McCarthy Endorses Tom Emmer as Speaker

As you all know, the House Speaker race has become a debacle.

We have three different factions of the Republican Party all looking to make the other look foolish.

Even though Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) had the support of Donald Trump, moderate Republicans shut him out because of his relationship with Trump.

Time for a New Speaker

The demise of both Rep. Scalise (R-LA) and Jordan means we need to identify another candidate who will garner the support of enough Republicans to get to 217.

Rep. McCarthy (R-CA) believes that individual will be Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN), and I think he is dead wrong.

In endorsing Emmer, McCarthy stated, "He is the right person for the job. He can unite the conference. He understands the dynamics of the conference. He also understands what it takes to win and keep a majority."

Emmer made his plea to the caucus this weekend, stating, "Our Conference remains at a crossroads, and the deck is stacked against us. We have no choice but to fight like hell to hold on to our House majority and deliver on our conservative agenda."

There are two reasons that I would disagree that Emmer is the right man for the job.

First, and most importantly, as the Whip, it was his job to get everyone in line for Scalise, and he could not even get Scalise to a vote. We saw the same failings when McCarthy was running, as well as Jim Jordan.

Secondly, with his close ties to McCarthy, there is no way the MAGA wing will ever support him as Speaker.

The only way I see this Speaker race being resolved is if we have someone who is currently not in leadership and not associated with MAGA. This will also have to be someone who has not openly criticized MAGA members in the party.

Republicans were expected to meet on Monday for possible candidates to whip up support, then a ballot is expected to be taken on Tuesday.

I guess we will see just how divided the House remains when those names are revealed and the ballots are counted.