It's Pretty Obvious Who Should be Speaker of the House
The GOP is broken. I think that’s pretty obvious at this point. What should have been a clean sweep during the midterms ended up being a lukewarm showing, giving Republicans a majority that a hair’s width could measure.
This was, in large part, thanks to the GOP’s tepid leadership. Instead of rallying the troops and storming the beaches, the likes of Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy were content to sit back and shrug at any candidate that didn’t fit in with their idea of true Republicanism and D.C. leadership, which really means these candidates were willing to go their own way and snub McConnell if he decided to get squishy with the Democrats again.
McConnell might have been a key player in some of the Republican’s largest victories, but he’s also a constant instigator of its losses. His party affiliation says “Republican,” but the party he actually belongs to is called “McConnell.” He’s attempted to make “Republicanism” and “McConnell” synonymous, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that the voters aren’t biting that bait.
But I digress.
McCarthy is the other piece of this sad puzzle. Despite his constant attempts to look like a team player, he consistently makes moves that indicate he’s just McConnell Lite. As my colleague, Joe Cunningham wrote earlier today, McCarthy’s been maneuvering for a position as Speaker of the House for years and every move he’s made reflects that. This has caused Republican lawmakers to mount a barricade against him:
There is sentiment within the conservative ranks (well-earned sentiment, I believe) that McCarthy has been too hands-off when it came to the midterm elections and that some of the issues of candidate quality on the House side were because he didn’t do a good job of recruiting. That could be due to the fact that he was so focused on his impending Speakership that he didn’t think the GOP could falter in the midterms. In his defense, it appears no one thought the GOP would stumble as hard as they did in November, but if he was expecting to be the leader of the House come this week, he could have done a better job of selecting his troops.
That’s on him. And given the fact that his rise to power has been so blatantly about the power itself, rather than pushing a conservative agenda, he has failed to gain the trust of the people whose votes he needs to secure that power. If McCarthy fails to secure the Speakership for the second time in a decade, it’s a clear sign that he’s simply not meant for the job, and perhaps he needs to consider a different career path.
I couldn’t have said that better. McCarthy is a man out to obtain power and if that means ignoring the needs of his party then so be it.
So who deserves the speakership?
The list, sadly, isn’t that long, but one name clearly stands out amongst the others, and that’s Jim Jordan of Ohio.
Yes, I realize he doesn’t want the job of Speaker of the House. I know he wants to chair the Judiciary Committee and that this would be a job he’d be perfect for. It’d be great to see him in his element like that.
But the fact that he doesn’t want the speakership is, to me, one of the reasons I want him to be Speaker so badly. Jordan is a man who isn’t after power. He’s a man who wants to do the right thing, not just for his own political party, but for the country. His personal ambitions aren’t overshadowing his duties and loyalties.
Moreover, it’s clear that Jordan has, what the kids would call, “that dawg in him.” Jordan suffers no fools and the last thing you want to be is on his bad side while you’re sitting across from him during a committee hearing. Jordan is capable of stripping someone to the bone in a matter of minutes and laying bare all their intentions, hypocrisies, and maliciousness.
He would be a dangerous man with the gavel in his hands, and that willingness to fight like hell is the infusion of confidence and power that the GOP needs in order to become the driving force this country desperately needs right now. Where McCarthy might simper and bend to the Democrats, Jordan would stand directly in their way and dare them to try to move him. He would take the GOP from being a molehill to a mountain the Democrats have to climb in order to get something done.
Marjorie Taylor Greene said that Jordan being speaker is a “conservative fantasy,” and maybe she’s right, but fantasies aren’t beyond coming true if people work for them. Perhaps the voters need to make their will more known. They’re certainly making it clear McCarthy shouldn’t have the gavel, maybe we should start talking about who should have it.
Jim Jordan is perfect for the job, but if he really doesn’t want it and there’s no convincing him, then the next choice, from where I’m sitting, is Chip Roy.
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