With win, GOP gets worse

Unless something dramatic changes in the outside world or Democrats get their act together, House Republicans stand a very good chance of taking power in the midterm elections. This outcome is made only slightly less likely by the fact that the GOP caucus is a dumpster fire of disorganization and infighting.

But consider this: If they do take control, House Republicans will likely only get worse.

Look at North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn, emblematic of the new generation of Republican stars, along with figures such as Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene and Florida’s Matt Gaetz. Cawthorn is spinning on a merry-goround of scandal revelations, whether it’s trying to bring a loaded gun onto a plane or driving with a revoked license, or new allegations of insider trading and salacious video. That’s not even to mention his stories about orgies and coke.

The widespread assumption in Washington, D.C., today is that with the North Carolina primaries coming up, this is an oppo dump by establishment Republicans to rid themselves of Cawthorn once and for all. He may say the right things about the “radical left,” but he’s plainly in it for the celebrity, not the larger right-wing project.

The apparent risk, even as across the country Republicans are banning books and waging primary campaigns in which candidates compete to pledge loyalty to election conspiracy theories, is that a party with too many people like Cawthorn will lose its focus and ability to achieve its goals.

But that die may already be cast. As Politico reports, the House Freedom Caucus, which nurtured the prior generation of GOP extremists, is facing a bit of an identity crisis. When they were formed in 2015, they were the radicals, the purists, the ones willing to burn everything down.

But having devoted themselves entirely to the greater glory of Donald Trump, they now aren’t sure what they stand for. Some of them worry about whether the latest generation of firebrands makes it impossible for the caucus to act in an organized fashion the next time it wants to create a phony administration scandal or shut down the government.

All this will be presided over by California’s Rep. Kevin McCarthy, whose position atop the caucus seems to have been negligibly injured by audiotapes revealing him to have said uncomplimentary things about Donald Trump after the Jan. 6 insurrection. Trump and the caucus were apparently reassured by the fact that McCarthy lied about his comments publicly (take that, liberal media!), and subsequently prostrated himself appropriately before their god-king.

Even though another audiotape from after the insurrection showed McCarthy critical of the loosest cannons in his caucus, his position is not in serious jeopardy. Nevertheless, that position is, to any outside observer, something of a mystery.

He has no apparent charisma or smarts, he’s not a particularly effective communicator, and he’s certainly not a skilled legislator. If he does have a talent, it’s for keeping everyone in his caucus, if not actually happy, at least satisfied enough with his leadership not to turn against him.

But that doesn’t mean he can corral his caucus into anything like concerted action. Compare him to his Senate counterpart, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky. McConnell may not be one for passing legislation, but he’s adept at the art of opposition, and his caucus respects him as a leader and tactician. When he wants them to, Senate Republicans act as one.

Or look at California Democrat and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the most skillful and accomplished legislator in half a century if not longer. There are House Democrats who grumble about her, but when it comes time to pass a bill, they follow her lead because she gets the job done.

McCarthy is neither McConnell’s nor Pelosi’s equal, and if he becomes speaker, his caucus will be even more full of self-aggrandizing extremists than it is now. The idea that they’ll be willing or able to act in concert to carry out strategic plans seems absurd.

Instead, McCarthy will spend a couple of years trying to rein in his collection of blustering buffoons and chaos agents who measure their achievements by the number of Newsmax hits they did last week.

It will be of only marginal comfort to President Biden and the Democrats, who will endure a period that resembles the last two times Republicans took the House, after the 1994 and 2010 elections — except even worse. Hearings more akin to Soviet show trials, phony investigations, insane conspiracy theories, more shutdowns and crises and havoc — that’s what awaits.

Yes, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were both reelected after the country got a good look at what Republicans did with the power they were given. But we had to suffer through an awful lot of unpleasantness along the way. We may be in for it again.