Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) would make a great conservative Speaker of the House, suggests the American Conservative Union’s member scorecard.
The American Conservative Union’s (ACU) Executive Director Daniel Schneider joined guest host Matthew Boyle on Breitbart News Sunday on SiriusXM, expressing that, out of the names that have been thrown out there for Speaker of the House, he thinks Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) has the highest score by the ACU.
“We’ve been doing these ratings of Congress for 45 years,” Schneider explained. “During Pelosi years, every Republican looked pretty conservative.”
“We’ve done an analysis of what we refer to as the Boehner era,” he continued.
Schneider said that “Jim Jordan has been a consistent 100 [percent],” but out of “those people who are being talked about as potential Speaker candidates, Marsha Blackburn is [one of the highest].”
He described Marsha Blackburn as “one of the most conservative we’ve got in mind.” Blackburn received a score of 92 out of 100.
Although Marsha Blackburn isn’t an official candidate for Speaker yet, she scores far better than official candidates for Speaker Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL). According to Schneider, Chaffetz is in the “high eighties,” while Webster is in the “high seventies.”
Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL)—whose name has been thrown out there like Blackburn’s—scores in the mid-seventies.
“Those scores are part of the question and part of the answer,” Schneider explained, saying it’s important to select a Speaker of the House who will “promote conservative values.”
He predicted that Webster would give conservatives “a greater voice than they’ve had in the past.”
However, when it comes to GOP leadership’s new pick, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), Schneider says, “he hasn’t scored as high as others.”
ACU’s Chairman Matt Schlapp joined Schneider and Boyle and weighed in on the Speaker of the House race saying he thinks it is similar to what is happening in the GOP prudential primary: “There is a revolt.”
“I think that the big message is coming out from around the country, and we see this in the presidential campaign as well… there is a revolt,” Schlapp explained.
“They really want to shake things up,” Schlapp said of “regular old Americans” living outside of the Washington D.C. beltway.
“[They] love the idea that those insiders are getting scared,” Schlapp said. “I think it’s true in the Speaker’s race.”
Schlapp added, “They want us to use that [conservative] majority aggressively.”
He said he thinks Ryan is being looked at by so many because he had the national stage as a vice presidential candidate in the past and that he’s a guy that loves policy.
Schlapp said Ryan is “somebody who can explain why we’re doing what we’re doing.” He thinks people in the Republican Conference want someone “who can explain the strategies.”
He brought up how many people—from the Left and in the media—have been critical of the Republican Party’s divide.
“I think that’s a pile of crap,” Schlapp shot back. “I think it’s fantastic we’re having this big conversation.”
Ryan is expected to make his announcement about whether or not he will join the race for Speaker of the House this week.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.