McCarthy tells feuding GOP caucus the House isn't 'junior high.' The Late Show suggests Real Housewives.

published 2 December 2021

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) tried again Wednesday to "quietly extinguish various internal fires as an Islamophobia controversy consumes his GOP conference," specifically an ugly public feud between Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), Politico reports.

After trying unsuccessfully to broker a ceasefire Tuesday night, McCarthy thanked the majority of his caucus Wednesday for not seeking controversy and headlines and insisted the House is a "serious" deliberative body and not a "junior high," Politico says. He did not mention Greene or Mace or Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), whose comments on Islam reignited this particular feud, by name, but "as more controversies crop up in McCarthy's conference, the ultra-conservatives in his party are increasingly emboldened."

Wednesday's Late Show shot past the junior high analogy and opened by turning the GOP disarray into a Real Housewives parody.

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McCarthy "has sought to handle internal strife privately in a bid to avoid alienating any of his members as he looks to both retake the majority and win the speaker's gavel next Congress," Politico reports, but his pitch to his caucus is that high-profile spats draw focus from the GOP's attacks on House Democrats. House Democrats suggested McCarthy's strategy isn't working.

"What more does Kevin McCarthy need to see? I mean, what more does this guy really need to see?" Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) asked. "He's got Marjorie Taylor Greene, completely out of control. Gosar out of control. Lauren Boebert out of control. Crossfire." McCarthy is unable to mediate this dispute, he added, "and we think this guy and this conference is going to solve problems on behalf of the American people?"

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.