Now that Republicans have taken over the majority in the House of Representatives, they must select the next Speaker of the House. The presumptive selection is Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who is a terrible choice. McCarthy does not deserve a promotion and the country deserves someone better.
McCarthy is considered next because of his longtime position in Republican leadership. He is currently the minority leader. McCarthy is the status-quo for Speaker, the business-as-usual candidate, the if-you-like-congress-then-you’ll-love-this-guy guy. Well, conservatives don’t like congress, we don’t want business as usual, we want someone else.
First off, McCarthy should take a lot of blame for a historic underwhelming performance in the midterms. Democrats have dropped the ball with control of the White House and Congress. Republicans have been accurately quoting Democrats on their explanation of record high inflation, record high gas prices, record high costs at the grocery store. Those failures are the result of Democratic policies, which McCarthy opposed, but can’t take credit for orchestrating their demise. But McCarthy and his leadership team couldn’t put together a winning message of how to confront the failures of the Biden administration.
Now that the election is over, setting the agenda and effectively communicating that agenda are the top jobs of the House Speaker. McCarthy has proven he can’t handle either.
McCarthy’s foolish mismanagement of the Jan. 6th Committee is a recent example of his lack of necessary leadership skills. He tried to stop the committee and failed, which left no one on the committee to offer honest cross-examination.
His congressional legislative record includes too many big spending packages, some mislabeled as infrastructure bills.
Take a look at McCarthy’s home state of California right now. People are fleeing. The Grapes of Wrath in reverse. We should not be asking a Californian to become a national leader. Really, look at California.
McCarthy’s comment on Benghazi from 2015 is still a big deal. McCarthy said in a TV interview, “Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping.” No. The Benghazi committee was about important oversight of a tragic event. It was not about Hillary’s “unbeatable” status. McCarthy’s comments were so completely inartful that he can’t be trusted to be a disciplined communicator.
It should be this simple- If he’s a California moderate who is a poor communicator, then he is disqualified from being Speaker.
But the wealthy Californian can fundraise; that’s his strength. While money is message, his assent to the top of Republican leadership should not have been so heavily dependent on fundraising. Conservative principles is a more appropriate bedrock.
There are reports that Rep. Andy Biggs from Arizona will challenge McCarthy. Biggs is part of the Freedom Caucus, he’ll do fine. Rep. Bob Good in Virginia’s 5th District pledged his support for Biggs last night. I prefer Rep. Daniel Webster of Florida. Webster, also a member of Freedom Caucus, has experience having served as Speaker of the Florida state house.
The accurate way to read the mandate given to the new slim Republican majority is pick someone new to be leader. The same old song and dance won’t work at the next ball. California style Republicans did not win across the country on Tuesday, so a bland California Republican should not lead this new majority.
