John Fund of National Review Online ponders an interesting idea for filling the job of House speaker in the next Congress.
Next month’s election could deliver a close enough result that it will be very difficult for the House of Representatives to organize itself and elect a speaker.
If the House deadlocks, the Constitution allows the body to select a non-member to serve as speaker and run the place. It’s never happened before, but at the beginning of this century, few thought figures such as Barack Obama or Donald Trump could ever be elected president.
On Capitol Hill, there are whispers that a surprise candidate for speaker could be Nikki Haley, the retiring United Nations ambassador and former South Carolina governor. In a Quinnipiac poll earlier this year, she won approval from 75 percent of Republicans, 63 percent of independents, and 55 percent of Democrats. Those kinds of golden political numbers could do much good in these divisive times.
For Haley, it would be a risky career move, but in the current poisonous and polarizing climate, her talents could help heal the country and ensure that Congress actually does something constructive over the next two years. From her vantage point, there would be much risk but also big potential rewards on the national stage.
