SITREP - October 10th, 2015

Statement

What a sorry, sorry mess the House of Representatives has become… I think that pretty much sums up the week in Washington. In short, in case you've missed any of this, last month, House Speaker John Boehner surprised everybody by announcing his resignation effective the end of October. His number two, current House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy was expected by most to replace him. In normal times, he almost certainly would have. These are not normal times.

On Thursday morning, as the House Republican Conference gathered to elect a nominee for speaker, McCarthy stood up and abruptly announced that he was pulling out of the race. The party, the press, the pundits -- everybody was stunned.

The presumptive nominee quit. He couldn't get the votes he needed.

For the rest of the day, chaos reigned. Everybody and his brother has been mentioned as a candidate for speaker at this point. A large handful of members have put their names forward. Seemingly even more have taken themselves out of consideration. My friend from Texas, Mac Thornberry (the current chairman of the House Armed Services Committee) summed it up well. When asked by a reporter about his name being mentioned for speaker, Mac said simply, "I'd rather be a vegetarian."

That seems to be the sentiment. I would suggest to you that our military service academies, Fortune 500 leadership programs, business students across the country, so on and so forth, could all glean a lot about the nature of leadership and what inevitably happens in its absence.

Frankly, there is no true leader of House Republicans right now -- not one that can bring the entire conference together. The only people right now who seem to enjoy that kind of broad support don't want to touch the speaker's chair with a ten foot pole. It's easy to understand why.

Even in the best of times (and this ain't exactly the best of times), serving as speaker is seen as a career-ender for anyone who secures that office. Only one speaker of the House, for instance, has ever gone on to be president. That was James Polk back in 1860. And if you're ok with forgoing a presidential bid to serve at the helm of the House, then you can look forward to a) almost never seeing your family, b) being relentlessly villainized by the other party, and c) these days at least, being relentlessly villainized by your own party.

When I voted against giving Speaker Boehner another term back in January, it wasn't because I didn't feel sympathy for the guy. It's a crummy job and he willingly volunteered to do it. But it was abundantly clear to me in January where things were headed. Based on that, it was obvious a new unifying figure would be needed to lead us going forward. In the months that followed that vote, a steady stream of my rank and file colleagues privately came up and said they too couldn't see the way forward. That, dear friends, perhaps more than anything else, is the real meaning of leadership - your troops know the way forward, they know the objective, and they share a common belief that the objective can be achieved if they all work as one.

Instead, a common refrain was said and heard by all -- "We have no idea what the way forward is. We can't describe the plan. We don't know what the objective is and we can't say what victory looks like". All anybody knows is that the leadership planned to wait till the last minute, "let the pressure build a little" and then try to pull a rabbit out of a hat. That hasn't worked but it has remained the tactic of choice.

There are always divisions within a party. And there are frequently times when the House is controlled by one party and the presidency is controlled by the other. But there are also plenty of examples throughout our history where congressional leaders have risen above those circumstances and delivered real results for the American people. Say what you will about the specifics of what they accomplished, but Tip O'Neill / Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich / Bill Clinton delivered legislative results. No one could accuse them of anything less.

The House leadership right now faces the unenviable reality of satisfying neither conservatives nor the independents in the middle. Nobody is happy and nobody is seeing results. The promises that were made to Americans and the promises that were made to us as members of the House have not been fulfilled. The situation has devolved so far that many in Congress question whether the leadership situation is salvageable at all. It's sad that things have gotten so far off track, but that's the reality of where things are.

Who can step into the role and successfully pull "the People's House" out of the mud? It's hard to say right now. I honestly don't even know who the real candidates are, let alone if any of them have the skills, character, will, and reputation to pull it off.

I hope to have more insight in the weeks ahead. Frankly, in the meantime, other than trying to build some consensus with my colleagues and encourage those who I think would do a good job, all I know to do is pray for the health of the institution and the realization of a path forward.

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