Dem
51
GOP
49
Speaking of people who have an interesting interpretation of what they have been sent to Washington to do, the Freedom Caucus has a new chair. It's Rep. Bob Good (R-VA), who is and was an outspoken enemy of former speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and who was among those FCers who conspired to boot the Californian from his former lofty post.
What are the implications of this change to Good from soon-to-be-former chair Scott Perry (R-PA)? Time will tell, but there are a couple of possibilities that we can see at the moment. First of all, in our experience, people who get a promotion look to hit the ground running, and to make their mark. Given that the budget talks are right around the corner, we could foresee Good taking some pretty extreme positions, so as to make sure everyone knows there's a new sheriff in town. In other words, it's possible that Mike Johnson's already tough headache has just gotten a little achier.
The second is that while the FC is pretty secretive, it's clear there are some cracks in the armor. Several members of the Caucus were not happy about Good's taking over as chair, and at least one of them, Warren Davidson (R-OH), resigned from the board of the group in protest. We don't know exactly what the source of tension is, but we have a pretty good guess. It is very probable that some of them realize they are never going to get someone in the speakership who is more friendly to their ideas than Johnson is, and so want to try to work with him to achieve some of their goals (even if they have to sacrifice others). Others likely remain committed to a hard-right "no compromises" point of view.
Presumably, we'll soon learn if any of this supposition is on target. Remember, however, that with a tiny margin of error, it doesn't take the entire Freedom Caucus to throw a wrench in the works. It just takes three or four of them (depending on how far into the future we're talking about). (Z)