That Crazy Speaker Vote
A Lehmann’s Opinion
It was not fourteen and it was not sixteen. The magic number was fifteen! It took 15 times and four days to elect a new Speaker of the House.
The American people should be used to the waiting game. We had to wait for the election results to see who is the next president of the United States. We had to wait for the results of the Georgia Senate race between Republican Hershel Walker and Democrat Raphael Warnock to see what party has the majority in the Senate. Now, we had to wait four days to finally see who is the new Speaker of the House. The citizens of this great country have learned what the “waiting game” is all about.
What gives? The House of Representatives is so divided it can not vote in a Speaker of the House to get on with the work at hand for the American citizens. We waited and we shook our heads in disbelief as the people we elected could not get their act together to vote in someone to lead congress. What I could not understand is that Kevin McCarthy wanted the job. If it was me, I would have handed it to him on a silver platter.
I do not believe that many of us would want that job. Think about the responsibilities of the speaker: He or she determines the agenda of the legislative body, appoints committees, recognizes members to speak on the floor, brings matters up to vote, signs all acts, joint resolutions, writs and subpoenas. And, to top if off, he is second in line of succession to the president of the United States after the vicepresident.
Who is Kevin McCarthy? He is a Republican congressman from California. Speaker McCarthy has served as House Minority Leader in the House of Representatives since 2019. He is married to his high school sweetheart, Judy, and they have two children, Connor and Meghan. During his time in the California legislature, McCarthy focused on economic issues and revamping the state worker’s compensation system, according to his biography.
If you watched the voting as so many Americans did, it was interesting to see the ballots cast and the clerk write down the votes as she called on each elected official. Once again, theAmerican people got to see how the system works. History was in the making.
The good news is we finally have a Speaker of the House. Our elected representatives can now move forward and the work can begin for the American people. The waiting game is finally over.