McCarthy Is Out for Speaker

Did not see this coming:

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy has pulled out of the race for House Speaker, NBC News confirmed Thursday.

The California Republican had been considered the frontrunner to replace John Boehner after he surprisingly announced his resignation late last month.

Best guess is that McCarthy is trying to avoid a civil war on Capitol Hill — same as Boehner.

Good on both men. Now let’s see if we can get a better one as speaker.

UPDATE, via Jeff B.

I missed this one yesterday:

Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) wants to avoid the possibility of a member of the new House GOP leadership resigning from office because of a scandal.

In a letter to House GOP Conference Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), Jones asked that Republicans discuss urging candidates for leadership to drop out if they might one day embarrass the party because of past indiscretions.

“With all the voter distrust of Washington felt around the country, I’m asking that any candidate for Speaker of the House, majority leader, and majority whip withdraw himself from the leadership election if there are any misdeeds he has committed since joining Congress that will embarrass himself, the Republican Conference, and the House of Representatives if they become public,” Jones wrote.

I take it back — the Civil War on Capitol Hill may be on already.