Speaker drama: Breaking stuff is the point, and Bannon's in the middle of it

The most surprising thing about the current state of affairs in the House of Representatives — the inability of the majority party to settle on a winning House Speaker candidate — is that anyone is surprised at all. 

What we’re witnessing from the far-right #NeverKevin caucus has been the plan for some time; it’s just that too many political journalists and commentators too easily dismiss or ignore the utterances of political figures deemed “fringe” by the mainstream – regardless of the power held by those supposedly fringe players. 

You might think that given the prominent role played by former White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon in fomenting and organizing the insurrection whose two-year anniversary we mark today, political journos might pay more attention to what he’s saying to the MAGA crowd every day, but you’d be wrong. And you might surmise that major right-wing events such as the Conservative Political Action Conference might draw the interest of people tasked with covering U.S. politics writ large, but those folks are few in number when names with which they are unfamiliar or dismissive take the stage. Yet that’s where the business really happens. 

In Dallas last August, Steve Bannon and Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., met on CPAC’s radio row for an episode of Bannon’s “War Room” podcast. There they promised to halt any attempt by Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., to assume the speakership, unless the GOP leader pledged “to investigate the origins of COVID-19 and allegations of voter fraud,” according to reporter Cheryl Teh, writing for Insider. 

“If anyone posits to be the leader of our party and our movement, they cannot stand for the swamp, and the establishment, and the bureaucratic permanent state," Gaetz said "They have to stand with us in exposing these issues. And if Kevin McCarthy will not allow us to be able to find out the answers, he should not be the leader of the Republican conference." 

When Bannon suggested the name of Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, for speaker, the crowd gathered at the War Room booth’s rope line roared its approval for the hyperbolic, disruptive cofounder of the GOP Freedom Caucus. To this day, Gaetz has led the opposition of his 19 compatriots to McCarthy’s bid for speaker. During the second and twelfth rounds of voting for the House speaker position on January 3 and 6, respectively, Gaetz obliged by nominating Jordan (who himself nominated McCarthy, perhaps going for an uncharacteristically humble look, or maybe in exchange for a promised goody). 

Another steadfast McCarthy opponent is Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., who won her last race with a narrow margin. (In the 12th round of voting today, Boebert nominated Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla.) On the CPAC stage in August, Boebert added to Gaetz’s demands, saying that any candidate for speaker must agree to secure the Southern border and prosecute Anthony Fauci, then the president’s advisor on the COVID-19 pandemic. (She did not specify for what Fauci should be prosecuted.)  

“And any member of Congress, from the upcoming freshman class to the leadership, who won’t fight with me to end medical tyranny, secure the Southern border, expel Anthony Fauci, they will not have my support — not in the election, and certainly not for speaker,” Boebert shouted. It was not clear from what jurisdiction or position or institution she planned to expel Fauci. 

But clarity is not the point, nor are the specific demands made by members of the #NeverKevin caucus. Destruction is the point. What Politico, in an overblown headline, called “Republican ingenuity” is simply norm-breaking for the sake of breaking more stuff. 

That Bannon is something of a ringleader here should be a big-ass, ginormous clue. Busting stuff up is his go-to strategy — his only strategy, really. Be it the European Union or the Republican Party, Bannon’s approach is the same. Cue the sledge hammer. 

If your aim is to claim and gain power in the quickest possible way, smashing big things to smithereens is the way to go. You just need to be willing to hurt a whole lot of people; it’s not hard to imagine that #NeverKevins like Bannon and the almost-NeverKevin Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., who spoke at an event convened by the white supremacist Nick Fuentes, might find that a deeply satisfying exercise. (Gosar came around to voting for McCarthy in the 12th round, as one of 14 new votes the speaker candidate picked up in that spin.) 

But it wasn’t just the journos and other members of the chattering classes who have been caught off-guard by the prolonged path to the speakership. As #NeverKevin Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ky., told Bannon on the Jan. 4 episode of War Room, “The problem is, when we sit down with (the pro-McCarthy side) and explain, ‘Well, O.K., we want someone other than Kevin, they didn’t believe that.’”

While Biggs and a handful of others may choose to never vote for McCarthy, it’s probable that more of the formerly robust #NeverKevin caucus will fold (see Gosar, above) in a subsequent round(s), any speakership won by McCarthy won’t have nearly enough power to exact party discipline and govern.  

 Having held up all legislative work as the U.S. faces another debt-ceiling deadline, and deeply weakened any power that McCarthy might have had as speaker before he traded it away for the gavel, the so-called #NeverKevins may become #AllRightKevins. After all, it’s reported that they’ve been promised the biggest prize of all for their votes — an overhaul of the House rules that’s more to their liking, accruing more power to individual members. And you know what these folks like to do with rules. 

 Cue the bulldozer; there’s a House to be broken.