McCarthy is finally Speaker. But he's not weak like you think. Now he can deploy the 'crazy boss' strategy

Stop the pearl-clutching, my fellow Republicans. This drama over the House speakership is the best thing that could have happened. 

Well, maybe not the best thing: that would have been a 30–vote Republican majority in the House.  That would have stopped the Democrat’s big spending, radical leftist agenda dead in its tracks. That would have let the Speaker of the House to tell Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to pound sand. But the supermajority didn’t happen.  

So, House Republicans need to change tactics. Senate Majority Leader Schumer is no longer Speaker McCarthy’s biggest obstacle. It’s now his Republican counterpart on the other side of the Capitol –Senate Minority Leader and profligate spender, Mitch McConnell. 

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In the past, McConnell’s idea of leadership has been to give the Democrats most of what they want, especially when it comes to budget-busting, pork barrel legislation. For the last two years, he’s joined with Senate Democrats and former Speaker Pelosi to pass the Biden agenda. 

He will no doubt try and pressure the new Republican Speaker to do the same, in the interests of “bipartisanship” and “compromise.”  

That’s what has those 20 or so House Republicans and the Freedom Caucus worried. They don’t think compromise means giving Democrats what they want, especially when it comes to out-of-control spending.  Now that Republicans finally have the majority, they want a strong Speaker who will stand up and fight against the Swamp.

At first glance, McCarthy’s tortuous path to Speakership looks to diminish his ability to be that strong leader. But if he’s smart, he can turn that razor-thin majority to his advantage in negotiations with the Senate, and even with the White House. He can employ what I call the “crazy boss” strategy.

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To get elected Speaker, McCarthy was forced to accept to a slew of changes in how the House governs itself. Most involve reducing the dictatorial powers of the Speaker and giving it back to individual congressmen. 

Under the new rules, a handful of House Republicans can hold the Speaker accountable, especially if he tries to push through budget-busting bills riddled with pork barrel spending, or leave on the southern border unprotected, or embrace Green New Deal fanaticism, or hire 87,000 IRS agents. 

The criticism of McCarthy has always been that he lacks the backbone to stand up to the big spenders in the GOP, that he will cave to pressure from the Swamp Creatures. 

Now he doesn’t need a backbone. Thanks to the Freedom Caucus, his back is up against the wall.  He can’t go along to get along with McConnell and Democrats and survive as Speaker.  And everybody knows it. It’s potentially the most powerful tool in McCarthy’s toolbox.   

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Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger used the “crazy boss” strategy with his North Vietnamese counterpart in negotiating the end of the Vietnam War.  We used it in the Trump administration as a tool to pressure recalcitrant allies.

A negotiator can point to his “crazy boss” as the reason why he can’t agree to the other’s side’s demands. “My boss will never agree to this; if I even suggest it, he’s likely to do something really crazy.”  

The crazier the boss seems, the more credible the threat.  The drama over the speakership has left no doubt in anyone’s mind that a handful of congressmen would plunge House into another battle over leadership, rather than meekly accept Democrats’ demands.

The House holdouts have just become Speaker McCarthy’s “crazy boss.”

Most pundits will claim his protracted fight to be Speaker has damaged McCarthy, and he won’t have the muscle needed to bring his fellow Republicans in line. But they’re missing the point. 

The American people don’t want business as usual.  They want leaders who will stand up to the Swamp and do what is in the best interests of the people, not the career politicians. 

The tortuous way McCarthy was elected has given him an unexpected opportunity to be that leader.  

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All he has to do is point to his “crazy bosses,” those 20 or so House Republicans, and then refuse to budge.  

Whether McCarthy seizes that opportunity is up to him.  If he doesn’t, he will be one of the most short-lived Speakers in history.

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