I did not originally set out to write about each of these three Republican leaders — McConnell, McCarthy, and Scalise — in a concerted effort, but I wrote each one just as the subject arose. For the full version of each of these three columns, please follow the link embedded in each headline.
What Majority Leader Scalise can do for Louisiana (NOLA.COM, Nov. 27):
While it is assumed to be a good thing for Louisiana that one of its congressmen, Steve Scalise, will be House majority leader in the new Congress, most people are somewhat vague about why his position will help the state.
In truth, the advantages lie as much in the ability to bird-dog small policy matters as in the chance to produce direct spending in Louisiana, and as much in informal powers and staffing advantages as in any specific, formal authority….
McConnell isn’t a bad Senate leader, but he should lead for only one more Congress (Nov. 22): Longtime Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) should make private succession plans so that he can leave his post of power when the next Congress concludes at the end of 2024.
It’s not that McConnell has been a failure as a leader, nor that any Republican in the Senate has shown greater tactical acumen. That’s why he will be leader again for the next two years — and not undeservedly so…..
WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 17: (L-R) Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) applaud as Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis delivers an address to a joint meeting of Congress, in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol on May 17, 2022 in Washington, DC. A day earlier, Mitsotakis held bilateral meetings with President Joe Biden where the two leaders discussed Greek-U.S. relations and their support of the people of Ukraine in the face of invasion by Russia. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Kevin McCarthy absolutely should not be Speaker (Nov. 22): If it is silly to put lipstick on a pig, it is almost indescribably foolish to try a whole makeover to pretend the pig is a peacock. Yet that’s what Republican leader Kevin McCarthy did on Fox News Sunday morning.
McCarthy’s absurd claims to host Maria Bartiromo give yet more evidence that he’s the wrong man to be Speaker of the House next year….
