WELCOME TO BIZARRO CONGRESS Something odd is happening in the Capitol this week. In one chamber, a group of conservatives is bulldozing a bill that a fellow Republican helped write. But we mean the Senate this time, not the House. And across the Rotunda in the House, a group of more establishment and independent-minded Republicans is acting a lot like the Senate – slowing down an impeachment push by the right flank. It’s giving ‘Freaky Friday’: Have the two groups of congressional Republicans swapped political identities all of a sudden? GOP senators have often stayed true to their chamber’s more pragmatic tendencies in recent years, conscious that the legislative filibuster limits their ability to push legislation to the right. Yet when it comes to the sputtering border deal, the Freedom Caucus-esque conservatives in Mitch McConnell’s conference were more or less guiding the pushback. “The Senate Republican caucus is now the House Republican caucus, right?” a very frustrated Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), one of the border deal’s chief negotiators, told reporters on Tuesday (using his party’s identifier, rather than the GOP “conference”). “There's nobody in charge. There's no ability to follow a plan,” Murphy added. Much like Speaker Mike Johnson (and Kevin McCarthy before him), McConnell is now facing an emboldened group of hardliners who even held a press conference on Tuesday to tout their leading role in killing the border-for-Ukraine negotiations. And much like House Republicans, GOP senators are now consumed by internal recriminations – largely focused on the fury that conservatives have aimed at Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), a red-state conservative himself who helped shape the deal. Speaking of House Republicans: They’re still preparing to vote on impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas before Wednesday. But it’s going to be a close one, thanks to a disparate handful of more establishment-aligned and retiring members who are openly skeptical of the effort. Not every fence-sitter or no vote on impeaching Mayorkas is a Senate-style pragmatist, to be clear. Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), who’s opposed, is an iconoclastic conservative who voted to oust McCarthy. Another no vote on impeachment, Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.), is a former Freedom Caucus member himself. But as the Mayorkas vote approaches, the list of potential defectors is growing to include more establishment and centrist names, including Reps. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), David Joyce (R-Ohio) and Maria Salazar (R-Fla.). It’s rare to see a House GOP leadership slowed down by opposition that’s not dominated by conservatives. And it’s a potential sign that Johnson will face more trouble getting any major legislation passed with just a three-seat majority. In fact, the speaker is now at risk of a few members from any corner of the conference rebelling against the majority of the majority. It’s almost like … a Senate filibuster. “It would be very embarrassing if House Republicans can’t do the most basic thing and hold the administration accountable” by recommending that the Senate boot Mayorkas, Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) said. (Reminder: The Democratic-controlled Senate plans to dispense with the impeachment, should it pass the House on Tuesday night.) Even when Johnson looks to Democrats for help, as he did on a standalone Israel aid package that’s coming to a vote tonight, he can’t count on a bailout from the opposing party. — Daniella Diaz, with assist from Jennifer Haberkorn
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