Georgia’s speaker shuffle

The stunning move by Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., to withdraw from the race to replace Speaker John Boehner threw the House into disarray at the end of last week, with big implications for the Georgia delegation.

U.S. Rep. Tom Price, a Roswell Republican, had been running for the majority leader post, assuming McCarthy would move up. He was said to be considering a speaker bid of his own, but he ended the week — like so many of his colleagues — talking about what a great speaker his pal U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., would be if Ryan would only agree to do it.

Price’s intradelegation thunder was stolen by U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, a Coweta County Republican, who all but threw his hat in for a long-shot speaker bid.

But there is another Georgian lurking, waiting for his moment to rise again. You guessed it: Newt Gingrich.

This was the former speaker’s typically grandiose reply when asked by Fox News host Sean Hannity whether he would return, if summoned by the rudderless House Republicans.

“If you were to say to me 218 have called you up and given you their pledge, obviously no citizen could ever turn down that kind of challenge,” Gingrich said. “This is why George Washington came out of retirement — because there are moments you can’t avoid.”