WASHINGTON -- California's Kevin McCarthy is the new U.S. House Majority Leader and Louisiana's Steve Scalise is the Majority Whip, after a secret ballot election among House Republicans this afternoon.
McCarthy's rise from whip was a foregone conclusion, while Scalise's first-ballot victory over competitors from Illinois and Indiana was a win for Southern influence, as Galloway fleshed out over the weekend.
During the closed-door House GOP meeting, McCarthy was nominated with a speech from U.S. Rep. Tom Graves of Ranger. Graves gave his speech text to the Wall Street Journal. Here's the grand finale:
"But, I submit to you today that we cannot make good on the hope of America as a broken party. We cannot lead the way if we do not trust each other.
"As of late, there has been a lot of talk about holding our leadership accountable, as if four people are separate from the rest of us.
"But, we are one conference. We are one party. We are accountable for each other.
"Just as you, I am accountable for the leadership of our great conference.
"With that understanding, and to build a foundation of unity from which we can better serve the People, I am nominating Kevin McCarthy for Majority Leader of the United States House of Representatives."
U.S. Rep. Austin Scott of Tifton, meanwhile, seconded Raul Labrador's nomination against McCarthy. Labrador, an Idahoan who like Graves and Scott is from the class of 2010, was a late entry tea party pick who never gained traction against McCarthy -- who already had relationships with the whole caucus. Scott shared his speech with us. Here it is in full:
"But this race isn't just about them. It is about us. It is about electing a leader that trusts us to do the things that we said we would do. It is about empowering you, the individual members and the committees of this conference, to fulfill the promises that we all made. And I believe Raul will do that.
"I am not asking you to elect him so that Raul can write a transportation bill. I am asking you to elect Raul so that our Republican Transportation Committee can write a Republican transportation bill and our Ways and Means Committee can write a Republican tax bill.
"I am asking you to elect a leader that will trust this conference and put the bill on the floor for debate just as the bill was reported out of the committee. A leader that if the bill needs amending will trust this conference and the amendment process and let the House do its work, the people's House.
"This conference deserves a leader that believes in the people's House, that believes that we can win because our ideas are the right ideas for Americans. And then and only then, instead of talking about what we would do if we only had the Senate, or if only the president wasn't the president, we can talk about what we did do, together."
Scott said McCarthy will get "the benefit of the doubt" from the conference and he was glad Scalise won to get a Southern conservative in there. But he said leadership will move to the right because it must after Eric Cantor's shocking loss:
"I think it's inexcusable that we as Republicans haven't put a tax reform bill on the floor of the House of Representatives in four years. We allowed the president to dominate that debate, and that should never happen."
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