Last week, twenty true conservative legislators – not “extremists,” not “insurrectionists” – tenaciously negotiated an array of important changes for running the new Republican House of Representatives. In the end, six still declined to vote for the man who opposed many of these “rules” changes, but nonetheless allowed him to become Speaker.

They did so out of a well-founded lack of trust in Kevin McCarthy, who ultimately prevailed because he reliably controlled some 200 other members of the new Congress. For example, last November he privately approved an “omnibus” bill that precluded Republican control over spending until September, but then publicly opposed it.

We’ll test Speaker McCarthy’s trustworthiness today when his loyalists are asked to adopt the agreed rules package. Will the Speaker privately allow, if not encourage, some unconservative Republicans to vote down the package, even as he publicly supports it?

This is Frank Gaffney.