Thursday, Jan. 12, 2023 | 2 a.m.
After 15 rounds of voting, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was elected speaker of the GOP-majority House of Representatives, as several members of the “Freedom Caucus” voted present to lower the voting requirement for election. This is hardly a robust affirmation and depended on numerous concessions, but McCarthy said his parents always told him that it didn’t matter how you start but how you finish.
The concessions included appointment of Freedom Caucus members to House committees and the requirement that any representative could motion for McCarthy’s removal as speaker.
This reminds me of the recent holiday season and one of my favorite Christmas movies, “The Bishop’s Wife,” in which actor Cary Grant plays an angel sent to help a bishop (David Niven) who has a conflict in attempting to build an expensive church and pleasing his neglected wife (Loretta Young).
While the angel tries to convince the bishop that $4 million to build the church could be better used for homes, food and caring for the poor and needy, the bishop initially turns his back on his principles and agrees to build the church — not for the glorification of religion but in the countenance of a wealthy widow donor’s late husband.
It’s quite simple for McCarthy to seek office if he’s willing to turn his back on his principles and be placed in an untenable position. But the speaker position lasts two years, and before he talks about finishing anything, let’s see if he’s still speaker come 2024.
