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| House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., speaks in Washington, Monday, Sept. 28, 2015. McCarthy announced Monday his candidacy for House Speaker, replacing the outgoing John Boehner |
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- A chaotic scramble is on to fill the top GOP jobs in the House
following Speaker John Boehner's surprise resignation. Now the same
conservatives who pushed him out are maneuvering to yank the next
leadership team to the right.
The frenzied
action under the Capitol Dome will help determine how Congress contends
with upcoming battles on keeping the government running and avoiding a
federal default - and whether Republicans can take back the White House
next year.
Boehner's announcement Friday
shocked nearly everyone, opening a rare chance for ambitious lawmakers
to climb the congressional ladder and for competing factions to exert
new sway as an anti-establishment fever sweeps GOP politics.
The
front-runner for the speaker's job, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy,
made his candidacy official Monday in a letter to fellow GOP lawmakers
in which he pledged to fight for conservative principles and listen to
all members - something Boehner was accused of failing to do.
"If
elected speaker, I promise you that we will have the courage to lead
the fight for our conservative principles and make our case to the
American people," McCarthy wrote. "But we will also have the wisdom
to
listen to our constituents and each other so that we always move forward
together."
McCarthy, a Californian in his
fifth term, has been endorsed by Boehner. But he faces an opponent in
Rep. Daniel Webster, a former speaker of the House in Florida who
unsuccessfully challenged Boehner at the beginning of this year and has
drawn some conservative support. "I would like to have a principle-based
member-driven Congress," Webster said in an interview.
And
McCarthy's likely ascent leaves the race for majority leader wide open.
It's quickly turned into a rough-and-tumble contest with the No. 3
House Republican, Steve Scalise of Louisiana, jockeying aggressively
against the Budget Committee chairman, Tom Price of Georgia - and more
candidates potentially waiting in the wings.
The
No. 4 House Republican, Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, opted out
of the contest late Monday after spending the day looking for support.
"The best way right now for me to empower my colleagues through positive
change is to remain Conference chair," she said.
The
others are jockeying to lock down support as the Capitol swirls in
chatter about endorsements. One seen as significant: Former Vice
Presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan announced his decision to endorse
Price on Monday.
The House's tea partyers,
some three dozen strong, aren't fielding a candidate. But they want to
see leaders who will take the fight to President Barack Obama and the
Democrats, not compromise with them as the realities of divided
government led Boehner to do. Some of them question whether McCarthy,
who's seen more as a political operator than an ideologue, would deliver
that new approach.
"I don't see how members
of the Freedom Caucus can vote for Kevin McCarthy and go home to their
town halls and tell them that things will be different now," said Rep.
Thomas Massie, R-Ky.
Boehner's decision to
step down rather than face a nearly unprecedented floor vote to depose
him averted immediate crisis, as the Senate on Monday easily approved
legislation to keep the government running, and the House was scheduled
to follow suit before a Thursday deadline. Despite conservatives'
demands, the bill will not cut off money for Planned Parenthood in the
wake of videos focused on the group's practice of providing fetal
tissues for research.
But the bill merely
extends the government funding deadline until Dec. 11, when another
shutdown showdown will loom as conservatives make new demands on
Boehner's successor and on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
A
special House Republican meeting was scheduled for Tuesday evening to
discuss the way forward. Conservatives on and off Capitol Hill served
notice that they would not settle on the status quo from their leaders
even as Democrats and some more moderate members warn the result could
be more crisis and gridlock.
"At the end of
the day the reason John Boehner is stepping down is there are a lot of
members in his conference who couldn't go home and defend him as
speaker," said Dan Holler of Heritage Action for America. "Those members
are going to have to go home and defend the new leadership team, and
they'll have to be comfortable telling their constituents why the new
leadership team is better than the old."
