A Consensus Speaker? It's Actually Possible...with Courage

Healing the country will take the strength of a few. Something that is in short supply.

This guy ain’t coming from Congress

We live in unprecedented times.  Ok, I had to say that even though I personally am getting tired of hearing it.  We are trailblazing, but not the kind of trailblazing that leads to statues and drinking songs. The kind that makes you wake up every morning wishing that you were not part of a history making generation.

Of course there are quite a number of reasons to be pessimistic.  However, I truly believe we will emerge from this moment in our country better off, someday.  But that is not a given.  It always takes a movement of people fed up and ready to act.  How?  Well, let’s explore what a solution would be not just to the current crisis with the Speaker, but more broadly speaking with the division in the House itself.  Ill preface this by saying it is likely unrealistic because it would require the courage of 5-10 house Republicans, and courage seems to be in short supply.

The idea of a consensus Speaker has floated around a few times.  I remember when we were dealing with some other crisis in the past, thinking this through and getting close to whipping for votes.  Each time the unprecedented nature of it made it fail, but then again…we are now in the lane of unprecedented. 

If a group of Republican Congressmen decided to replicate the act of the 8 who deposed the speaker, and withheld their votes from the GOP nominee, they could force a consensus.

What does this look like in practice?  Let’s take a friend of mine, Former Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, as an example.  If his name is submitted for Speaker (remember, you don’t have to be a house member) and 5 Republicans and all Democrats voted for him, he would win.  There would be a Republican speaker who is liked by Republicans, and respected by Democrats as an honest man you can trust.  A consensus Speaker would promise to Democrats a fairer committee ratio (the number of GOP and Dems on a committee), maybe the chair of a committee or two, and a commitment to bring bills to the floor for up and down votes in a fair way.  This would go far towards healing the divisions in our nation and would return the Speakership to its intended purpose, not as a leader of a party but the leader of the whole house.  Fred, as Speaker, could return regular order and ensure the business of the house is smooth and effective.

The incentives for this to happen are huge, and popular…in the real world.  In the political world there are many forces in opposition.  From the Democratic side, they would have to unite the caucus to (GASP!) vote for a Republican.  It would be a lesser of two evils calculation.  Politically, however, a house that is functional is not good for politics. 

On the Republican side, every member who voted for the consensus candidate would be seen as a turn coat, a traitor, and worse yet, a RINO.  The vote would likely cost you your job.  But that vote would be historic, and, would truly save this nation on a course to self-destruction.

I well recognize the difficulty of convincing people of this course of action.  After all, it’s never been done in the US House.  But if we are worried about our nation and don’t want to sit by while it fails, maybe this is the exact moment to act.  Americans are used to the man-on-the-white-horse rescue that eventually comes.  The problem is, the horses and the men who have the power to ride in, are asleep as Rome burns.  Maybe it’s time we saddle up ourselves.