The 20 Republicans who have refused to support Rep.-Elect Kevin McCarthy for Speaker of the House are neither "terrorists" nor "insurrectionists" nor are they "blackmailers." And they aren't "holding the American people hostage until their demands are met."
The 200+ Republicans supporting McCarthy are not "Uni-party swamp monsters" who "do the bidding of the permanent political class and Globalist elites."
The conservative radio hosts, television personalities and columnists who have been calling for the deadlock to end so that the 118th Congress can get to work with the Jordan/Comer-led investigations into the Afghanistan debacle, Covid origins, Fauci lies, FBI corruption, the Biden Family crimes among other neglected atrocities are not "Never Trump cuckservatives propping up the RINO establishment in exchange for big bucks and media influence."
Maybe all the people who have engaged in the passionate process over the leadership of the new, Republican-led House of Representatives aren't the enemy of the state. Maybe everyone's motives shouldn't be questioned.
Maybe everybody in this vital debate is, to a certain extent, right.
And... maybe they're also a little wrong.
Personally, I find myself in the camp that doesn't really have a strong, passionate feeling for or against McCarthy. I just want to get on with the investigations.
Frankly, the 118th Congress, by design, won't really pass many bills... at least, bills that have a chance of becoming law. With a Democrat majority in the Senate and Joe Biden in the White House, the best the House can do is pass symbolic bills that won't go anywhere and conduct multiple hearings exposing the disaster that Washington, DC, has become.
All the Speaker can do in that process is stay out of the way, which, notably, McCarthy has promised to do.
That said, I don't know McCarthy, and I don't have to work with him. The Speaker of the House has little impact on the citizens of our country but has an overwhelming impact on the 434 members of Congress who have to live with him. The majority of the members of that body know him better than the rest of us, and they don't want him. He has to come to terms with that.
And this is where I am... confused.
You see, over the past several weeks, as this drama over McCarthy's footing with the House has played out, we've heard from all of his surrogates and defenders. They've all made the case for McCarthy as Speaker. Well... sort of.
Over the past few days, as the debate has intensified, Team McCarthy hasn't done much in the way of defending or promoting their guy as much as they've thrown verbal bombs at his detractors or made pleas to move on from the process and get to work.
Newt Gingrich called the 20 "blackmailers" dozens of times on my radio show this week.
Dan Crenshaw called them "terrorists" on Guy Benson's program.
Sean Hannity debated Rep.-Elect Lauren Boebert like she was Alan Colmes in a dress on his cable news program.
Brian Kilmeade called them "insurrectionists."
Rep.-Elect Mike Waltz presented a passionate press conference with fellow military veterans in Congress who want to move forward with the Afghanistan pullout investigations.
Rep.-Elect Jim Jordan spoke passionately on the House floor about moving past the debate and getting to business.
None of McCarthy's defenders and supporters ever had very much to say on behalf of McCarthy. They didn't explain to us that he is a rock-ribbed conservative with constitutional principles baked into his DNA. They didn't explain how he's a true believer and not a political opportunist. They didn't make the conservative case for McCarthy.
Even stranger... Kevin McCarthy hasn't made the case for Kevin McCarthy.
The man wants to be Speaker of the House... why doesn't he... speak?
He sits benignly in his chair as member after member speaks on his behalf or rips him to shreds, and he just looks forlornly at the wall. He never stands up and makes an argument for his leadership. He doesn't fire back at Rep.-Elects Gaetz, Roy, or Biggs and shows them how they're wrong about him.
He doesn't do anything, it seems.
We assume he's working behind the scenes, behind closed doors. We assume he's putting together a strategy to get past this... however, if he is, it's a pretty awful strategy. We've literally stayed in the same spot for three days now.
Is this how he will lead?
McCarthy's first task as Speaker of the House is to get enough votes to be elected Speaker of the House, and he has failed to do that. You can blame the 20 holdouts, who are clearly responsible for the current impasse, but you must also admit that this is a failure of McCarthy's leadership, influence, or tactics.
And meanwhile, McCarthy remains in his seat, letting events transpire around him, letting others argue on his behalf... without ever actually doing so himself.
If he wants to be Speaker of the Houser, he should make the case to Republicans and the American people why he deserves to be Speaker of the House. At the very least, we deserve that courtesy, don't we?
If he wants to be Speaker of the House, maybe he should get up on his feet and... speak.
