How not to be a House Speaker

I have never been part of a political body any larger than a Home Owners’ Association

(and, to be honest, that pretty well cured me of wanting to seek any other kind of office), so I cannot claim to have any special insight on the dynamics of our legislatures. Still, it seems to me that we have just witnessed some incredible lessons in how — and how not — to pick a presiding officer.

The process that led to the election of Mark Rozzi as the Pennsylvania House Speaker was every bit as unusual as that which led to Kevin McCarthy’s election as the U.S. House Speaker, if less spectacular.

Rozzi, a Democrat, was nominated in a surprise move by Republican Assemblyman Jim Gregory. The two had worked together on an amendment that would allow adults who were victims of sexual abuse as children to sue their abusers, and they had developed a mutual respect for each other. Facing the possibility of dysfunctional partisan infighting, Gregory pushed to find a suitable middle ground candidate, one that would also appeal to Democrats.

The Rozzi drama is not over — he has yet to fulfill his promise to switch his registration to Independent, and Gregory now says he feels betrayed and has called for Rozzi to step down. But the process started with reasonable people in both parties finding a way to compromise.

Contrast that with Washington, where McCarthy’s repeated scuttling came at the hands of his own party. Even at the end, six members could not bring themselves to vote for him, instead they voted “Present,” thereby reducing the number of votes required to secure a majority.

To add to this (or maybe to subtract from it), one of the major concessions McCarthy made was accepting a rule change that would allow for any one member of the House to force a vote to fire McCarthy as speaker.

The main question I have is, why would McCarthy want the job at this point? Everyone agrees that those who refused to vote for him have no agenda and no actual interest in governing. They were elected for their ability to make a spectacle by people who were more interested in seeing someone stand up to various bogeymen than craft policy. Not only do the majority of representatives not want McCarthy as Speaker, but a significant number of his own party have made it clear that they do not respect him and have leveraged that to extract from McCarthy the right to extort him for the next two years.

I used to be a believer in logjam politics. I grew up in a Reagan Republican household believing that “government is the problem.” (What a prescient signpost for where the GOP was heading.) But over the years it has become painfully clear that getting nothing done is not just wasting opportunities, it is also constructive abandonment.

The infrastructure problems we have been talking about for decades did not spring up overnight, they started becoming problems through the neglect hidden behind “small government.” The constant need to sure up Social Security stems from a constant refusal to create a long-term solution. The escalating crisis at the border is the direct result of forever kicking the can down the road on immigration reform.

What we need are effective leaders who can find common ground with reasonable people from both sides. What we got instead is McCarthy, whose tunnel vision left him blind to the fact that a majority-breaking bloc in his own party will never compromise. McCarthy is almost certainly doomed to be one of the least effective speakers ever, and he will look all the worse in contrast to Pelosi, whose legislative accomplishments — whether you liked them or not — were so numerous they could not fit into this column.

I take heart that a Republicans-for-actually-governing caucus here in Pennsylvania seems to have figured out a way to defeat the hostage-taking, earthscorchers in their midst: find a reasonable Democrat, exact a few promises, and surprise the heck out of everyone by putting governing above party. While I would prefer a Democrat swinging the gavel in Harrisburg, I do hope Rozzi follows through on his promise, if only to sure up my faith in compromise.

But in Washington, McCarthy will accomplish only one thing as speaker: being the speaker. Fortunately, that seems to have been his goal all along. But while that works for him on a personal level, in what way does it serve our country?