Pauly Denetclaw
ICT
On Mean Girls Day no less, U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy was ousted as speaker, a first for Congress. After a contentious nine months, House Republicans are once again going to attempt to elect a new speaker. The House won’t elect a new speaker until next Tuesday after the candidates forum.
“I think this is an extraordinarily irresponsible thing to do,” Rep. Tom Cole said in his weekly video address on Wednesday.
The speaker pro tempore is North Carolina’s Patrick McHenry, who was selected by McCarthy.
Both Indigenous House Republicans from Oklahoma, Tom Cole, Chickasaw, and Josh Brecheen, Choctaw, opposed the vote to remove McCarthy. Rep. Sharice Davids of Kansas, Ho-Chunk, voted with 207 of her Democratic colleagues to remove McCarthy. Just eight Republicans joined them, giving the minority party the votes.
“It took eight Republicans and every Democrat, you don’t know what’s next, you basically have created a chaotic situation,” Cole said in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday. “Now we’re gonna have to sort through that.”
Matt Gaetz, R-Florida, introduced the motion to vacate McCarthy. While it’s not the first time the House has considered removing the speaker, it is the first time such a motion was successful.
“Let me say up front, obviously, I supported Kevin McCarthy as speaker,” Cole said. “So did 96 percent of all the Republicans in Congress. There was only 4 percent that linked up with every Democrat and that voted first against a motion to table the resolution to remove the speaker and then to actually remove the speaker himself. Very dramatic.”
“The majority of the 20 of us that challenged Speaker McCarthy and the Washington status quo back in January see this Motion to Vacate resolution as ill-timed,” Brecheen said in a social media post. “We’re in a 40 day fight with Joe Biden and Senate Democrats over funding of the government before another government shutdown. The Motion to Vacate will scatter Republicans and weaken our leverage as we try to cut spending and secure our border.”
The 12 appropriation bills have a deadline of Nov. 17 or there will be another government shutdown.
The 2018 Farm Bill has lapsed and no continuing resolution has been passed. Funding will run out by the end of this year. The Farm Bill is one of, if not, the most important spending bill for tribal nations. The States Newsroom reported that the bill is possibly months from being ready to vote and even if it could there are only some 25 voting days left on the House calendar for this year.
“I definitely think that the fissures within the Republican caucus were exposed for all of America yesterday and it became clear that the ability to govern in their own caucus is practically impossible,” Holly Cook Macarro, ICT’s regular political pundit, said Wednesday. “What we’re really seeing today is a result of deals cut on day one, when he (McCarthy) passed a rules package very much catering and empowering the far right wing of the Republican Party.”
McCarthy agreed to change the rule for the motion to vacate. It allowed any one member of the House to bring the motion up for vote, which is what happened Tuesday.
“I think there are really experienced legislative leaders in the Republican caucus, like (Steve) Scalise, like Tom Emmer, like Indian Country’s own, Tom Cole, but what is really the problem is the set of rules that the party passed on day one,” Cook Macarro said. “Before McCarthy could become speaker, he had to agree to a set of rules that empowered, that allowed, one member to bring a motion to vacate.”
Related: Explaining House Republicans … ‘the Sharice Davids’ factor
Previously, it would have taken a consensus among a political party and the support of either the majority or minority leader to bring a motion to vacate to the House floor.
One of those in support of the McCarthy rule change was Brecheen.
Brecheen was one of 20 Republicans to repeatedly vote against McCarthy in January, leading to the second longest speaker election in history. At the time Brecheen stated McCarthy wouldn’t be able to curb outlandish government spending.
On the other hand, Cole, the longest serving Indigenous member of Congress, had unwavering support for the California Republican.
“Speaker McCarthy can not only be credited for delivering this Republican majority but has also delivered on his commitments to the American people,” Cole said in a press release. “He has been an instrumental leader to our conference, and because of him, House Republicans have advanced policies that would secure the border, restore American energy dominance and rebuild the economy. He had my full support in January, and he has my full support now.”
ICT has reached out to Cole’s office for an interview.
The top contenders for speaker of the House include majority leader Steve Scalise, Ohio congressman Jim Jordan, and Kevin Hern from Oklahoma. Noticeably not among them is Cole, despite being a well-qualified candidate.
It absolutely will not be me,” Cole told Fox News Tuesday evening. “Honestly, I want to hear what the speaker has to say that will influence whatever I do, but I don’t have any plans under any circumstances of running for speaker.”
Cole has repeatedly squashed inquiries over the last decade about whether or not he would run for speaker. It begs the question: Why?
Cole is widely considered the top GOP political strategist. He has held key roles in the National Republican Congressional Committee and is currently chair of the Rules Committee, one of the most powerful committees in Congress.
He is co-chair of the Congressional Native American Caucus. While his work isn’t primarily focused on tribal nations, he has supported bipartisan legislation important to federally recognized tribes. Meaning he knows how to work across the aisle.
“There’s nothing I would like to see more than Tom Cole as Speaker of the House in this Republican majority,” Cook Macarro said. “Congressman Cole is well-liked and respected on both sides of the aisle and has a demonstrated track record of bipartisanship and a successful legislator. He has, however, shut down any idea of running for speaker and probably because of the circus we saw yesterday.”
This time around Cole has spoken highly of Scalise, Jordan and Hern, who are all running for speaker.
“Steve Scalise, who is the Republican majority leader, (a) well known figure some of you may remember, he was a person that was shot by leftist demonstrators in a congressional baseball game practice a number of years ago. Much to the surprise of everybody he came back, is running,” Cole said. “So is Jim Jordan, who is a very capable guy. Our chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Kevin Hern, in our state, is looking at it and would be a fine, fine speaker, no question about it. So we’ve got at least three good candidates.”
As for the eight Republicans who voted with Democrats, Cole had some tough critique.
“Frankly, I think that the people who did this, and the Democrats who cooperated with Republicans who did this, it was a Republican member that filed the bill, have been extraordinarily irresponsible and they’ve put the functioning of the government at risk,” Cole said. “Again, all these people that did this said they’re conservative. They’re not really conservatives. In my view, real conservatives play by the rules. And the rules are when a speaker wins the conference nomination, you support the speaker of your party on the floor, and you protect them from moves like these folks launched.”
The journey to a new speaker is still up in the air and a lot can change in a day. The vote for a new speaker will take place next Tuesday.
“I think Indian Country would greatly benefit if Tom Cole decided to throw his hat in and who knows, right?” Cook Macarro said. “We don’t know if anyone can get elected in this atmosphere. But Tom Cole could be a consensus candidate. Let’s all cross our fingers.”
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