McCarthy’s pragmatism is promising

From his early days in Congress, Kevin McCarthy has been courted by Silicon Valley industry as an ally. Let’s hope it pays off when he takes over as House majority leader.

On some core issues, such as climate change, the Bakersfield conservative is far from the Bay Area’s camp. But he is more of a business Republican than tea party Republican. (We mean that as a compliment, but the term drips with contempt when uttered by anti-government conservatives.)

McCarthy has a streak of political pragmatism that could— dare we whisper it— lead to actually getting something done in Congress. He was part of the bipartisan majority last week to require warrants for government snooping in U.S. communication databases, a victory for San Jose Rep. Zoe Lofgren— also a campaigner for immigration reform.

Of course that’s the main thing on our minds and those of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, which has cultivated a relationship with McCarthy.

But reform again has become the third rail of Washington politics since Eric Cantor’s defeat in his Virginia district by tea party activist Dave Brat, who slammed Cantor for being open to immigration reform.

But Cantor’s loss is no bellwether for reform. The people who voted for Brat wouldn’t even fill AT&T Park.

McCarthy and Speaker John Boehner, like Cantor, know reform is needed. The GOP in general should be on board, since nonpartisan analysis shows it will reduce rather than exacerbate the federal deficit and since polls indicate a strong majority of Americans— including tea party activists— support it.

According to a poll of 400 self-identified tea partyers released in May by the Tea Party Express, Partnership for a New American Economy and Americans for Tax Reform, upward of 70 percent wanted reform this year along the lines of Boehner’s proposal, including a path to citizenship (if not an easy one).

Conservatives such as Grover Norquist and business groups like the Chamber of Commerce are clamoring for reform.

If the message is to look to your home base for guidance on this, McCarthy should be on board. His district is 35 percent Latino and largely agrarian, reliant on migrant workers.

He has said he’d support legal status for some undocumented immigrants, although stopping short of citizenship. To Fox News and tea party commentators, this is treason. To us, it’s too timid, but it leaves a door open.

McCarthy’s tenure as majority leader could be short, since the far right in Congress finds him too, um, reasonable. That should be all the more reason for him to try to get something done that will be good for California and the nation. Silicon Valley hopes it’s immigration reform.