Who Should Be Speaker in 2023??

Republicans are most assuredly going to take control of the House of Representatives. They only need five seats to flip to get to the magic number of 218. FOX News projected Monday morning a Member breakdown of 225 Rs to 180 Democrats, with 30 toss-ups remaining.

The Senate will be a little dicier. There are toss-ups in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada and Arizona. Even if Republicans gain control, the majority won't be large (one to four seats, maybe).

All of the effort and work being put in to win the House will all be for not if House Republicans are not doers in the next Congress.

In recent Republicans majorities (see Boehner and Paul Ryan's tenures, respectively), the House seemingly took a back seat to the Senate. There was no reason then and there is no reason now for that trend to continue. The House needs to stand up and be the doers of the legislative branch.

So they need a Speaker who will rise to this challenge. As a country, we're babies, we're still very, very young. We ought to be thinking of doing things differently because electing Republicans to the majority in 2023 and waiting for them to do nothing, again, simply is not going to cut it.

The Constitution does not explicitly say that the Speaker must be an incumbent member of Congress. The Speaker could, literally, be anyone the House Members want it to be. This idea of a Speaker not of the Chamber came up when Boehner stepped aside, then McCarthy pulled out of the running to replace Boehner, and House Republicans struggled to coalesce around the eventual Speaker, Paul Ryan.

Speakership races are weird. Some of it comes down to the obvious: who owes who what favor? How did you, Mr. Congressman, get to Congress? For most Members, they will owe their tenure to President Donald Trump's endorsement. Some will owe McCarthy because McCarrthy is a prolific fundraiser and he will have supplied those candidates with the monies to win.

But as mentioned, speakership races can be quirky. Stuff happens that you wouldn't expect. A Member's vote can come down to some strange things, e.g.: a Member's wife gets along with another Member's wife...maybe one Member is golf buddies with another. It can just be weird like that. You just don't know until the day of the vote, and until we get there, one never knows how it will shake out.

But in the spirit of trying different things to shake up Washington, I'm increasingly enamored with the idea of bringing in a non-Member to be Speaker of the House. In that vein, I think House Republicans ought to consider electing Mark Meadows as their Speaker.

Yes, that Mark Meadows, Chief of Staff to President Trump, and former Member of Congress from North Carolina.

Let me tell you why. First , he knows the rules of the road. He's a former Member. Meadows, you might remember, was the Member who had to guts to put put the motion on the floor to vacate the chair that led to Boehner stepping down. He knows the internal rule dynamics and how the House should work.

Second: he gets along with a lot of Members, including a lot of people from the other side of the aisle. One of his best buddies was Elijah Cummings, Democrat from Maryland. In fact, Meadows was asked to speak at Cummings's funeral service. Meadows said of his departed friend, while choking back tears: "He's defined by the character of his heart, the honesty of his dialogue and the man that we will miss."

Third: He's good with the media. He could be a terrific messenger for the agenda. McCarthy struggles mightily in this area. And shooting straight with the American people, through the noise of the liberal media, will be a critical skill set in the months ahead.

Four: There is a battle royale brewing between the House and the Senate. The Senate can be a lazy group, even in Republican hands. Mitch McConnell's bunch usually only reports on Tuesday afternoons, and usually punch-out on Thursday afternoons. The Senate likes to consider themselves the greatest deliberative body in the universe; except the Senate doesn't deliberate much at all. In fact, they've kind of just gotten into this rhythm of just voting on one, maybe two spending bills a year. Even the latest gun bill was, for the most part, a spending bill.

The House needs to decide if it will lead the Senate or be led by it. If House Members decide that they want to be leaders and doers (and they must!), do we trust Kevin McCarthy to execute? I have a ton of doubts. I'd prefer the outsider who has close ties to President Trump.

Final point: Electing Mark Meadows as Speaker of the House kind of sticks it to the J6 Committee, which would be extra sugar on our cereal.

Meadows would be a bold and dynamic choice for Speaker. The kind of choice that screams Republicans mean business about saving America from the Washington Establishment.

Mark Meadows for Speaker of the House.