Eight Man Football in the US House

When will the House recover from this?

Growing up in rural Oklahoma, one of the smallest team sports in the state was eight-man football. It was the smallest league of the smallest towns and schools in the most remote areas of the state. Towns like Canton, population 625 in rural Blaine County, or Weleetka, population 806. They don’t get a lot of attention in the state’s major media, but they’re for real.

Those towns are about the same size my home town of Washington, OK, but the reigning division 2A state champions there play 11-man football. There are some nine divisions in the football-crazy Sooner state, plus the independent 8-man league.

A version of eight-man - make that, eight-person - football was also played in the US House of Representatives last week. A small team of eight Republicans teamed up with every House Democrat - salivating at the internacine warfare on display - to throw the US House into chaos at a critical juncture by removing Kevin McCarthy as Speaker. That hasn’t been done before, and I’m still waiting on word of what the renegades’ plans are going forward, other than sending out desperate fundraising appeals, such as the one I received last night.

Major investigations of a President - an impeachment inquiry - is well underway, with evidence mounting that he and his family took bribes for official actions. The southern border is open and chaos along with an estimated 7-8 million migrants are descending upon and overwhelming communities across the nation. Violent crime is up in major cities, and spreading fast. And as usual, Congress is woefully behind on doing its basic job of funding the government. It hasn’t passed a budget on time in 40 years.

What was the argument for dumping Speaker Kevin McCarthy? That he failed to keep his promises. He failed - all by himself, apparently - to ensure that all 13 major appropriation bills were enacted on time reflecting a conservative agenda, and not centralize power and “rule by CR,” or those pesky continuing resolutions and “omnibus” approrpriation bills famously used most recently by former Democratic Speaker Nance Pelosi.

Republicans should instead be focusing on Joe Biden’s broken promises and outright falsehoods.

Do they not see the rank hyprocrisy? Do you? Do they not understand the legislative process as envisioned by our framers? Do they not understand the fundamental difference between being one of 100 US Senators versus one of 435 in a majoritarian House?

What I don’t get is that the same 8-person demolition squad that blamed the speaker for 1) not passing appropriation bills and 2) working with Democrats to get a short-term “continuing resolution” passed to avoid a ridiculous and disruptive government “shutdown” were the very people opposing conservative appropriation bills. They even opposed a national defense reauthorization act. Twice.

And, they teamed with a unified Democratic caucus to unseat the Speaker. Eight “Republicans” and a unified block of 213 Democrats. Who are the RINOs (Republicans in Name Only)?

The real leverage here isn’t the 8-person demolition squad, but the 200-plus Democratic Caucus. Who thinks the remaining 214 or so House Republicans who played as a team this week wants to work with the 8-person squad? I wouldn’t.

McCarthy gave the recalitrant eight just about everything they wanted. An impeachment inquiry. Support for real spending cuts in appropriations bills, beyond what he agree to with Democrats in a debt limit extention earlier this year. McCarthy even helped fund many of their campaigns, raising and investing $62.5 million in the 2022 elections to help make the majority possible. The demolition squad rejected it all.

It isn’t just Speaker McCarthy who goes away. So does his massive and highly impressive political operation. Who is going to fill that void?

If you really want to know who is happy about what happened this week in the US House, it is not the uber conservative House Freedom Caucus. Most of their members voted against the motion to vacate, including one of its leaders, US Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) and even it’s most recent chair, Scott Perry (R-PA).

I attended an off the record event about a year ago featuring House Freedom Caucus leaders. When asked how big of a majority they wanted the GOP to win - back when it looked at is they might win a large majority - one said “We want a very small majority.” He believed it would give them the leverage they needed to drive their agenda. A member of Team Gaetz, US Rep. and failed former US Senate candidate Matt Rosendale (R-MT) parroted that this week.

File that under “be careful what you wish for.“

The real story here is how House Democrats quickly coalesced behing Gaetz’s gambit. They knew exactly what they were doing, consistent with the “team sport” philosophy that has always guided successful legislative campaigns. Unity gives them power, and power is what the House Democratic Caucus is all about.

They know that Gaetz and his 8-person demolition squad would draw media attention away from real issues - Biden family corruption and the literal invasion of our southern border - to GOP disarray and disfunction in the one part of government they controlled. Until this week.

As a former House (7 years) and Senate staffer (5 years), not including work on both House and Senate GOP campaigns, I quickly learned the difference between the chambers. In the Senate, one person can act alone to block anything. In the House, it takes numbers and teamwork. That’s why members gather into caucuses to merge their efforts. There is success in numbers. That’s why Senators, with minor exceptions, don’t create dozens of “caucuses” as they do in the House.

Matt Gaetz, his demolition derby, and his Democratic-supported gambit doesn’t turn that on its head - it confirms it. Gaetz may not realize it, but he’s wearing a blue jersey on the field now. He’s done more to advance a Democratic majority after the next than any of their members, individually or collectively, have done.

Of course, Gaetz and his clown show are proving, just as the proverbial dog that finally catches the car, that they have no plan on what to do next. Have you heard one? Of course not, because it never existed. Matt says it’s all because he wants to “change America.” That reminds me of the infamous Vietnam War canard, “it became necessary to destroy the town to save it.” How did that work out, ultimately?

Democrats clearly have a strategy. And Matt played right into their hands.

Maybe Gaetz and crew have never played a team sport. You know your role, you share a unified mission, you celebrate others’ efforts and achievements, follow your coach’s instructions and keep disagreements in the lockroom. Save the finger pointing until after the season is over (post-election). Every successful football team scores through a series of incremental gains, learning from the occasional loss of yards that inevitably come.

Every 8-man high school football team in rural Oklahoma knows that.

Some, such at former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA), are suggesting that Gaetz and others be removed from the House Republican Conference and with it, their committee memberships. That may feel good, but you still need 218 votes to elect a Speaker of the House. Actions like that don’t help. Remember, politics is a numbers game, and addition is usually a better way to win than substraction.

So congratulations, future Speaker Hakeem Jeffries and his Democratic colleagues. You won the week. You won big. And you have your useful idiots, Matt Gaetz and seven others, to thank. You must find it hard to believe your luck. House Committee chairs Jim Jordan (R-OH), Jim Comer (R-KY) and others doing real work better act quickly, because they’re now likely to lose their gavels come early January 2025. What America sees this week is a Republican majority that couldn’t run a two-car funeral, much less an eight-man football team. Or the House of Representatives.

Can the House GOP recover from this? Maybe, but in the meantime they’re likely to head back into minority status, and Matt and his ambitious eight - most of them are seeking higher office (Matt wants to be Governor of Florida) - could not care less about the US House and its role in our system of government. It’s way more than a mere springboard to higher office. Meanwhile, the new Democratic majority will ensure higher hurdles for any future “vacate the chair” mischief.

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.