# Who would expect Speaker Kevin McCarthy? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [December 25, 2020, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-expect-speaker-kevin-mccarthy/928911 "2020-12-25T21:45:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bubbles\_2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba9def/32.png) [@Bubbles\_2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bubbles_2000)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2020, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-expect-speaker-kevin-mccarthy/928911/1 "2020-12-25T21:45:47Z")
Merry Christmas to all, or Happy Holidays. Who would have expected California Rep. Kevin McCarthy as a potential House Speaker in 2023 or beyond? He doesn’t seem to have the skills needed to garner attention like Gingrich and Pelosi. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2020, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-expect-speaker-kevin-mccarthy/928911/2 "2020-12-25T22:12:23Z")
Congressional leaders don’t necessarily need a lot of attention. Dennis Hastert was speaker for eight years and never had a very high profile (and given what we now know about his past, perhaps he preferred not to be in the limelight). ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2020, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-expect-speaker-kevin-mccarthy/928911/4 "2020-12-25T22:31:39Z")
Well, partly because of her gender and her outspokenness. And she has been minority leader/speaker for a very long time. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2020, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-expect-speaker-kevin-mccarthy/928911/5 "2020-12-25T22:51:07Z")
He was nearly Speaker back on 2015. As Majority Leader, he was heir apparent when John Boehner stepped down. But then conservatives revolted because they thought he wasn’t conservative enough, and we got Paul Ryan. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2020, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-expect-speaker-kevin-mccarthy/928911/6 "2020-12-25T22:53:55Z")
I thought it wasn’t so much that, as [he said the quiet part loud](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/kevin-mccarthys-truthful-gaffe/2015/09/30/f12a9fac-67a8-11e5-8325-a42b5a459b1e_story.html): > [@](#): > > So now we know: One of the principal reasons Republicans spent so much public money investigating the tragic Benghazi episode was to bring down Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers. > > Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the likely successor to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), told [Fox News’s Sean Hannity](http://video.foxnews.com/v/4519442873001/rep-kevin-mccarthy-how-he-would-differ-from-john-boehner/?#sp=show-clips) explicitly on Tuesday night that the Clinton investigation was part of a “strategy to fight and win.” > > [He explained](http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/09/30/boehners-likely-successor-credits-benghazi-committee-for-lowering-hillary-clintons-poll-numbers/): “Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she’s untrustable. But no one would have known any of that had happened, had we not fought.” ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2020, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-expect-speaker-kevin-mccarthy/928911/7 "2020-12-26T01:46:35Z")
My gut feeling is that should the Republicans win the House in 2022, McCarthy gets jumped over by Liz Cheney. She’s smart, she knows how to work behind the scenes and McCarthy already got skipped once. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2020, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-expect-speaker-kevin-mccarthy/928911/8 "2020-12-26T05:56:20Z")
Nobody expects Speaker Kevin McCarthy! How was that not the first reply? ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2020, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-expect-speaker-kevin-mccarthy/928911/9 "2020-12-26T12:11:16Z")
His chief weapon is surprise. Surprise and dumping on Hilary Clinton…amongst his weaponry are such elements as surprise, dumping on Hilary Clinton, and an almost fanatical devotion to Trump. Damn. I’ll come in again. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2020, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-expect-speaker-kevin-mccarthy/928911/10 "2020-12-26T15:05:21Z")
I think it’ll probably be McCarthy. After getting passed over in 2015, Trump getting elected gave him an enormous opportunity to prove his bona fides by slavishly backing everything the man has done. And if the Republicans take back the House in 2022 with him as their leader, he’ll get the credit (undeservedly so — the political rule is that the President’s party loses House seats in his first midterm election, and the Ds only have a ten seat majority).