Why Kevin McCarthy thinks hes already won
A small group of longtime Kevin McCarthy aides who decamped downtown to lobby are suddenly some of the most influential and sought-after people in Washington. They remain intensely loyal to the new speaker and serve as crucial sources of insight into his thinking and strategy.\n\nBen Howard, now at the Duberstein Group, was McCarthy\u2019s floor director. He was with him through all of the fraught moments of the John Boehner era, including in 2015 when Boehner retired and McCarthy lost out on securing his job. Howard saw up close how driven McCarthy was to get a second shot at becoming speaker.\n\n\u201cI used to sit in the office with Kevin,\u201d Howard told Ryan Lizza, host of Playbook Deep Dive. \u201cWe would dream about this day. We would dream about it.\u201d \n\nBut Howard has a bone to pick. He doesn\u2019t like the way that everyone is talking about his old boss. The conventional wisdom about the new speaker is that he gave up everything to secure the job and that he\u2019s one misstep away from losing it if he angers his restive Freedom Caucus colleagues.\n\nAccording to Howard, that bit of Washington C.W. is wrong.\n\nFor this week\u2019s episode of the Playbook Deep Dive podcast, Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza talked to Howard in his Penn Quarter office to understand the view from McCarthy world. They had a wide-ranging conversation about the state of the House GOP, the impact of the rules changes McCarthy agreed to in order to win the gavel, the debt limit faceoff, and McCarthy\u2019s relationship with President Biden.\n\nOh, and also about that time Howard was chewed out by GOP members for ruining the most famous episode of Game of Thrones.