“A key adviser to House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy was involved in a behind-the-scenes effort last month to help rehabilitate the reputation of freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, CNN has learned, discreetly facilitating her visit to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum before she issued a public apology for her recent anti-Semitic remarks. It didn’t stick. Greene again made news this week for invoking Nazi-era imagery to mock Covid safety practices, raising fresh questions about whether McCarthy can keep a lid on his increasingly restive caucus with his soft touch and indirect methods, sometimes on his own and sometimes with the help of top allies and lawmakers. In this case, Jeff Miller, who sits on the board of trustees at the museum, orchestrated last month’s trip after Greene expressed interest in attending, multiple GOP sources said.”

“The episode underscores the limits of the McCarthy approach – not just with Greene, but with all of the radical members in his conference. While the California Republican has publicly denounced some of his members’ most controversial actions, including Greene’s Holocaust remarks, none of these lawmakers have suffered any real internal consequences for behavior that includes floating dangerous conspiracy theories, whitewashing the January 6 insurrection or having connections to white nationalists. For McCarthy, he would much rather keep the spotlight on divisions across the aisle. The House Republican leader also believes keeping these fringe members in the fold — rather than ex-communicating them all together — is a better long-term leadership strategy for keeping them in check. Plus, the GOP leader may be reluctant to alienate a group of Donald Trump-aligned Republicans whom he may need to count on for speaker votes one day. But that management style also poses a risk for McCarthy and the GOP, especially as the battle for the House heats up. Absent real punishment, the party’s extremists are not only failing to fall in line, but may only feel more emboldened. And Democrats are already seizing on the GOP’s refusal to exorcise the most radical elements from their party, looking to make it a campaign issue in the 2022 midterms” – CNN.