Kevin McCarthy Withdraws From Speaker’s Race, Putting House in Chaos
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

WASHINGTON — Representative Kevin McCarthy of California abruptly withdrew on Thursday from the race to succeed Speaker John A. Boehner, blindsiding his House Republican colleagues and throwing their already tumultuous chamber into deeper chaos with no clear leader in sight just weeks before a series of high-stakes fiscal battles.

As lawmakers ate barbecue and sipped sodas during what was expected to be a pro forma vote to select Mr. McCarthy as their nominee, he did an about-face, saying that he had concluded he could not unite the increasingly fractious Republican majority.

“I am not that guy,” said Mr. McCarthy, with his wife and family by his side, according to members who were in the room. Moments later, Mr. Boehner, who learned of Mr. McCarthy’s decision only minutes before he announced it, declared the vote postponed and the meeting adjourned even though there were two other candidates in the running, underscoring the weakness of the field.

Some Republicans, including Mr. Boehner and Mr. McCarthy, are pressing Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the party’s nominee for vice president in 2012, to step up. Mr. Ryan, however, has repeatedly said he does not want the job, a point he reiterated Thursday even before his colleagues left the meeting.

“I have spent more time trying to talk him into running than I did my wife into marrying me,” Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina said. “Twenty-six years later, she’s still with me. I am just asking Paul for 14 months.”

Mr. McCarthy’s decision leaves the House rudderless just weeks before the Treasury Department faces a debt default that could roil markets, and two months before a deadline for a budget deal to avoid another government shutdown. But it also represents another victory for the clutch of unyielding hard-line conservatives who toppled the ambitions of yet another member of the party leadership.

The turmoil in the House only added to the uncertainty for the Republican Party, which is also dealing with a contentious presidential primary campaign in which obstreperous outsiders continue to ride the Tea Party swell against establishment politicians. While the presidential race has many months to sort itself out, House Republicans have little time to spare to restore order.

After Mr. McCarthy’s announcement, many visibly shaken and nearly speechless Republicans emerged from a large hearing room in the Capitol complex. The acoustics inside were so poor that some had failed to fully take in what had happened: The man with the most votes to become the next speaker had just given up on what was once the most desired job in the House.

“The first reaction was ‘Wow!’ or ‘What did he say?’ ” Representative Jeff Fortenberry, Republican of Nebraska, said. “The next reaction was, ‘Let me sit down and process this while eating lunch at the same time, because this was a shock, a surprise.’ ”

Rather than moving to vote on other announced candidates, Representative Daniel Webster of Florida and Representative Jason Chaffetz of Utah, Mr. Boehner said the ballot should be postponed and asked unanimous consent to adjourn — with no obvious path forward as Congress heads for a weeklong recess.

Mr. Boehner, who said last month that he would leave at the end of October after more than four years of relentless needling from his right flank, issued a less definitive statement on Thursday, saying he would stay in the job until a replacement was chosen “in the coming weeks.”

Mr. McCarthy’s turnaround appeared to stem from his growing realization over the last 24 hours that while many of his colleagues supported him, he risked a humiliating defeat on the floor.

A group of about 40 hard-right House conservatives announced on Wednesday night that they would support Mr. Webster, making it clear that Mr. McCarthy would have had to accede to their demands as he struggled to assemble 218 votes over the next three weeks. (While only Republicans choose their nominee, a majority of the whole House, including Democrats, elects the speaker.)

The Republicans who participated in the revolt were jubilant over the turn of events.

“K Street has got to be really nervous around here,” Representative Tim Huelskamp of Kansas, the leader of the House Tea Party Caucus, said, referring to Washington’s lobbyist corridor. “And the American people out there are probably saying, ‘Wait a minute, there might be some real change in Washington.’ ”

Mr. McCarthy has been dogged over the last week with questions about his verbal competence, his conservative credentials and his ability to fuse a group of members that may in fact defy unification. He said he would remain as majority leader, scrambling the races for all of the House Republican leadership positions.

The Republicans who prompted Mr. McCarthy’s decision were pushing for a greater say in driving the House agenda. But Mr. McCarthy also caused his own damage when he suggested in an interview on Fox News last week that the House committee investigating the terror attack in Benghazi had the political aim of damaging Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign.

At a brief news conference, he acknowledged that his remarks about Benghazi had factored into his decision.

Several people close to Mr. McCarthy said he had initially believed that Mr. Boehner’s resignation would have been enough to satiate the rebels in the party. But it became increasingly clear that to secure the votes to become speaker, he would face the same battles that repeatedly bloodied Mr. Boehner, his far more seasoned predecessor.

“If we are going to unite and be strong, we need a new face,” Mr. McCarthy said.

Only Mr. Webster and Mr. Chaffetz so far have offered to be that face. Mr. Webster, a low-profile former speaker in Florida’s House, said he would assemble “a principle-based, member-driven caucus.” That would presumably claim a great deal of power from the speaker.

The other, Mr. Chaffetz, 48, an ambitious lawmaker and chairman of the House Oversight Committee, was the first member of Congress to focus vigorously on the Benghazi matter.

Still, noting his own shock at Mr. McCarthy’s decision, Mr. Chaffetz said, “I really do believe it is time for a fresh start. That was the whole genesis of my campaign. But we need to have a lot more family discussions because we need to find somebody that our whole body can unite behind.”

For Republicans, key fiscal matters with rapidly approaching deadlines compound their problems.

The Treasury Department has said it would exhaust its authority to borrow money to fund the government on Nov. 5. If Congress does not raise or suspend the government’s statutory borrowing limit, the government would default on its debt days later, risking a ratings downgrade, and possibly economic calamity, including soaring interest rates and plunging stock prices.

Then, on Dec. 11, a stopgap spending bill expires; without congressional action, much of the government will shut down.

The White House press secretary, Josh Earnest, said that officials were surprised by what he called the “chaos” among House Republicans, adding that they should “either tame the forces of that small but vocal group of extreme ideologues, or buck up the mainstream — or at least more mainstream — majority within the House Republican conference.”

Several Republicans said they simply needed some time to contemplate the day’s events. “Kind of a crazy day,” Representative Cynthia M. Lummis, Republican of Wyoming, said. “We need a breather. We can’t elect a speaker under these terms. So I think we need a little time, a little space, a little healing. Nothing good ever happens in a crisis.”

遭爆不倫戀 麥卡錫退選美眾議院長

美國聯邦眾議院多數黨領袖麥卡錫原本可望接替貝納出任議長，卻在眾院共和黨八日提名他參選前突然宣布退選，消息人士指出，原因可能是有人指控他與北卡羅來納州聯邦眾議員芮妮．艾默斯有婚外情。

共和黨原本準備提名麥卡錫參選議長，麥卡錫卻當場投下震撼彈，宣稱「我不是適當人選」。只提早幾分鐘獲得知會的貝納，宣布提名表決延後舉行。許多共和黨議員驚愕地走出會場，想不到原來最可能出任議長的人，會拱手放棄成為美國第三號領導人的機會。

麥卡錫退選後，黨內還有猶他州眾議員查飛茲與佛羅里達州眾議員韋伯斯特競逐議長大位。麥卡錫一反初衷，可能是體認到雖然獲得許多同僚支持，卻可能在院會難堪落選，因為約四十名黨內保守派議員七日晚間宣布支持韋伯斯特，表示麥卡錫若不接受他們的要求，將很難爭取到必要的兩百一十八票。

「天主教線上」網站報導，華府消息人士指出，麥卡錫退選可能是因為有一段監視器影片正在國會內流傳，影片錄到麥卡錫和艾默斯在國會親暱共餐。消息人士說兩人的婚外情始自25011年，但兩人都否認有婚外情。

貝納與麥卡錫等黨內主流派人物，私下敦促共和黨2012年的副總統候選人萊恩出面擔當重任，不過萊恩早就一再聲明無意於此，八日散會前再度表明意願。

麥卡錫的決定使眾院頓失重心，再過數周財政部就面臨國債跳票，可能導致市場大亂，兩個月後聯邦又面對可能導致政府停擺的預算對決。不過，從另一方面來說，這項發展使共和黨內保守派獲得另一場勝利，在使貝納淪為他們的祭品之後，又扳倒黨內另一位領導人。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/09/us/politics/house-speaker-vote.html

Video：Representative Kevin McCarthy announces that he is withdrawing from the race for House speaker, adding that “a new face” is needed to unite the Republican conference.
http://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000003966304/kevin-mccarthy-drops-out-of-speaker-race.html

2015-10-10．聯合報．A16．國際．編譯李京倫