There comes a time when the person whose name is on the blame line has to answer up. That may be fair or it may be unfair. Sometimes circumstances were just beyond that person's ability to control, but someone has to be the scapegoat. Now, some Congressional Republicans are insisting on a reckoning, perhaps some reshuffling of their leadership, before the elections for new House and Senate leaders take place.
That's probably not the worst idea.
Last week’s pummeling on Election Night has a cohort of Senate Republicans wanting to take stock as lawmakers return to Washington, D.C.
The Senate GOP is slated to hold its leadership elections Tuesday morning, where Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., is expected to seek another term as top Republican.
But a small group led by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., wants to delay the leadership elections to debrief after last week’s stunning losses and chart a path forward heading into the minority. Senate Democrats flipped the chamber by clinching 54 seats, and that number could grow depending on the outcomes in Mississippi and Alaska.
That's as may be, and granted, it was going to be a difficult year regardless; but this kind of a shellacking doesn't come without some consequences for those who were in charge when it happened. The current Republican Speaker of the House, Rep. Mike Johnson (LA-04) has announced he won't seek to be House Minority Leader, even though he did a better-than-average job as Speaker. His name was on that blame line. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) had his name on the blame line for the Senate, and he's thinking he'll make a good Minority Leader. And here's the thing: It doesn't look like anyone's fixing to challenge him. At least, not yet.
Whether trying to slow down leadership elections turns into a shake-up in the Senate GOP’s power structure remains in the air, even with conservative voices outside the Senate calling for Thune to step aside.
So far, Thune is expected to run unopposed for another term and still remains popular among the conference. Possible challengers, like Scott, have already said they wouldn’t mount a bid against him.
That's rather baffling. Or is it? Senate Republicans, frankly, have some tough sledding ahead of them. The calendar isn't optimistic for wrestling the Senate away from Democrats until 2030 or 2032, most likely, and a lot can happen in six years.
Frankly if the Republicans in the Senate are going to have a leadership struggle, now would be the time, as long as they get it sorted and over with in time to take care of a few items in the lame duck session, like getting judges confirmed and passing the NDAA and the Save America Act. And yes, passing those would go a long way towards making Republican and conservative voters feel like Senate Republicans weren't going to just phone it in for the next few weeks, while they still have their hands on the controls.
A good leadership contest would be good for the party. It would force some discussions as to what went wrong in 2026. It would force a post-mortem, examining how things could have been done better. Best of all, it would separate some wheat from some chaff, and maybe hone the Senate Republican (and the House Republicans, for that matter) to a fine edge, the better to fight the fights that we're sure are coming.
Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) is right. Senate Republicans should take a day or two to figure these things out. Don't take too long, though; there is a lot left to do before January 3.