For Republicans, last week began with ecstasy and ended with agony, as factions within the party began to turn on each other.
The high point for the GOP was when Glenn Youngkin (R) defeated Terry McAuliffe (D) in the Virginia gubernatorial election. For a while, it even looked as if the incumbent Democratic governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy, might also be ousted by a GOP challenger, but Murphy managed to squeak out a narrow victory.
And then, as Aaron Blake of the Washington Post notes, came Friday, and for most of the day it appeared House Democrats might not have the votes to pass President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure package. But something odd happened: Republicans in the House failed to hold all of their members to vote against the Biden bill:
Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill passed late Friday night and is headed for his signature after months of intense wrangling over the details — particularly whether it would be tied to a larger spending plan that progressives insisted upon passing alongside it. But in the end it wasn’t really those progressives who provided the key votes, but rather the 13 Republicans. The final vote count was 228 to 206, meaning if no Republicans had voted for the bill, it wouldn’t have passed.
Those 13 defections may have all but sealed the fate of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), especially if Republicans manage to retake the majority in the 2022 midterm elections.
The sniping began immediately after the infrastructure bill passed with GOP support, and the right-wing of the party wasn’t shy about expressing their disgust:
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) issued a statement which read in part:
“That 13 House Republicans provided the votes needed to pass this is absurd.”
The ever-histrionic Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) went on a tweet storm, threatening to do everything but call down a plague of frogs and locusts on the nation:
Keep in mind that McCarthy clearly misread what was building inside the House GOP caucus, saying earlier this week that he expected the infrastructure was doomed to failure:
While McCarthy previously kept his powder dry on whipping against the bill, he ultimately pushed for his members to vote against it. As recently as last week, McCarthy said, “I don’t expect few, if any, to vote for it, if it comes to the floor today.” In another interview, he was asked about the infrastructure bill and said, “It will fail.”
It did not fail. McCarthy and the GOP leadership did. And that alone tells you Republicans are in disarray. That doesn’t bode well for their plans to retake the majority a year from now.
Oh, and there’s also a human infrastructure bill headed down the tracks. It could come up for a vote as soon as next week.
The downfall of Kevin McCarthy, meanwhile, is almost complete.