“As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.” —Proverbs 26:11
That was the line conservative political commentator and writer Daniel Horowitz used to begin his accurately titled piece, “Meet the new GOP … same as the old.”
As Horowitz pointed out, the House GOP conference voted Tuesday to overwhelmingly keep either the same leaders as before or offer them promotions. The Senate did the same on Wednesday.
Although establishment Republicans intentionally rushed leadership elections before the entire makeup of the House GOP Conference could be finalized, Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Biggs notably earned some support after he challenged Kevin McCarthy for speaker. The final vote tally was a win for McCarthy, 188-31.
Despite McCarthy winning a clear majority, Horowitz explained that the 31 votes constituted a strong showing for Biggs; his rival is not even close to securing the 218 votes he needs for the Jan. 3 floor vote.
Horowitz alleged that McCarthy and Minority Whip Steve Scalise ironically rose to GOP fame after the party refused to learn a lesson from conservative revolutions against the establishment pre-Trump:
Ironically, McCarthy and Scalise rose to prominence in June 2014 after the GOP failed to learn the lesson from the original conservative revolution against the establishment – even predating Trump. In one of the most shocking upsets of all time, an economics professor with little money knocked off then-Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the Virginia primary for his House seat. Just nine days later, rather than engaging in any introspection, the caucus voted to elevate then-Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy to the position of leader.
He argued that McCarthy and Cantor are essentially the same type of politician bar one major difference — McCarthy is essentially a dumber version of the same thing.
It was back then when former Rep. Raul Labrador attempted to unseat McCarthy from the position with the support of then-Rep. Ron DeSantis.
“Promoting, by acclamation, a member of the very Washington leadership that has failed to bridge the divide with Republicans outside Washington struck me as exactly the wrong response,” Labrador wrote in his letter to the House Republicans.
Labrador has since become the attorney general of Idaho. Meanwhile, the sunny state of Florida is now arguably run by America’s most conservative governor.
Things are even worse in the Senate, claimed Horowitz. A small total of 16 out of 50 Republicans voted to delay the election for Senate majority leader until after the Georgia runoff. An even smaller 10 Republicans support Mitch McConnell’s main challenger, Rick Scott.
Based on these results, one can only conclude that “Democrats enjoy a de facto 90-10 majority in the Senate,” according to Horowitz.
He makes a fair point — check out this video he shared of McConnell telling the media how excited he is to work towards achieving bipartisan victories with White House occupant Joe Biden.
– Grandmas are being arrested for singing at abortion clinics
– Over 1000 political prisoners arrested
– Parents declared domestic terrorists
– Hardly any diesel & exorbitant cost of living
And GOP @LeaderMcConnell leadership wants to work w Biden on infrastructure https://t.co/16JjX9ZfRe
— Rachel Semmel (@rachelsemmel) November 16, 2022
Those interested in reading the full op-ed can do so here.
