Stuck With Rep. McCarthy As GOP House Leader

House Republicans have selected Representative Kevin McCarthy of California as the new House Minority Leader.

Cue the sarcastic clapping. Well done House Republicans, well done.

Rep. Mark Meadows nominated Rep. Jim Jordan, a member of the House Freedom Caucus and grassroots favorite. Jordan was the much better choice. But House Republicans chose McCarthy with 159 votes to 43 for Jordan.

The case against McCarthy is an easy one. But first, let’s identify why he is even in the running for the top Republican leadership position in the House; he’s considered next in line because he has held leadership positions. So, never mind job performance. McCarthy has carried the water for Republicans for the last several years. That means he was in the leadership when Republicans failed to repeal ObamaCare. He was in the leadership for each ceremonial raising of the Debt Ceiling. He was in the leadership for each failure at defunding Planned Parenthood. He was in the leadership for each massive spending bill, including last year’s disastrous omnibus spending nightmare that was rushed through the voting process. So if you were displeased with Speaker Paul Ryan, then you will be very unhappy with McCarthy at the helm.

But an even simpler case against McCarthy is this, from an article published by the Chicago Tribune in 2015 titled “Foolish McCarthy out after handing Clinton a get-out-of-Benghazi-free card-“

“Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right?” McCarthy, who was lined up to be the next speaker, said on Fox News. “But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she’s untrustable. But no one would have known any of that had happened had we not fought.”

That was more than enough to disqualify McCarthy from consideration to replace Jim Boehner as Speaker at that time. And it should’ve been enough to disqualify McCarthy from House Minority Leader this time.

The top two jobs of the House Minority Leader, in addition to his legislative responsibilities, are to speak for the Republican Caucus and to help fundraise for House Republican candidates. McCarthy’s enormous gaffe on the Benghazi hearings proves he doesn’t have the communication skills to be an articulate and knowledgeable leader. But we do love the use of “untrustable.” The point is the Benghazi hearings were about oversight, not politics. A tragedy took place in Benghazi. Four Americans including our ambassador were killed in a terrorist attack. Hard-partisans tried to cover it up for President Obama and for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. It had nothing to do with a peaceful protest with a few people who had large weapons, as Susan Rice tried to say on all the Sunday morning talk shows. And the hearings had nothing to do with impacting Clinton’s poll numbers.

For fundraising, McCarthy is too bland and too boring to excite new donors and/or small dollar donors. Jordan would have given the Republican donor class something exciting to donate to and Jordan has the communication discipline and knowledge to not say something completely off-message and factually inaccurate as McCarthy’s aforementioned idiotic gaffe.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy really dropped the ball on the message behind the Benghazi hearings. He is unqualified to serve as the mouthpiece for House Republicans. So first we lose the House and now we are stuck with McCarthy for at least two years. Unbelievable.

Two years from now, when hopefully Republicans take back the House majority, let’s elect Rep. Jim Jordan as the new Speaker. He’ll be the refreshing new voice that Washington needs. The same old same old ain’t working.

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