Speaker candidates America cannot afford

Eight Republican Representatives form a suddenly crowded field for Speaker of the House of Representatives, after Jim Jordan lost out. And already Americans are learning vital lessons that tell them which Speaker candidates America cannot afford. These candidates represent everything that’s wrong with “Republicanism In Name Only” (RINO-ism), including venal and ideological corruption.

The crowded Speaker field

Yesterday, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) lost his third bid to become Speaker of the House. After that, of course, the House Republican Conference withdrew his name. The process left a bad taste in many mouths, because the American people saw RINO-ism in all its ugliness. As CNAV said yesterday, nominal Republicans have carried deceptive campaigning – and profiteering from office – to a high art. (Or perhaps a low art.) The only reason they can offer for people not to vote Democratic, is that Democrats want to nationalize all industries, after the manner of the old Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (Or so they say. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., can rake in insider profits with the best of the RINOs. In fact her name is almost a household word for Congressional insider stock trading.)

So in watching the House Republican Conference choose a Speaker, Republican voters, as they stand (or sit), fingers poised over their smartphone screens (or after flipping the levers on their multi-function steering wheels and hear the synthetic woman’s voices saying, “Please say a command”), need to know more about the eight candidates “running” for Speaker before they start calling various Legislative Aides (or whomever answers congressional telephones). The first rule any patriotic American needs to understand is: the House leadership is compromised. That applies to both Parties.

CNAV expects no better of Democrats. But we have expected more of Republicans. That’s where the pressure must apply.

Tom Emmer

First up – or hopefully first down – is Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), Majority Whip. That a man like him became Majority Whip should tell Americans all they need to know about House Republican leadership.

Tom Emmer has been in politics since 2004, when he ran for the Minnesota State House of Representatives. For six years (2005-2011) he represented District 19B. But not many know that he took a four-year hiatus from politics before running for the U.S. House in 2014. So what was he doing in the interim? Shilling for the National Popular Vote Initiative, that’s what! The New York Post and The GatewayPundit have the details. Watch Emmer try to persuade people to abolish the Electoral College and essentially have city dwellers elect Presidents exclusively:

When this video came out, a National Popular Vote Compact was gaining strength. As soon as it commands as many as 270 electoral votes, its legislatures pledge to appoint all Presidential Electors to the ticket getting the most popular votes. The only reason that Compact has not had a legal challenge is that it doesn’t yet command 270 electoral votes.

Steve Bannon and activist Caroline Wren explain another reason to oppose Emmer. He evidently supports Special Counsel Jack Smith’s baseless prosecutions of President Donald J. Trump.

Ms. Wren also holds him partly responsible for the Midterm Red Wave breaking on blue seawalls.

Trump knows about the Emmer campaign and has vowed to fight it, according to Jim Hoft and Politico.com.

Kevin Hern

Next is Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.) Jim Holt has the dope on him, too, which is: he’s a war profiteer. He profits from war by buying the common stock of the country’s armorers – the “defense industry.” For evidence, Hoft went to Unusual Whales, a financial analytical platform. The X account for that platform shared a graphic showing who, in Congress, benefits most from war. That was at the top of a thread showing more interesting trades by Hern:

According to that bar chart, Kevin Hern is the worst offender. Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) and Sen. Tommy “Coach” Tuberville (R-Ala.) run second and third. In fourth place: Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who made most of her stock trades when she was Speaker of the House.

Unusual Whales maintains a landing page showing “political” insider trades.

Last May, Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), and – in a rare moment of clarity – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) introduced a bill to forbid Members of Congress to trade securities, futures, commodities, derivatives, options, warrants, etc. while in office. Unusual Whales commented on that bill also.

Unfortunately, H.R. 3003, the Bipartisan Restoring Faith in Government Act, has gone nowhere, according to GovTrack.us. The point here is that Kevin Hern is part of this political insider-trading racket. So he is not the sort of person true patriots want as Speaker of the House!

Any good candidates for Speaker?

At least four other candidates are in the running – Reps. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), Austin Scott (R-Ga.), Jack Bergman (R-Mich.), and Pete Sessions (R-Texas). (Jodey Arrington, also of Texas, and Mike Johnson of Louisiana might or might not be in the running.) All voted for Jordan – though we don’t know how big the RINO “caucus” really is, given the vote staggering. But Byron Donalds made a name for himself by trying to stop Kevin McCarthy from becoming Speaker. He also took predictable flak from Rep. Cori Bush (D-Ill.), who called him a “prop.” In the debate on the debt ceiling bill, Donalds criticized Speaker McCarthy for not pushing hard enough for conservative priorities. More recently, Donalds has taken a few barbs for his unabashedly pro-life stance.

Mike Johnson, if he’s still in the running, would also be a good Speaker candidate. Nearly two months ago he signed a joint statement, with Rep. Jordan and Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), supporting Justice Clarence Thomas. Johnson also co-signed a brief in Missouri v. Biden, supporting the injunction now under Supreme Court review.

The other six candidates are far less well-known. But either Johnson or Donalds would make a better Speaker than either Emmer or Hern. And the most important lesson is: no more RINOs.