From the first Morning Jolt of the week…
Who Do You Want to Replace John Boehner?
Okay, grassroots conservatives, here’s your chance.
You wanted John Boehner out as Speaker of the House, and now he’s on his way out. Right now the buzz is that House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy is a slam-dunk to be the next speaker.
If grassroots conservatives want one of their own to be speaker, they have to unite quickly behind an alternative… and one who wants the job.
Mark Levin mentioned Jeb Hensarling of Texas and Jim Jordan of Ohio as two better options:
“McCarthy is definitely not one of them,” Levin said. “Scalise isn’t one. Rodgers isn’t one. This is just the usual conga line of the Republican apparatus and bureaucrats, and that’s exactly what we don’t need.”
TheBlaze asked Levin, author of the recently released “Plunder and Deceit,” if he’s willing to name anyone yet.
“Hensarling. I like Jordan,” Levin said. “There are a number of them I like, and I don’t want to exclude anybody by mentioning those two off the top of my head. They would be tremendous.”
Hensarling is mum, and Jordan issued a statement that didn’t rule much in or out:
“The House Freedom Caucus has not yet decided who we will support for the office of Speaker of the House, nor for any positions that could subsequently become vacant. We look forward to meeting with each of the candidates and our Republican Conference colleagues over the coming weeks in a careful and deliberative fashion to discuss how best to ensure that we follow regular order in the House and give a voice to the countless Americans who still feel that Washington does not represent them.”
For what it’s worth, Rep. Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina, one of the founders of the Freedom Caucus, didn’t sound intractably opposed to McCarthy on Fox News Sunday:
WALLACE: Congressman Mulvaney, will McCarthy be the speaker? And is there going to be a change? How many of your members of the harder line conservatives do you think that some will take the top position?
MULVANEY: I think it’s fair to say that Kevin has the inside track for the position of being our leader and so forth. I think the important question is, will things change? Will they change for the better or we simply replace Mr. Boehner with somebody else who do the same thing? So the question I think becomes more one of style — excuse me, substance than of style. I think Kevin is more ground up than top down type of leader. But again, that’s the reason we have elections.
Rep. Daniel Webster’s running, one of the first declared alternatives to Boehner. But there’s a catch:
The 66-year-old faces an uncertain future as the Florida courts decide how to settle a court challenge over gerrymandering in Florida’s 27 congressional districts.
Webster’s request to intervene in the ongoing case was denied; proposed new boundary lines would make his district much more Democratic, ensuring his political demise.
(Daniel Webster’s got a lifetime ACU rating of 78.83. Then again, to most grassroots conservatives the primary issue is not ideology or voting record but whether the next Speaker lets the caucus conservatives shape legislation through amendments and how effectively he fights President Obama.)
FreedomWorks is boasting that its petitions and calls to Congress forced Boehner to resign. Okay, guys. Who do you want?
Ace wants a whole new leadership team. Again, to do this, you need a slate of candidates better than the existing leadership.
Last year a Tea Party group started a petition to make Trey Gowdy of South Carolina the Speaker of the House. Never mind that Gowdy said then, and now, that he doesn’t want the job.