The GOP does have an alternative…and God help us all if they fail to act on it!
Kevin McCarthy is the Republican establishment’s anointed candidate to succeed John Boehner as House Speaker. Jason Chaffetz has announced he intends to run for the post.
That McCarthy is the Establishment’s pick, alone, should disqualify McCarthy from selection to that powerful position, which has been so abused by the last two people who held it.
But McCarthy has disqualified himself. We have previously referred to his obvious unfitness for the job, based on his statement to Sean Hannity in which he suggested that the motivation for the naming of a select committee to investigate events surrounding the Benghazi disaster was simply a political action to lower Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers.
It must rank among the all time bonehead remarks by a politician. It is a potential “party brand destroying” gaffe that even Joe Biden is not foolish enough to make (Boy! That is saying something!).
And McCarthy made it in response to an interview with one of the most conservative-sympathetic media hosts in the business.
If the House does not name the most viable alternative candidate to the Speakership, Jason Chaffetz, Kevin McCarthy will be the most sought after talk show guest in all of politics.
Liberal hosts will revel in the opportunity to ask this fool “gotcha” questions from now until November 2016.
Scenes from 3:10 To Yuma and excerpt from 1957 NY Times review:
That is to say, it tells a story of a peace-loving cowboy who is pressed by personal need and a sense of moral lightness into upholding the law against a band of ruthless toughs. It paces the suspense of his ordeal against the scheduled arrival of a train. And it leaves him all alone in the clammy stillness of a frightened cow-town to shoot it out with the unrelenting toughs.
. . . This man is a smooth and smiling bandit who amiably taunts our nervous boy, tempts him with bribes and confidently warns him that the gang will close in for a rescue before the arrival of that jail-bound train. . . .
But for all that (and other varying details), the theme and the issues are the same—a man beset by doubts and lawless bullies has the courage to face responsibility. Under unmerciful tension, he awaits the showdown whistle of that train.
DLH
