Since the Republican leadership in the House appears unwilling or incapable of governing maybe it should hand over the Speakership to those who think they can.
Perhaps the next Speaker should be a Tea Party member with unassailable credentials ready to rescue the majority from its untenable position.
The GOP is in a permanent state of war between a tiny but determined faction of radical insurgents who are obviously unappreciative of their more pliable brethren well to the Right who do not pass the Conservative test.
These fellow partisans are viewed simply as cowardly obstructionists standing in the way of carrying out what they perceive to be the true will of the people.
A simple way to test this is by putting a Tea Party stalwart in command to enforce the discipline which former Speaker, John Boehner, for all his efforts could not accomplish and which his handpicked successor, California’s Kevin McCarthy, chose not to try.
California counts only 3 Tea Party members in the GOP congressional delegation which totals 14. They are Tom McClintock, 4th CD; Ed Royce; 39th CD; and Gary Miller, 42ndCD. There are no Democrats.
Texas has by far the largest Tea Party contingent with 17.
Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin who many view as the one savior able to take his party to the Promised Land and palatable to many Tea Partiers, will be making a big mistake if he accepts the gavel and is probably too smart to do so.
Even were Ryan to get the unanimous consent which he has demanded, the shackles that would be placed on him in return for the Tea Party’s support would make the job quickly unbearable.
Declining it, he remains well positioned as Chair of the powerful Ways & Means Committee to put his imprint on GOP policy for years to come without having to run the Freedom Party gauntlet.
Further, it preserves his chances of capturing his party’s presidential nomination up the road without having to dirty himself in the nasty feuding now going on.
As a footnote, only one Speaker ever made it to the presidency, that being a Democrat, James K. Polk, who led the chamber from 1835-39.
Which leads us back to why someone in the Tea Party should be given a tryout.
For one thing, there would be little trouble finding someone to accept the offer and the House would not be in any worse shape than it is now.
More so, instead of being forced to say NO to all the proposals which the Democrats have been putting forward, Republicans who still believe in the legitimacy of two-party government might want to begin saying NO to their rebellious colleagues.
That could open the door to some old fashioned bi-partisan bargaining —a hallowed tradition that seems to have lost all sway in present-day Washington.
The Speaker, whomever that might be, would quickly learn that wielding the gavel does not automatically bestow the power to get something done especially if the ideas are too kooky.
While this might not immediately end the disarray, the insurgents could probably count on enough votes in their own Party to forestall their worst decisions, or, at least, by isolating them, might clear the path for some constructive discourse between the Republicans and Democrats.
Ultimately the renegades would have little choice but to curb their ambitions of total domination or face a “no confidence” vote from their fellow members not to mention the growing wrath of a majority of the voters who are ready to say, “I’ve had enough and I am not going to take it anymore.”
The current impasse is not merely poisoning the congressional well but it could easily spill over into the presidential race making it far tougher for the party’s presidential nominee who will be forced to either disavow the extremists’ agenda or embrace the politics which every poll shows are out of favor with the majority of voters.
If the Tea Party leadership model doesn’t work out we could always go back to the current way of doing things at least having exposed once and for all the utter bankruptcy of the present arrangement.