CLIP and SAVE - it’s no secret McCarthy and Scalise have been lining up to succeed Paul Ryan someday. But this, from @rachaelmbade, is amazing - Scalise camp says he’ll run if McCarthy doesn’t or *falls short.* As whip, Scalise could possibly MAKE McCARTHY FALL SHORT. 1/x 
It’s worth noting that House Republicans love to FRAG their leader. Way back when, Gerald Ford helped rewrite the conference rules to introduce secret balloting in leadership races. The idea was to help Charles Halleck unseat GOP leader Joe Martin. 2/x
A few years later, a plucky Illinois congressman named Donald Rumsfeld helped Ford unseat Halleck, using the same secret-ballot process. Ford escaped the ritual FRAG-ing by being named Vice President. 3/x
John Rhodes and Bob Michel smelled the blood on the carpet and retired before they could be taken out by Michel and Gingrich, respectively. John Boehner, who didn’t even serve in leadership at the time, jacked Roy Blunt in a minority leader race in 2006. 4/x
Boehner himself had been knocked out of leadership by a challenge to his conference chairmanship nearly a decade earlier. 5/x
The point: there’s no such thing as an easy leadership race among House Republicans. Scalise is rattling his saber loudly already. He’s always been well-liked. He’s seen as more conservative than McCarthy (who is widely viewed, for better and worse, as without ideology). 6/x
This could be a barn-burner. I suspect Scalise is trying to get McCarthy to back down from a possible race to succeed Ryan, basically puffing out his chest to see if McCarthy runs away. STILL, fascinating that Rachael’s reporting shows a potential line of sabotage. 7/x
Trump seems to like both McCarthy and Scalise a LOT. Would he weigh in? And, after Rs lose seats in November (assuming they do) would it work? So much to think about. Thanks, @rachaelmbade, for the hot stove fodder on Opening Day. 8/8
