This was a fait accompli since Democrats went nuclear on Marjorie Taylor Greene, stripping her of her committee assignments in February. Normally it’s left to a member’s own caucus to boot them from committees; that’s what happened to Steve King, who was removed from his assignments by the Republican leadership, not Pelosi. The House GOP refused to move against Greene, though, partly because she’s a MAGA favorite and partly because McCarthy and most other Republicans were rallying to keep Liz Cheney in leadership at the time. Leaving Cheney in charge and Greene on her committees was McCarthy’s idea of a compromise in the name of party unity.

But Democrats wouldn’t defer to the GOP on Greene last time so the GOP won’t defer to the Democrats on Ilhan Omar next time, when Republicans are back in the majority.

Omar was always the logical candidate for a Republican reprisal on committee assignments but McCarthy made it official this morning. Her latest journey into moral equivalence was even condemned by a few Democrats, making her an easy choice for the GOP to target on committee roles in 2023.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy goes after Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN):

“I will promise you this: If we are fortunate enough to have the majority, Omar would not be serving on Foreign Affairs [Committee] or anybody that has an anti-semitic, anti-American view.” pic.twitter.com/aLUGsJfW2t

— The Recount (@therecount) June 15, 2021

That’s the long-term plan for Omar. What about the short-term plan? There’d been talk over the past few days of McCarthy bringing a privileged resolution to the floor to remove her from the House Foreign Affairs Committee immediately but the latest word from this morning’s GOP caucus meeting is that it might not happen. There’s no question that Pelosi will keep her members in line and defeat the motion. The question is how to inflict maximum pain on Democrats: Force their centrist members to take a vote siding with Omar or hang back and let them continue to fight amongst themselves?

Steve Scalise says “all options” are still on the table when it comes to Omar and there discussions underway — but he also says they want Dems to be the ones to punish one of their own.

— Melanie Zanona (@MZanona) June 15, 2021

Dems have already rallied in this case, though, no? Pelosi said a few days ago that there’ll be no punishment and that the matter’s over with. McCarthy might as well force Democrats from swing districts to eat it by making them vote on Omar’s fate.

Maybe he thinks he’s not in a position to take a shot at Omar thanks to Greene’s recent comments about mask mandates being reminiscent of Nazi-era persecution. She tried to clean that up yesterday but Democrats are still considering a resolution censuring her. If McCarthy makes Dems vote on Omar, they’re going to make him and his caucus vote (again) on Greene. He might regard that trade as a net loser for the GOP.

The tricky part for Republicans in ousting Omar from her committee in 2023 is trying to separate her more brazenly anti-semitic comments from her policy views. Greene, for instance, wasn’t tossed from her committees for opposing mask mandates or whatever. She was tossed for conspiracy theories which she pushed before joining Congress, like claiming that some school shootings had been staged. Ditto for King, who had wondered in an interview when terms like “white supremacy” became offensive. In ousting Omar, the GOP could limit the grounds for removing her to some of her more outlandishly anti-semitic remarks, like tweeting in 2012 that Israel had “hypnotized the world” (for which she later apologized) or saying in 2019 that some of Israel’s U.S. supporters were condoning “allegiance to a foreign country.”

But what if they move to oust her for calling Israel an “apartheid state,” which is a policy view albeit a false one? What if one of the grounds is her support for the BDS movement? Kicking elected members of Congress off of committees because their views offend the majority would risk a cycle of reprisals in which representatives on both sides with unpopular policy positions are disempowered despite being having been elected for those positions. It would also force Republicans to explain why Omar was being ousted but not other members of the caucus who share some of her views, like Rashida Tlaib or AOC. Should everyone who supports BDS be barred from serving on a committee when Republicans are in charge, even if that includes up to half a dozen members or so? If so, what political causes should disqualify Republicans from serving on committees when Democrats have the majority?

They’re going to go after Omar as payback for Greene but I think they’ll be careful in stating their reasons why. Too much potential for mischief and retaliation if the grounds boil down to “she’s far-left.”