This is so insane that I wonder if it’s actually a populist ploy to damage Kevin McCarthy more so than an earnest attempt to get the 13 Republicans who supported the bill kicked off their committees. It forces McCarthy to choose between protecting his centrist members on the one hand and siding with Trump and MAGA against the “traitors” on the other. If he sides with the centrists, righties will grumble that the incoming GOP House majority needs a “stronger” Speaker. If he sides with MAGA, he’ll further imperil some members who are already vulnerable in 2022.

In 15 years of covering politics I can’t remember a member of Congress losing their committee assignments for voting the wrong way on a bill. Typically that penalty is reserved for moral offenses, like when McCarthy stripped Steve King of his assignments for wondering why the term “white supremacist” is a problem. The GOP refused to kick Marjorie Taylor Greene off her committees earlier this year for chronic conspiracy theorizing, although the Democratic majority later did it for them. To this day the caucus hasn’t stripped Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger of their assignments despite the fact that both have become de facto anti-Trump independents.

An NBC reporter stated succinctly why penalizing members for their infrastructure stance would be obnoxious: “[The] House GOP would send a message that members’ votes belong to the caucus not constituents.” Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska told Axios recently that two-thirds of the voters in his Omaha district support the bipartisan infrastructure bill. A national poll from Suffolk over the weekend found Americans support the bill to the tune of 60/37. It’s hard enough for swing-district reps to negotiate the demands of the majority and the demands of their party in an age of hyperpartisanship. Putting their assignments at stake would force them to choose between pissing off their voters by voting against a popular bill and pissing off their voters by forfeiting their influence over powerful congressional committees.

If you read the fine print, though, it’s not clear if the populists want to punish all 13 who voted yes or just the ones who voted “early.” From Punchbowl:

The GOP leadership is bracing for rank-and-file lawmakers to attempt to strip committee assignments from the 13 Republican lawmakers who voted for the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill. Several of these lawmakers are also ranking members — top Republicans on committees — and those could be at risk, too.

A number of GOP lawmakers were upset by the fact that several of their Republican colleagues voted early for the infrastructure package, helping Democrats cross the majority threshold on a key piece of President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda and undermining their party strategy.

Much of the anger is directed at Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.), who voted early for the legislation. Katko is the ranking member on the Homeland Security Committee. Katko told multiple lawmakers on the House floor that he had seen Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) on television talking about the infrastructure bill, and he was voting early.

McCarthy wanted to force Pelosi to find 218 Democratic votes, ensuring passage of the bill, before freeing vulnerable Republicans like Katko to vote yes. And she probably would have found those votes: The Squad voted no once it became clear that the bill would pass with GOP support but likely would have had their arms twisted into voting yes if Republicans had held out. Either way, the bill passes. Which means the caucus wants Katko et al. punished for a vote that … didn’t ultimately matter. It’s his disloyalty in not following the party’s strategy that seems to offend them, not his vote per se. And not for the first time: Katko also voted to impeach Trump and helped create the January 6 commission that ultimately tanked in the Senate.

But he’s in a D+2 district (for now). If the caucus weakens him by taking away his committee assignments, that may be enough to doom him in next year’s general election. The GOP can and almost certainly will retake the majority without his seat but a purge of incumbents is a bad note on which to begin a push to take over the House.

Trump is also consumed with loyalty, as always, and doubtless views the 13 yes votes as a personal betrayal inasmuch as those Republicans were willing to hand Biden an infrastructure victory that eluded Trump as president. Nicole Malliotakis of Staten Island voted yes on the bill in the belief that Republicans wouldn’t dare try to punish her; after all, she’d unseated a Democratic incumbent in her district in 2020, winning by seven points. Only a fool would want to see her replaced by a more MAGA righty who might leave voters in the center open to considering a Democrat again in 2022. Unfortunately for her, the party is led by a fool:

Per a source at the NRCC dinner with Trump last evening: “He railed on 13 Rs who voted for infrastructure with Nicole Malliotakis there. She was visibly shaken by it.” The source added it was a lengthly speech and Trump was friendly with McCarthy.

— Juliegrace Brufke (@juliegraceb) November 9, 2021

Does McCarthy dare get on the wrong side of Trump by not punishing Malliotakis and the other 12? If he does punish them, what other “traitorous” votes in the future might cost a House Republican his or her committee assignments under this precedent?

Also, what does he plan to say to criticism like this?

In today’s Republican Party, you get cancelled for crossing party lines and applauded for publicly fantasizing about the murder of Democrats.

WTF.

— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) November 9, 2021

Murphy’s referring to an anime video posted yesterday by Paul Gosar that showed him killing a character with AOC’s face photoshopped onto it. McCarthy has given up on punishing the cranks in his caucus for their moral breaches per his refusal to remove Greene’s committee assignments earlier this year, but that puts him in the awkward position of having to justify that decision anew every time some other member’s committee assignments are threatened. Why is Katko unfit to serve on committees in the eyes of the House GOP while Marjorie Taylor Greene is? What kind of values does this party follow?

I think McCarthy’s reluctance to address that subject is why he hasn’t kicked Cheney or Kinzinger off their committees for their work on the January 6 committee. If he did, he’d be attacked for protecting pro-insurrection members while punishing anti-insurrection ones. The new push to punish Katko and the rest will corner him in the same way. Does he refuse to act, angering Trump, or does he act and risk angering the sort of centrist voter who supported Glenn Youngkin but also supports the infrastructure bill?

I’ll leave you with this. Listening to it, you would think Fred Upton had voted for a bill requiring mandatory communism lessons in all American public schools, not a bill to … fund roads and bridges. But, again, it’s not the substance of the bill that most of the critics object to. It’s the simple act of disloyalty in voting against the GOP. Party first and always.

Here's the threatening voicemail Michigan GOP Rep. Fred Upton received after supporting the infrastructure bill via CNN

Keep in mind it has money for lead line replacement and PFAS cleanup. A community in Upton's district is in the midst of a lead crisis, another is a PFAS site pic.twitter.com/6AWnWbTGCK

— Aaron Parseghian (@AaronParseghian) November 9, 2021