Stupid Centrist Tricks

There's a group of people inside the Beltway who are in favor of removing politics from the political process. Talk about a mission so impossible that neither Peter Graves nor Tom Cruise is up for the job. But these centrist fethishists have a crush on "moderate" Republicans like Jon Huntsman. I'm not sure what's moderate about him but Norm Ornstein thinks he should replace Boner as Speaker. I am not making this up, y'all:

What if Boehner doesn’t survive? Go to Article I, Section 2: The Constitution does not say that the speaker of the House has to be a member of the House. In fact, the House can choose anybody a majority wants to fill the post. Every speaker has been a representative from the majority party. But these days, the old pattern clearly is not working.

Even in a multi-ballot marathon, there is no way 17 or more Republicans in the new House would opt for Nancy Pelosi, or any other Democrat. The danger is that a fatigued GOP will settle for a take-no-prisoners firebrand or find another candidate willing to pledge fealty to the radical minority within the majority, turning the current, really bad situation into something worse.

The best way out of this mess would be to find someone from outside the House to transcend the differences and alter the dysfunctional dynamic we are all enduring. Ideally, that individual would transcend politics and party — but after David Petraeus’s stumble, we don’t have many such candidates. It would have to be a partisan Republican.

One option would be Jon Huntsman. By any reasonable standard, he is a conservative Republican: As governor of Utah, he supported smaller government, lower taxes and balanced budgets, and he opted consistently for market-based solutions. As a presidential candidate, he supported positions that were in the wheelhouse of Ronald Reagan. But a Speaker Huntsman would look beyond party and provide a different kind of leadership. He would drive a hard bargain with the president but would aim for a broad majority from the center out, not from the right fringe in. He could not force legislation onto the floor, but he would have immense moral suasion.

I wonder which state Ornstein got his potent legal weed from: Colorado or Washington? All I know is that I want some since it's super hallucinatory and gives you delusions of grandeur to boot.

The whole thing is totally bizarre since Ornstein is a noted Congressional scholar and the House has never and will never elect a non-member as Speaker. Besides, Jon Huntsman? Really? Jon Fucking Huntsman? The dude who won the 2012 media primary and was a total disaster as a Presidential candidate. He was a centrist's dreamboat then and apparently Ole' Norm has been pining for him ever since but all this suggestion does is make Normy look like a barmy idiot.

I guess Ornstein will get points in some quarters for thinking "outside the box" a phrase that should be buried forthwith. It's only a matter of time until centrist fuckwits like Bloomberg and Tom Friedman will take up the cudgel and support Stormin' Norman. Me, I'd rather watch Cheers:

  

Comments

[MichaelF]

Laff -- his other outsider "option" is Mitch Daniels.

While I appreciate Ornstein's realization that the Redumblican Party has gone bugfuck insane, does he not get that a major reason for said bugfuck insanity is the firehose quantity of bullshit spewed forth by the likes of AEI and other conservative, um, think-tanks?

[joejoejoe]

Al Swearingen for Speaker! If we are going to live in make-believe, we may as well go all out.

[thebewilderness]

I think he is jerking the corporate medias chain.

[pansypoo]

publicans need more than 50% moderates. 1 is not enough.

[MapleStreet]

And people call me unreasonable for wanting a multi-party system.

Is it just me or is it getting so that everytime the repubs suggest a "compromise" candidate, they are as right wing as right wing can be. In short, on a scale of 1 to 100, their idea of compromise is a 1.

[Palli]

Ornstein is desperately trying to cover up his own inability during the last decade and half to recognize the republican slide away from democracy. I'll never forget his rationalization of the republican antics in Florida during Nov. & Dec. of 2000 and mealymouth support for the Supremes decision. He's a pundit-I can't call him a scholar-who won't admit the middle of the road is now actually the ditch on the right side.