House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) warned his skeptics in the House Republican Conference that opposing him as House Speaker isn’t a good idea.

“We have to speak as one voice,” he said during an appearance on Newsmax on Monday. “We will only be successful if we work together, or we’ll lose individually. This is very fragile — that we are the only stopgap for this Biden administration.”

Well, heck, he says that like it’s a bad thing.

Yes, the Republicans are in a very splintery place right now but it’s what they deserve because all they usually seek to do is divide. I mean, running Republican Herschel Walker against Democrat Raphael Warnock, for the Georgia Senate, really? I would think even the dimmest Republican would see this idea as a trainwreck. And now the Republicans are a House divided — what with the dwindling Trumpublicans on one side and the anti-Trumpublicans who are trying to put miles between themselves and former president #45.

Perhaps McCarthy already understands this, because he sounded the alarm during his interview, The Hill reports.

“And if we don’t do this right, the Democrats can take the majority,” McCarthy warned. “If we play games on the floor, the Democrats can end up picking who the Speaker is.”

McCarthy is now on the first rung of the House Speakership ladder after winning the nomination for the position during the midterm elections earlier this month over Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.). The former chair of the ultra-right House Freedom Caucus, Biggs was considered a longshot.

I guess we can be glad for the small things in this case.

But McCarthy still has a few more rungs to climb to secure the Speakership if he hopes to win majority support on the first day of the new Congress on January 3.

“And with Republicans winning a narrower-than-anticipated majority of around 222 seats to around 213 for Democrats, McCarthy can only afford to lose a handful of Republican votes on the floor,” The Hill reports.

Democrats will more than likely vote for their party’s Speaker nominee, which is widely expected to be finalized as Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) this week.

And there’s one problem for McCarthy that looks rather iffy: At least five hard-line conservative Republicans have already said or implied they will not vote for McCarthy on the floor, and that, the Hill notes, is “throwing his Speakership bid into dangerous territory.”

So who’s doing this? Reps. Matt Gaetz (Florida), Bob Good (Va.), Ralph Norman (S.C.), Matt Rosendale (Mont.), and Biggs.

A notable number of other Republicans have also voiced concerns about McCarthy but haven’t said how they plan to vote on January 3. And Biggs, on the Conservative Review podcast Monday that he thinks the number of “hard noes” on McCarthy is around 20 GOP members, and that would scupper McCarthy’s bid.

Today's show: @RepAndyBiggsAZ tells Daniel there are at least 20 hard no votes against McCarthy for Speaker https://t.co/q9KAFTPOzw

— Conservative Review (@CR) November 28, 2022

McCarthy has gained unexpected support from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who apparently does have a few functioning brain cells. She’s split from the Freedom Caucus to throw her support behind. She’s suggesting a handful of moderates could align themselves with Democrats to elect a Speaker with more moderate leanings.

Well, hey, even a broken clock is right twice a day.

McCarthy also touched on other factions within the party that could lead moderates to break away.

“You have to listen to everybody in the conference, because five people on any side can stop anything when you’re in the Majority,” McCarthy said on Newsmax.

He is hopeful, however, that the situation will resolve itself without too much turmoil.

“I think at the end of the day, calmer heads will prevail. We’ll work together to find the best path forward,” he added.

But on the Democrat’s side another sad monkey wrench, with the death of Democratic Rep. Don McEachin on Monday, meaning his seat will likely be vacant on January 6th.

It’s going to be interesting to see how this plays out. I’m still trying to get over Marjorie Taylor actually doing something halfway logical for once.

Here’s what McCarthy had to say in the clip below.