Amash for Speaker

Since the the Speakership is now vacant again, I republish here my Common Sense column from Lake Champlain Weekly, December 21st 2022.

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Representative Kevin McCarthy won 188 votes to be the Republican Party’s nominee for Speaker. He needs 218 to be elected. This is not unprecedented. Rep. Nancy Pelosi faced some opposition from within her caucus two years ago. Once a party has selected its candidate, a majority of those who preferred someone else rally round the Party’s nominee. But McCarthy needs near unanimous support from his caucus to be elected, and several members of Congress have said they will never support him. With 222 Republicans, his position is slightly stronger than Pelosi’s was two years ago, when Democrats had 220 seats, but the internal opposition to him may be more intransigent.

If no one wins a majority of those voting there will be further ballots. In 1856 it took two months and 133 ballots to elect Nathaniel P. Banks.

The Democrats could choose to help out if they wanted. Democratic Representatives could decide to abstain on a ballot, allowing McCarthy to win with fewer than 218 votes. This is improbable unless McCarthy makes concessions to them in the running of the House, and this could alienate a larger group within his own caucus.

Democrats could unite with a group of disaffected Republicans to choose a Speaker they find more amenable. But unless some permanent realignment of power takes place, the Speaker would then have to lead a caucus which did not support him.

There is potentially some common ground between McCarthy’s Republican critics and the Democrats. The House Freedom Caucus – though often characterized as very conservative – thinks the management of the House is too centralized and individual members should have the ability to bring forward legislation without it being blocked by the leadership. Democrats may not necessarily prefer that as a general model, but would probably support it in the specific context of Republican control, especially with a very small Republican majority.

The Constitution does not require the Speaker to be a member of the House. In the wildest fantasies of some supporters of ex-President Trump, the House will elect him as Speaker, and then Congress will remove both President Biden and Vice-President Harris from office. This is effectively impossible, given the political balance of Congress.

But former Representative Justin Amash (R, then Libertarian, MI) has offered his name as a non-partisan Speaker. He has promised the sort of decentralization which the Freedom Caucus (of which he was a founding member) advocates, and which is presently convenient to Democrats.

Democrats should prefer a Libertarian to a Republican on policy grounds, and Republicans would prefer him to a Democrat. So, is this a real possibility?

Sadly, no. Restoring a degree of independence from partisan management to the House would be a good thing. It would improve the standing of the House in the country and help restore the separation of powers. In recent decades Congress has seen its main job as either uncritically supporting or mindlessly opposing the executive. The executive has seen one of its main jobs as being to propose legislation, something which should originate with Congress.

But neither main party wants a third party holding senior office. It would make future elections less predictable, and that is anathema to incumbents.

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Quentin Langley lives in New York and teaches at Fordham University and Manhattan College. His book, Business and the Culture of Ethics was published in September 2020

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