When Does McCarthy Offer Conservatives a Deal?

Playbook: “There is a give-a-mouse-a-cookie fear that if he negotiates right now, conservatives will just move on to new demands in the weeks before the Jan. 3 speakership vote.”

“The entire dynamic illustrates that even if McCarthy wins the gavel, he is going to be pulled between two factions of his conference that disagree more ferociously on strategy than on policy itself. While conservatives are expected to embrace shutdown fights and debt ceiling brinkmanship, the larger group of pragmatists will want to govern.”