Posted on 06/13/2014 6:39:19 AM PDT by cotton1706
All signs point to California Rep. Kevin McCarthy as successor to Virginia's Eric Cantor as House majority leader next week when the Republican conference votes.
On Wednesday, as he came to grips with his shocking congressional primary loss to Randolph-Macon College Economics Professor Dave Brat, Cantor described McCarthy as his "good friend."
One might question the value of being endorsed by the guy who just got shellacked by 12 points after outspending an unknown opponent 50-1. But remember, this is the House Republican conference under discussion here.
Who is Kevin McCarthy?
As chief whip, McCarthy has been the least visible of the top three GOP House leaders, but his voting record makes it clear he is an old guard Establishment Republican who is likely to be far more responsive to Wall Street and K Street than to Main Street.
As the Washington Examiner's Philip Klein points out on Beltway Confidential, McCarthy is to the left of Cantor, a reality that should make his candidacy problematic for House Republicans.
"The American Conservative Union rated McCarthy at 72 percent compared with 84 percent for Cantor; Heritage Action ratings place Cantor at 53 percent and McCarthy at 42 percent; and Club for Growth had Cantor at 68 percent and McCarthy at 53 percent," Klein reports.
"Moving away from conservative groups, the National Journal rated Cantor the 80th most conservative member of the House, while McCarthy was 170th," Klein said. In other words, McCarthy fails the Reagan 80/20 rule.
The stupid party, again?
Just as disturbing from the perspective of Main Street and Tea Party GOPers is that McCarthy is determined to take the party in a direction certain to anger its grassroots, without whose energy and contributions there is no hope of turning the country around.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
McCarthy also asked a radio station in his district to have Mark Levin removed from its lineup. They refused
Good God!
lessons not learned. We’ll know how committed the ruling class is in the next week as the leaders shake out for Whip. If they ram through another quisling K street-loyal Whip, we know they are full speed ahead to screw the base. I wonder if we’ll see that or a nod to the base with a new Whip in favor with the conservative caucus. If it’s the former, this group is in a literal death wish.
Sadly, pretty much. If this were a Statewide election MAYBE it might affect them. They won’t change as a result of Cantor’s defeat. Still, it was a great thing and we need to keep it up even if it’s just slogging through one district at a time.
Name the conservative member running for the office. Within the power structure of the Republican caucus, the voters are largely ignored. The same thing happens in the Democrat caucus.
Is he going to ask them to remove Laura Ingraham too? Yesterday Laura went on a rant against Mc Carthy as Majority Leader.
Yes, because he is 'RC' (ruling class) and we are nothing.
After the next Congress begins next January, they’ll have to reappoint a new majority leader, won’t they?
Perhaps if this November’s election, and more primaries, are as big a shake-up as this VA election was, there might be hope for a better leader in 2015.
McCarthy is the kind of guy who is one luncheon from switching parties and voting for Pelosi.
That McCarthy is from California should disqualify him right there. No Republican congressman from CA is in a position to deliver anything to the conservative side except their own vote, and is under huge pressure to pursue amnesty, CA budget bailouts and pork-barrel spending, etc. Not an acceptable choice, even if he were a stalwart conservative personally (is he?).
It’s amazing how the Dems only pick hardcore 100% liberals from deep blue states as their leaders. Whereas the Stupid party picks squish RINOs from purple and blue states.
Radio hosts Michael Medved likes Kevin McCarthy (and Lindsay Graham) as does Hugh Hewitt. That tells me we need someone else.
McCarthy doesn’t seem to believe in the freedom of expression.
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