Regarding the Speakership – Let’s Shake Things Up This Time

For the past several days, Washington D.C. has been all abuzz. Not only did Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg make an appearance, but Speaker of the House Paul Ryan announced he was retiring to “spend more time with his family.” That or he’s getting out while the getting’s good.

Still, as a parent myself, and after hearing his reasons for no longer wanting to be just a “weekend dad,” I get it, and I believe him. He has missed practically the entire childhood of all his children. That’s motivation enough for me.

On the political side, Ryan said that “I like to think I've done my part, my little part in history to set us on a better course.” Indeed you have, Mr. Speaker, indeed you have (I say at least partly facetiously).

Alright – so Ryan is leaving. Who then will take his place? Will it be just another swamp-thing, or like the Executive branch, are they going to opt to shake things up?

The insider conventional wisdom is that it is likely to be the next man up. Isn’t that the way the GOP operates? Not who will be most effective – just whose turn it is next.

And to that, the insider money appears to be on current House Majority leader Kevin McCarthy, the second most liberal California Republican member of the House.

McCarthy sports a Conservative Review Liberty Score of F at 36%. Yeah, that’s who we want. Another watered-down, deal-making establishment hack for the leader of the House.

Another name being tossed about is that of Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise, the current Republican House Majority Whip. We all know Scalise, who came to prominence as the survivor of the Republican softball shooting. Since then his popularity has skyrocketed.

But there’s a problem. The shooting has done nothing to cause Scalise to be more conservative. He’s a cut above McCarthy but still garners a solid ‘F’ at 49%, when it comes to his conservative voting record.

This is to be expected. One does not land a leadership role in either the House or Senate without being a proven member of the establishment.

But how about they try something different this time? Heck, so far it’s working well for the President. Why not try it in the House?

Many say that the obvious choice is the current leader of the Freedom Caucus, Mark Meadows of North Carolina, but, “Leadership has never been on my bucket list,” Meadows told a reporter for MSNBC.

If not Meadows, then who? Well, the press is reporting that Jim Jordan, of the House Freedom Caucus and second most conservative Republican House member for the State of Ohio, is considering the possibility. He has a stellar conservative rating of ‘A’ at 96% and would be a great choice for Speaker.

Yesterday, The Daily Wire received an email from Jordan stating:

“What’s important is not who the next Speaker is, but what the next Speaker does. It’s time to start delivering on what we told the American people we would do. We have six more months to prove Republicans deserve to keep the majority. If and when there is a Speaker’s race, colleagues have approached me about running and that’s something I’m open to doing.”

The nice thing about Jordan is that, unlike the swamp-things in leadership, we can actually believe him when he says this.

So in the immortal words of the eighties rock band The Cars: Let’s “Shake it up.”