October 9, 2015

With McCarthy Out, Is Ryan Up?

The Wisconsin Republican may be the man to unite the party.

Kevin McCarthy abruptly dropped out of the race for House speaker Thursday when it became evident he didn’t have the votes, and the Republican conference vote has been postponed indefinitely. “I don’t want to go to the floor and win with 220 votes,” said the current majority leader, who might not have reached even that threshold. “I think the best thing for our party is to win with 247 votes.” That’s the total number of Republicans in the House — important because, if McCarthy had needed Democrat votes to win the speakership, it would have meant concessions to Nancy Pelosi.

“This was for the good of the team,” he said. So McCarthy’s 11th-hour withdrawal is a laudable display of a little humility rare among Swamp-dwellers.

“For us to unite, we probably need a fresh face,” McCarthy added. “If we are going to unite and be strong, we need a new face to help do that.”

There are rumors that McCarthy was engaged in an extramarital affair with Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC), and his decision was brought about by a letter from Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) calling on any candidate who has committed “misdeeds” to withdraw. But McCarthy dismissed those rumors, and there is little reason at this point to believe them. Going forward, we’ll see.

More important, his recent gaffe, a boneheaded explanation of the Benghazi committee’s purpose, was a priceless gift to Hillary Clinton and her fellow Democrats, and it rendered him unfit for the speaker’s post in the eyes of many colleagues. That and John Boehner’s endorsement — many conservatives were quite pleased to be rid of Boehner, and few were keen on immediately passing the reins to his right-hand man.

Had the leadership actually led instead of looking for ways to bow to Barack Obama’s agenda, the Right wouldn’t be so divided.

National Review’s Rich Lowry explains, “The Republican nervous breakdown is entirely self-inflicted. Understanding the House caucus is less Politics 101 than scorpions in a bottle. The right of the caucus hates and distrusts the leadership, while most of the rest of the caucus hates and distrusts the right, and no one has the standing to bring all sides together in a semblance of unity.”

The 40-plus member House Freedom Caucus had just endorsed Daniel Webster (R-FL) for the post, and Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) likewise was making a push in the race.

Neither of those candidates, however, has anywhere near the necessary majority at this point, which has led to some speculation about who else might rise up for the post. Namely, Paul Ryan, the current chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and Mitt Romney’s VP pick in 2012.

Ryan so far has categorically denied interest or intention in running for the post, preferring the policy details of Ways and Means — not to mention seeing his young family once in a while — to wrangling votes from a rambunctious Republican conference.

For the record, we think Ryan would make an outstanding speaker, and he may be the most logical choice to unite the House Freedom Caucus with the rest of the conference. Ryan is a solidly conservative deal maker.

Bloomberg columnist Ramesh Ponnuru writes, “Ryan is respected by most people on both sides of the divide. Many of the Republicans who were against Boehner and McCarthy would listen to him, and trust him to listen to them. They sometimes disagree with him, but they trust that he is in politics because of conservative ideas. No other House Republican has the same reservoir of goodwill. No other House Republican is considered as good a spokesman on such politically perilous issues as entitlement reform.”

Now what? The speaker election has been postponed and Boehner will likely remain until someone gets to 218 votes. The trouble is, leadership is a thankless job and few seem to want it.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.