To add to the GOP chaos of the past few months, Kevin McCarthy, the House Majority Leader, dropped his bid as speaker of the House. In September, John Boehner announced he would be leaving the position on October 30th. Kevin McCarthy had his name in the running, but suddenly announced today he would no longer be running. According to CNN, McCarthy told reporters on the scene "I think I shocked some of you, huh?” (Kopan). When questioned further on the matter, CNN reported McCarthy said "If we're going to unite and be strong, we need a new face to do that.” McCarthy also added “that he did not want to win the race on the House floor with only enough votes to squeak by” (Kopan). McCarthy dropping out comes with many more implications
Kevin McCarthy has been a strong GOP presence in the House for a long time, and his dropping out of the bid might lead to serious consequences for the GOP. Many republican presidential candidates aren’t too worried about the speaker position. Jeb Bush reportedly just said he was surprised that the California representative had dropped out of the race, but he promoted Florida representative Daniel Webster. Of course, Donald Trump weighed in on Twitte with, “Great, Kevin McCarthy drops out of SPEAKER race. We need a really smart and really tough person to take over this important job!” Ben Carson said McCarthy deserved “Kudos for putting others before himself.” (Rafferty).
The house speaker will most likely be a Republican, as they are the majority of the House. MSNBC reported “House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi simply said it is ‘up to House Republicans to choose the next Speaker,’ seeming to throw cold water on the idea that the parties could compromise on finding a speaker that would be chosen with votes from both parties (Rafferty).
What do you think?
Who will get to be the next Speaker of the House?
Does this affect the Republican race at all?
Will Democrats and Republicans be able to come to a compromise on the next speaker of the house?
Will the next speaker affect any shutdowns that may happen over gun control or contraception issues?
Sources:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2015/10/08/house-majority-leader-kevin-mccarthy-drops-out-of-race-for-house-speaker/
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/08/politics/house-speaker-republican-vote-mccarthy-webster-chaffetz/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/06/house-of-representatives_n_2038790.html
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/gop-shocked-kevin-mccarthy-decision
Sources:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2015/10/08/house-majority-leader-kevin-mccarthy-drops-out-of-race-for-house-speaker/
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/08/politics/house-speaker-republican-vote-mccarthy-webster-chaffetz/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/06/house-of-representatives_n_2038790.html
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/gop-shocked-kevin-mccarthy-decision
2 comments:
Honestly, I have no clue who the next Speaker of the House will be. However, the difficulty that the House of Representatives is having in choosing a Speaker is largely a result of the factional disputes that have erupted among the members of the Republican Party. Thus, the fact that Republicans are unable to select a leader for the House of Representatives is not going to affect the presidential elections per se, but it does demonstrate the deep rifts that exist between the conservative and establishment wings of the party; these party divisions as a whole are what will ultimately affect the presidential race, since many people are fed up with moderate republicans and want a conservative in office.
Regarding a compromise between Democrats and Republicans, a bipartisan compromise is not exactly necessary in this situation, since the GOP has a majority in the House. In addition, the next Speaker may be able to prevent shutdowns in the future if he appeals to all sides of the Republican Party, but it is likely that the powerful conservative minority will continue to push for their radical views without compromise, thus perpetuating the divisions that already exist within the party.
I think that the next Speaker of the House will definitely be a Republican because they are the majority party, but as to who it will be specifically, I do not have a guess. I believe that the Republicans and Democrats will settle on the next speaker much more easily considering that the GOP is the majority party, so they will most likely get the position. As much as this may not directly affect the republican race, McCarthy's statement trying to justify his dropping out of the running tells a lot about the upcoming election, "If we are going to unite and be strong, we need a new face to do that." This point is very telling of the events of this upcoming election because it shows the prevalence of the idea that our current government is not working and that we need someone totally out of the box to revive it. Many of the presidential candidates have never participated in politics before, like Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, and Donald Trump. This shows how, especially on the republican side, it is very important to the people that the government change dramatically, including the type of person who runs it. The next speaker of the house may influence any shutdowns over gun control and contraceptives because their party will very drastically affect their positions on the topics, and therefore sway the decisions one way or the other.
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