McCarthy faces possible floor fight in speaker bid as conservatives rally around Webster

The conservative House Freedom Caucus announced Wednesday that it would back Rep. Daniel Webster to be the next speaker, which would provide enough support to the Republican conference to deny the position to establishment favorite Kevin McCarthy, the current majority leader.

Emerging from a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill, conservative lawmakers pledged to present a united front in support of Mr. Webster, Florida Republican, signaling that the same rift in the conference that forced Speaker John A. Boehner to resign would continue to roil the largest Republican majorities in the House since the 1920s.

Members of the Freedom Caucus, led by Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, said they would force an embarrassing floor fight in the speaker election unless the House Republican conference adopts rules that would diffuse some of the power of the leadership team and give more input to rank-and-file members.

“Our intention is to go to the floor unless real changes are made,” said Rep. Raul R. Labrador, an Idaho Republican and member of the Freedom Caucus.

Mr. McCarthy is expected to garner a majority of support when the House Republican conference casts secret ballots Thursday for speaker. But with more than 30 conservatives opposing him, the California Republican would fall short of the 218 votes needed to win a floor vote scheduled for Oct. 29.

Mr. McCarthy, who already faces opposition from conservatives because of his role on Mr. Boehner’s leadership team, sabotaged his run last week when he boasted on Fox News that the Select Committee on Benghazi was responsible for the falling poll numbers of Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton. The flub gave fresh ammunition to Mrs. Clinton and her Democratic allies, who have long complained that the inquiry is a partisan witch hunt.

This was posted on FB by my Congressman Mr. Jeff Duncan earlier this evening"

While my main focus over the past several days has been on the people of South Carolina as we recover from this horrible tragedy, there's also an important leadership election tomorrow for Speaker of the House. There have been quite a few accusations thrown around since Speaker Boehner's announced resignation so I thought I would respond to them in this open letter:

. To Whom it May Concern,

I have been called a lot of things since I was elected to Congress. Hardhead, chucklehead, and a version of chicken manure come to mind. But now there is "false prophet."

Look at what the House Republicans put together in 2010 during the quest to gain the majority in the US House of Representatives. Known as the "Pledge to America," the document crafted by John Boehner and company told America how the House Republicans would govern once entrusted with control. In light of recent comments, one has to wonder if that was false prophecy?

The "preamble" to this Pledge states: "An arrogant and out-of-touch government of self-appointed elites makes decisions, issues mandates, and enacts laws without accepting or requesting input of the many." I will leave that there for the readers' own evaluation.

Let's look at the reasons as to why I, and other conservative legislators, have been labeled “false prophets.” We asked that American government actually cut spending - real spending - which was necessitating the country’s need to borrow money. In the spring of 2011, we had our first real opportunity with HR 1. We were told that Congress would cut $100 Billion from government spending (once again, refer to the Pledge) but the actual real dollars cut amounted to only $38.5 Billion. False prophecy?

America has seen its debt burgeoning in the last 15 years. The Members of the 2010 Class, which helped the GOP gain the majority, began questioning the debt ceiling increase. We wanted to see real reforms to government spending as well as a plan to present to our creditors, the credit rating agencies and the American people, of how we would change the areas of government spending which necessitated borrowing in the first place - the real drivers of our deficits and debt. Detractors said we wanted the nation to default on our debt. Nothing could be further from the truth. We did, however, want to see a real reform effort by the GOP controlled House to rein in government spending. The credit rating agencies did as well saying in June of that year that a failure to do just that would result in a downgrade, regardless of us raising the debt ceiling. The debt ceiling was raised. Our bond rating went down, and the President's sequester kicked in later that year. Instead of using a scalpel to make targeted cuts, end duplication and eliminate waste, Congress took a chainsaw to the budget with across-the-board cuts that hurt our national defense.

In return for our efforts in asking for a plan to show the American people that we were serious about reining in spending and paying down our debt at some point in the future, conservatives were called chicken manure. (Well, the vulgar version of that euphemism that I won't print but you get the picture).

The Pledge to America also mentions the repeal of Obamacare. Efforts to do this via a Continuing Resolution in 2013 led to a shutdown. Conservatives were blamed for the shutdown although many of those who are blamed were not in Congress when the Pledge, which included the repeal of Obamacare, was written many of us just wanted to use the one point of leverage the Constitution gives us - the power of the purse - to affect a repeal and/or change to Obamacare. We are called the "Shutdown Caucus" now, but nobody I know advocated for a shutdown - just for House Republicans to actually fight for its past pledges to the American people using the tools in our tool chest.

We were called "chuckleheads" but the end result was a larger majority in the House and control of the US Senate. Barack Obama then issued his Executive Memo on amnesty in November, after the House had completed its reorganization and anointed its leadership team for the 114th Congress. Upon learning of the Executive Memo, Speaker Boehner vowed to fight this amnesty move by the President "tooth and nail." The Leadership had just vowed a couple of months earlier, in September, as they crafted a CR set to expire December 11th during a Lame-Duck period for the Senate Democrats like Harry Reid, that the CR would give us an opportunity to fight the President on his amnesty action which was anticipated after the November elections.

There was no "tooth and nail" fight at a time when we had ALL of government funding at our disposal when the CROmnibus was crafted. Leadership chose the DHS funding for USCIS as the ground to fight on, only to capitulate when pundits said that the national security would be at risk if we failed to fund that portion of DHS which processes the illegal aliens now being granted legal status by the President.

America was expecting the GOP led Congress to fight the fundamental transformation of our nation by Barack Obama and his minions. When we use terms like "tooth and nail" it conveys an understanding to the people that a line has been drawn over a core conviction. When you make a pledge that you are going to allow 72 hours for the American people to weigh in on legislation that will profoundly affect them and their families, you should live up to it. Call conservatives in Congress all of the names you desire. We are listening to the American people and trying to ensure that the Republican Conference lives up to the promises and principles of the Party.

Sincerely,

Hardhead

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