a Democrat in leadership could secure those votes, but someone like Henry Cuellar might be able to form such a coalition. As weird of a thought as it is, the most Republican-like Democrat in the House might be a reasonable compromise for the job.
Regardless of who fills the shoes vacated by Nancy Pelosi, they will be walking on eggshells in those shoes. Mitch McConnell and Trump both know they will have more control over McCarthy than any other speaker because he will have so many conflicting loyalties to people whose ideologies don't always match up.
For example, Boebert and Greene teamed up to heckle Joe Biden at his first State of the Union address, but now they are split over McCarthy just like they were split on Jewish space lasers starting the California wildfires. Greene described that as "high school drama" for a "soundbite," while at the same time telling a bunch of horny young Republicans that the insurrectionists would have been armed if she had planned it.
Whether McCarthy has the guts to actually block legislation in the House that is popularly passed in the Senate has yet to be seen. The passing of the omnibus spending bill triggered that promise to the radical fools in the Tea Party.
It is certain that he will be powerless to do anything that he had hoped for about the January 6th committee. He is one of four House Republicans who were referred to the Ethics Committee for their failure to cooperate, and the transcripts are in the hands of the public. Whatever damning evidence that will come from the hearings is known and publicly available.
It will be an interesting transition of power in the House early next year. The last time that the Speaker was not elected on the first ballot was in 1923. It took nine votes to get elected, but that pales in comparison to the 133 votes it took to elect the Speaker in 1855.
Things can use a little shaking up every once in a while. Perhaps next year is one of those years.
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