On Republican congressional leadership

Bear in mind that Sen. McConnell kept Judge Merrick Garland off the Supreme Court.TD

Horowitz: It’s past time to replace McConnell and McCarthy as leaders

The most influential form of activism at this point would be for conservatives to call their respective representatives-elect and demand that they support a new leader and publicly declare their opposition to McCarthy. Likewise, all GOP senators should be encouraged to vote for someone other than McConnell for Senate majority leader. Although that vote is private and only among the GOP members, there is no reason why senators should not be forced to go on the record to declare their support or opposition to McConnell.

 Elise Stefanik for House Speaker  "Perhaps Rep. Kevin McCarthy might serve the GOP (and the country) by mediating any difficulties in the relationship between The Donald (Trump) and The Ronald (DeSantis). He is, alas, not the member of Congress to stand up against the demagogic, demonizing campaign that the Democrats will wage against the GOP speaker from January 3, 2023 to January 3, 2025.

"My first choice, reflexively, was Louie Gohmert, until I learned that he wanted to be attorney general of Texas, lost his bid, and is leaving Congress.  Confessing the error of my political ways, Rep. Elise Stefanik, of upstate New York — the third-ranking Republican in the House, now becomes the obvious choice to succeed the execrable Nancy Pelosi.

"Rep. Stefanik, a MAGA Republican, will stand up to the manipulating, conniving, devious, demeaning, and deceptive Democrats who work, without let-up, to make the life of the Speaker miserable. Just consider what the Democrats did to Newt Gingrich, credited with masterminding the great GOP House victory of November 8, 1994 —  remember when elections took place on a single day? After 40 years in the minority, in 1994, the Republicans gained 54 seats to become the House majority with 230 GOPers in the House.". . .

Republican Leadership Worse than Worthless   . . ."But one must wonder if these empty suits, being quite happy with their present position on the D.C. gravy train, even want to win.

"They need to go, replaced by strong people determined to win, but not before getting down on their hands and knees and apologizing to the American people and Republican voters for their staggering incompetence and entrenched determination to fail."

Rep. Andy Biggs expected to launch leadership challenge against Kevin McCarthy  . . ." Biggs has been critical of McCarthy’s leadership in the minority, voicing concerns that the California Republican won’t prioritize issues important to the far-right flank of the party. CNN reported the news of Biggs’s likely bid against McCarthy.

“ 'I think we need to have a real discussion about whether he should be the speaker or not,” Biggs told reporters on Thursday.

“ 'I think that his statement recently that we shouldn't impeach Secretary Mayorkas indicates that maybe we're not going to be as aggressive going forward as we should be. I think we need to have a very positive statement of what we're going to accomplish and do, and I haven't seen that yet,” he added. "That's — those are things that I think we should have a very frank discussion internally about, where we're going to be going forward."

The Republican Leadership Mess  . . ."In the House, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has done nothing to indicate he’s capable of steering the party in a more normal direction — from his voting against certification of electoral votes, to his years of coddling Trump. He is likely to be outmaneuvered by Nancy Pelosi whether Republicans are narrowly in the majority or narrowly in the minority. Mitch McConnell has delivered a lot more for Republicans over the years than McCarthy. Were it not for him, not as many conservative judges would have been confirmed and Democrats would have accomplished more when in power. He also did the right thing when it counted, on January 6. See, too, our editorial on why he is not to blame for Republican losses this year. That said, leading the Senate Republicans is not a lifetime position. McConnell is 80 years old and at some point in the near future, the party is going to have to figure out a succession plan. Whoever wins the leadership roles, they aren’t going to have much of any power in the next two years. Republicans will be in the minority in the Senate, and in the House, even if they end up eking it out, their margin will be so small that the GOP leader will practically have to be asking Marjorie Taylor Greene for permission to take a bathroom break. So really, this leadership fight is setting things up for Republicans’ next chance to retake full control of Washington in 2024.". . .