Names like Brian Fitzpatrick, Don Bacon, Young Kim, Gus Bilirakis, Andrew Barbarino, Chris Smith, David Joyce, Mark Amodei, Maria Salazar, or John Curtis probably don’t jump off the page at you. And you likely couldn’t identify them in a lineup, much less know what state they’re from.
Yet one of these ten should be the next House Speaker.
One of them should be chosen not because they’re household names, but because they’re better qualified for job than a lot of names who have been bandied around by the Republican Party. And one of these would do a better job of keeping the House of Representatives in GOP hands than a lot of better known, but problematic candidates. This column will explain why.
Since a handful of “Republican rebels” used their mighty influence in a House GOP caucus with a precarious position, and engineered the downfall of the increasingly erratic House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, it’s been utter chaos for the party of the right, which is in danger of being left behind. We’ve seen Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz and his seven colleagues preach reconciliation… around their candidate Rep. Jim Jordan.
Even though House Majority Leader Steve Scalise had the necessary qualifications, and received more votes than Jordan, he was kicked to the curb. Then when Jordan failed in three straight votes, Gaetz had the audacity to call it “swampy.” That’s especially ironic, considering allegations of scary intimidation of members of the House of Representatives in the unsuccessful campaign to shoehorn Jordan into the highest office in the House.
The fact that Republicans were actually considering making Jordan their leader showed how desperate the party caucus was to make a decision. Perhaps the party was so worried about looking foolish for taking so long to choose a leader. But working to choose the best leader, even if it takes a little more time, is far less stupid than choosing a bad ruler.
GOP supporters should realize it’s not impossible to govern with a tiny majority. If House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could get a lot of legislation passed with a small margin for error, you’d think Republicans could too.
I chose Reps. Fitzpatrick, Bacon, Kim, Bilirakis, Barbarino, Smith, Joyce, Amodei, Salazar and Curtis for a very important reason. Unlike some of the other names bandied around, none of these representatives are known for their tweets, memes, or bombastic statements attacking the other side. Instead, they’ve all been cited by the Richard Lugar Center and Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy for being the best ranked Republicans in the Bipartisan Index.
Because when you get down to it, that should be the most important factor in picking a House Speaker.
It’s about someone who has experience in getting the job done. That means being able to negotiate, work a deal, compromise, and put one’s country ahead of one’s position in their own political party. Inflation may be down along with unemployment, but we’ve got a deficit to bring down, a Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan to protect, a border policy to craft, as well as foreign and domestic terrorism to defend against. And we don’t want, or need a so-called leader whose gameplan seems to be to cause a government shutdown, not to prevent one.
In fact, Republicans may find that putting the grownups back in charge is the best strategy for retaining the House.