Molly Jong-Fast: “While Santos may take lying to another level, his willingness to deceive the public for power—along with Republicans tolerating or even excusing such behavior—isn’t out of character with today’s GOP. Remember, McCarthy, along with 138 other House Republicans, were willing to overturn the will of the American people to validate Trump’s ‘stolen’ election lies, while also looking the other way for four years as the former president made more than 30,000 false or misleading claims.”

“The message Republicans sent even before Santos is that lying to Americans is acceptable if it’s in the pursuit of power.”

The Economist: “The far right thus fixates on whatever controversy is dominating politics at the time. Ever since January 6th, experts suggest, extremists have been searching for another cause that will unite the various strands of a historically decentralized network of far-right groups. There are signs that some centralization is happening.”

Ronna McDaniel told Semafor that she had “well enough support to win” a fourth and final term at the RNC’s winter meeting next week and that her decisive bloc of 100 out of 168 voting members who’d publicly vowed to support her early in the process remained committed.

“The cash-strapped Michigan Republican Party will require delegates to help cover the cost of next month’s state convention in Lansing, where they’ll gather to decide who will lead the party for the next two years,” Bridge Michigan reports.

“It’s the latest sign of financial strain for the Michigan GOP, which last year struggled to raise money from traditional donors after grassroots delegates stormed state conventions to nominate outsider candidates loyal to former President Donald Trump.”

Jonathan Chait: “One of the curious things about the recent revolt by far-right House Republicans is that it was led by some of the party’s Trumpiest figures, yet they were essentially insisting that Congress return to the time before Donald Trump. The Republican-rebel demands — that their leaders stage shutdowns and debt-ceiling threats in the service of bug-eyed hysteria over the budget deficit — ‘harken back to the tea-party era,’ noted Politico.”

“Before the symbol of the right became guys in red hats warning that immigrants and the deep state were destroying the country, it was guys in tricorne hats warning that the stimulus and Obamacare were destroying the country. And now they are back.”

“When Trump won the nomination in 2016, it was widely believed that the Republican Party’s ideological character had changed in some fundamental way. ‘His surprising election marked a replacement of the GOP’s free-market conservatism’ — exemplified by Paul Ryan — ‘with a more populist, big-government conservatism,’ noted budget hawk Brian Riedl a few years ago, bemoaning the ‘final nail in the tea-party coffin.’ Seeing the nails pop out and the coffin spring back open might seem terribly confusing. What happened to the party’s great philosophical evolution?”

“Well, I can honestly say I like both of them. I mean, I get along with both of them. I haven’t taken a stance, you know, let them fight it out.”

— Donald Trump, refusing to endorse current RNC chair Ronna McDaniel over challenger Harmeet Dhillon.

“An intense leadership fight inside the Republican National Committee is pitting a three-term incumbent with a losing record against a combative challenger, illustrating the latest divisions within the GOP,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Ronna McDaniel, who has led the RNC since shortly after being selected in late 2016 by Donald Trump when he was president-elect, is favored to win a fourth two-year term as chair at a Jan. 25-27 meeting in Southern California, some veteran committee members said.”

“Harmeet Dhillon, an election lawyer from California who has represented Mr. Trump in court and been on the RNC for six years, is her main competitor. MyPillow Chief Executive Mike Lindell has also thrown his name into the mix, although it would be unusual for the national party to select a leader who isn’t already an RNC member.”

Jackie Calmes: “All week members of the Republican majority have been chest-beating about how, thanks to the new House rules they devised, they will restore rectitude to federal budgeting. Income will be balanced against spending and debt reduced, just as American families have to do at their kitchen tables.”

“Don’t take that promise to the bank. It’ll bounce. And not because Republicans are up against the supposedly profligate Democrats who control the White House and Senate. As we begin what’s sure to be a chaotic two years of Republican governance in the House, a little fiscal history is in order, no green eyeshades needed.”

“In short, Republicans forfeited the title ‘fiscal conservatives’ so long ago, most Americans weren’t even born yet.”

“A three-way race for chairman of the Republican National Committee could deal another setback to a party looking to enter the 2024 cycle with a unified front,” CNN reports.

“Each of the three candidates running for chair – incumbent Ronna McDaniel, California-based attorney Harmeet Dhillon and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell – confirmed to CNN either themselves, or through allies, that they have qualified to be on the ballot.”

“It will be the first time in more than a decade that a drawn-out balloting process – set to take place when the committee’s 168-member voting body gathers in Southern California later this month – is likely to occur.”

“As Harmeet Dhillon seeks the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, opponents have begun raising concerns about her Sikh faith — a development that has left some members of the committee unsettled,” Politico reports.

“A group of Republican mega-donors say the party is ‘on the verge of permanent irrelevance’ if it fails to come together and support a change of leadership,” Fox News reports.

A new CBS News poll found that most Republican voters expect the party to follow Donald Trump’s policies and 2020 views, if not the former president himself.

The results indicate 35% of Republicans think party loyalty to Trump is “very important,” and another 30% called it “somewhat important.”

William Saletan: “Last Tuesday, the Congressional Leadership Fund, which calls itself ‘the independent super PAC endorsed by Kevin McCarthy’—that’s lawyer-speak for McCarthy’s super PAC—cut a deal to get right-wing support for his speakership bid. Under the deal, CLF agreed that it will no longer ‘spend in any open-seat primaries in safe Republican districts.’ Nor will it ‘grant resources to other super PACs to do so.'”

“That’s a big deal. CLF spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars in the 2022 elections. It can still support Republican incumbents against right-wing challengers, and in swing districts, it can oppose troublemakers in Republican primaries. But in safe red districts where a Republican incumbent isn’t running, CLF will yield to extremist candidates and their funders.”

Newt Gingrich said the Republican party is contending with a band of “deranged disrupters” in the House, a cadre of “Biden Republicans” enabling the president in the Senate and “a grassroots base that wants anger,” Politico reports.