It never was in doubt ….
The holdout Freedom Caucus Rightwingnuts made the guy twist and turn….
Working the job is gonna be interesting ….
The report is he made a LOT of promises…
We’ll see what he can stick to…..
Governing will be a balancing act between his own people and the Democrats , who he will probably need to get anything done…
Faillure to do so could hurt his party going forward from now thru the 2024 elections….
And the 2023 US House of Representives 118 session IS now offically started….
Including NY GOP Rep. George Santos…..
Representative Kevin McCarthy of California won election early Saturday as House speaker in a historic five-day, 15-ballot floor fight, after giving major concessions to right-wing holdouts and weathering a dramatic late-night setback that underscored the limits of his power over the new Republican majority.
Mr. McCarthy clawed his way to victory by cutting a deal that won over a sizable contingent of ultraconservative lawmakers on the 12th and 13th votes earlier in the day, and then wearing down the remaining holdouts in a tense session that dragged on past midnight, ultimately winning with a bare majority, after a spectacle of arm-twisting and rancor on the House floor.
The protracted fight foreshadowed how difficult it would be for him to govern with an exceedingly narrow majority and an unruly hard-right faction bent on slashing spending and disrupting business in Washington. The speakership struggle that crippled the House before it had even opened its session suggested that basic tasks such as passing government funding bills or financing the federal debt would prompt epic struggles over the next two years.
Yet Mr. McCarthy, who was willing to endure vote after humiliating vote and give in to an escalating list of demands from his opponents to secure the post, denied that the process foretold any dysfunction….
image…McCarthy swears in members of the 118th Congress….Alex Brandon/AP