Hero: Walter Jones killed McCarthy's Speaker bid?!
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Walter Jones sent out an interesting letter yesterday.
Quote:
Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) wants to avoid the possibility of a member of the new House GOP leadership resigning from office because of a scandal.
In a letter to House GOP Conference Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), Jones asked that Republicans discuss urging candidates for leadership to drop out if they might one day embarrass the party because of past indiscretions.
"With all the voter distrust of Washington felt around the country, I’m asking that any candidate for Speaker of the House, majority leader, and majority whip withdraw himself from the leadership election if there are any misdeeds he has committed since joining Congress that will embarrass himself, the Republican Conference, and the House of Representatives if they become public," Jones wrote.
Jones, who's served in the House since 1995, offered former Speaker Newt Gingrich and Bob Livingston, who ran for Speaker in 1998, as examples. Both Gingrich and Livingston admitted to extramarital affairs.
"Some of the most difficult times have been when our Republican leaders or potential Republican leaders must step down because of skeletons in their closets," Jones wrote.
"As members of the House of Representatives, we need to be able to represent the will of the people unhindered by potentially embarrassing scandals."
House Republicans will vote behind closed doors on Thursday to nominate a candidate for Speaker to replace retiring John Boehner (R-Ohio). Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is expected to emerge as the victor, but will still have to secure 218 votes on the floor when the House votes to elect a new Speaker on Oct. 29.
Jones is backing Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.) for Speaker. Webster is considered a long shot against the front-runner McCarthy, who also faces Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah).
Hmm...I wonder if he was referring to the alleged McCarthy-Renee Ellmers affair?
From Charles Johnson:
Quote:
Multiple sources within Bakersfield, North Carolina, & on Capitol Hill tell Gotnews.com that Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Renee Ellmers (R-NC) have been carrying on a long-running affair since 2011.
The affair is something of an open secret in Washington, D.C. Reporters at other publications, lobbyists, congressional staffers of both parties all know about it. One staffer for a congressman describes it as the “biggest open secret” in D.C. A lobbyist describes Ellmers as a “social climber who has ingratiated herself” with McCarthy.
House leadership also knows about the affair. Speaker John Boehner reportedly told McCarthy to stop the affair once McCarthy was elected Majority Leader says a well placed congressional staffer. At least one leadership staffer doesn’t think the affair ended. “They are unusually close,” says the staffer who insists that the affair is going on. “It’s weird if he’s not fucking her.”
Ellmers, who was elected in 2010, has traveled with Kevin McCarthy throughout North Carolina on the campaign trail in 2014. McCarthy campaigned for Ellmers during her 2014 primary challenge with radio talk show host Frank Roche.
The New York Times discussed McCarthy and Ellmers’s working relationship in a 2011 article.
McCarthy, who can’t stand the sight of blood, appreciates the ex-nurse’s toughness. Ellmers is one of nine women in this high-testosterone freshman class and has to find her own way of being heard. She barraged McCarthy with e-mails and phone calls saying she saw little sense in the G.O.P. leadership’s decision in June to send the White House a message by bringing to the floor a ”clean” (or condition-free) debt ceiling and then resoundingly voting it down. Sometimes when Ellmers is talking to the whip and doesn’t think she’s getting through to him, she claps her hands loudly in front of his face. Sometimes McCarthy giggles and claps back.
The two Republicans travel together, campaign together, and support one another in conferences.
McCarthy has also made a number of trips to North Carolina to visit with Ellmers in North Carolina.
The trips coincide with when the affair is said to have occurred.
Matt Lewis also found an interesting quote:
Quote:
Even some natural leadership allies such as Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-N.C.) expressed doubts about promoting McCarthy to Speaker, a job second in line to the presidency.
“He has not spoken to me personally for my vote, and Jason Chaffetz has, so that’s where I am right now. At this point I will be casting a vote for Jason Chaffetz,” said Ellmers, who is facing a GOP primary challenger. “I can’t vote for someone who doesn’t ask for my vote.
“I’m apparently not high on his priority list,” she added.
