Why a 'bitterly partisan Republican' or 'election denier' should not be the next House speaker: conservative

12 December 2022

During the 2022 midterms, countless Democrats and liberal pundits warned that if Republicans flipped the U.S. House of Representatives, voters could expect a lot of frivolous partisan investigations and political buffoonery from them in 2023. And sure enough, after Republicans won a small House majority, they announced that investigating Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, would be a high priority next year. Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the top Republican on the House Oversight Committee, has cited investigating “woke” corporations as another priority.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is hoping to become House speaker after the new Republican majority is seated on January 3, 2023. But in an article published by The Bulwark on December 12, Never Trump conservative Bill Kristol and author Jeffrey K. Tulis (who teaches government at the University of Texas at Austin) lay out some reasons why McCarthy shouldn’t be given that position.

“In his speech and action, Kevin McCarthy has shown no evidence that he cares about the constitutional order,” Kristol and Tulis argue. “His focus is entirely on the political prospects of his party. His preoccupation is understandable for a party leader, but he now seeks to be elevated from a partisan to a constitutional officer without demonstrating any evident sense of the national responsibility the new role entails. Quite the contrary.”

Kristol and Tulis continue, “This is the first election for speaker of the House since the events of January 6, when a violent mob attacked Congress in an attempt to overturn a constitutional election and the peaceful and constitutional transfer of power. The new speaker — the first post-January 6 speaker — should not be an election denier. The new speaker should not be any of the 147 representatives and senators who went along with the mob and voted to reject the electors from Arizona and Pennsylvania.”

Kristol and Tulis emphasize that the next House speaker “needn’t be a bitterly partisan Republican.”

“There are plenty of Republicans who did not vote to overturn the election results who could serve as speaker,” they note. “One thinks of sitting members respected by their Republican and Democratic peers, like, Michael McCaul or Patrick McHenry…. Five or more Trump loyalists seem poised to deny Kevin McCarthy the office he covets as they seek to deepen the Trump influence on governance in America. Surely, now is the time for five or more public-spirited Republican House members to seize this opportunity to reach out to Democrats to do the right thing. And this is a time for the Democratic caucus to reach out in turn. Together, they could secure a speaker who would not be an embarrassment at best, a threat at worst, to the constitutional order.”

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