Pelosi used her power to exclude some Republicans from House committees. Should McCarthy?

Right now, not a single Republican represents a New England congressional district. All 21 congressional seats from the six New England states are currently occupied by a Democrat.

This monopoly is likely to be broken by Tuesday’s elections. The Cook Political Report rates four New England seats as “toss-ups.” A fifth seat is rated “leans Democrat.” A sixth is rated “likely Democrat” but “competitive.”

The Washington Post discussed two of the New England toss-ups in today’s edition: (1) the race in Connecticut’s Fifth District between incumbent Jahana Hayes and Republican George Logan (both candidates are black) and (2) the race in Rhode Island’s Second District between Democrat Seth Magaziner (son of the wealthy Ira Magaziner, Bill and Hillary Clinton’s health care czar back in the day) and Republican Allan Fung.

I don’t know how any of these races will turn out, but it can’t hurt the GOP’s chances that it is quite cold these days in New England, making the price of heating one’s residence an even more prominent issue in this region than in most other parts of the country.

If the GOP were to pick all six seats the Cook report considers competitive (and if my math is correct), Republicans would have a majority in the House, assuming no other pick-ups by either party. In all events, the election returns from New England should give us an early idea of the extent of the expected Red Wave.

Even without gains in New England, it seems highly likely that the GOP will pick up the seats it needs to command a majority in the next Congress. What will Republicans do with that majority?

I expect that this question will be much discussed in the coming weeks, including here at Ringside. In this post, I’ll limit myself to the question of whether Republican leadership will ban certain Democratic members from certain committees.

This question is prompted by an email from a friend and reader of this blog. He reminded me that Nancy Pelosi used her power this way — banning some Republicans from serving on the January 6 select committee and one, Marjorie Taylor Greene, from serving on any committees.

Will the next Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, follow suit and ban Democrats in similar ways? Should he?

Let’s begin with the case of Eric Swalwell, who had a relationship with a Red Chinese spy. Swalwell currently serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Committee on Homeland Security. He’s Chair of the Intelligence Modernization and Readiness Subcommittee and also serves on the Subcommittee on Intelligence and Counterterrorism.

As far as I know, there’s no evidence that Swalwell provided the Chinese spy with classified information or that he knew she was a spy. Nonetheless, he still acted recklessly by allowing someone this sketchy to influence him — for example, by hiring an intern she recommended. Thus, in my view there’s a case for removing Swalwell from the assignments listed above and for barring him from any other committees and subcommittees that deal with classified information.

Republicans advocated this when news of Swalwell’s recklessness broke. There is a chance they will follow through if/when they take control of the House.

Now let’s consider squad members. The strongest candidate for exclusion is Ilan Omar whose remarks about Israel and American Jews led to a bipartisan resolution condemning hate speech.

Should Omar be banned from committee assignments due to her remarks? Should she at least be removed from the House Foreign Relations Committee which considers issues relating to Israel?

Not in my opinion. I don’t favor barring members of Congress from serving on committees based on their viewpoint, even if the viewpoint is deemed repugnant by the opposing party (and even it it’s objectively repugnant).

However, Nancy Pelosi doesn’t share my opinion. And given her treatment of Republicans whose views she deemed repugnant, Kevin McCarthy has a basis for denying committee slots to members like Omar and others in the Squad based on their extremist positions.