It's amazing how little eye contact happens when someone is asking for a volunteer.
Think back to a time with a parent-teacher organization or a leadership committee for a group when the speaker starts asking for someone to take on responsibility for organizing an activity or event. Suddenly, the scuff mark on the floor deserves close examination. The woman who was so chatty before the meeting mysteriously has nothing to say and appears to have renewed interest in finding that long lost item at the bottom of her purse.
There's a job to be done, but nobody ready to step up, except perhaps that guy who volunteers for everything, but whose performance leaves a lot to be desired.
Maybe that's how it felt last week for the Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives after Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California withdrew his bid to become the next speaker of the House.
In the wake of his surprise announcement in front of the Republican conference, I kept having one mental image playing in my mind: Ben Stein standing in the front of that room, staring at an empty chair as he called the roll: "Speaker ... speaker ... speaker ... speaker ... speaker ..."
Just as in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," there was no answer.
With McCarthy's exit, it appeared nobody was ready to be speaker. And that's entirely understandable since his personal decision was a bigger curve ball than any thrown in Major League Baseball's young post-season.
Some will suggest there's a battle for the soul of the Republican Party going on, and perhaps that's so. Members of the staunchly conservative Freedom Caucus, made up of about 40 members of the House, had declared their support for U.S. Rep. Daniel Webster of Florida. McCarthy had a lot more votes -- enough to be the choice of the GOP caucus -- but not enough to guarantee his ascendancy when the full House votes.
So, without that guarantee, McCarthy bailed.
Can you blame him? Congress has shown itself to be a battleground of ideology where party concerns from outside the chamber play as big a role, or perhaps even bigger, than concern for the nation itself. McCarthy's withdrawal makes the decision of Speaker John Boehner to step down make even more sense.
People who breathlessly described last Thursday's situation as chaos largely have an interest in making the Republicans look like a political party that cannot handle leadership. I don't believe that's true any more than having Barack Obama in the White House means the Democrats lack the ability to lead.
One might say McCarthy's decision is the epitome of leadership -- knowing the best course of action to achieve the greatest impact toward a group's shared goals, and getting out of the way.
Does anyone want another Boehner-style term for a speaker? Or is there another direction that can make the Republican majority more effective?
It's hard to know, from the outside looking in, what that might be. As of Friday, when I'm writing this, attention was coalescing around Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, a former vice presidential nominee, former chairman of the influential House Budget Committee and now chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Ryan, who is only 45, has nonetheless served in Congress for 16 years. He may be the new injection of youthful vigor filled with experience the institution and the Republican Party needs.
The problem is Ryan doesn't really want the job. The Tea Party folks, the ones who make governing as Republicans such a difficult task because of their faulty views of compromise as weakness, once loved the idea of Ryan as Mitt Romney's running mate, but their enthusiasm for Ryan has cooled as he's gone about the business of doing what line-in-the-sand Tea Partiers cannot do effectively -- govern.
Indeed, I'm convinced nobody can stay in the good graces of Tea Party Republicans for long because the attitudes the movement demands are antithetical to governing effectively, even if some of their goals are worthwhile. Many in the Tea Party movement simply cannot abide the give and take that's part of good government. Some of them will argue the very phrase "good government" is indicative of infiltration of a liberal mindset.
The good news for Republicans, those who know Ryan say, is that the Wisconsin congressman has a drive to do what's right.
The Freedom Caucus has some ability to play spoiler. Webster, however, ran against Boehner in the last speaker election and got 12 votes. It takes 218 to carry the day.
The Freedom Caucus probably considered McCarthy's withdrawal a victory, but that's part of the problem with the hardest-core elements of the Republican Party. They didn't win the speaker's race last week; they simply prevented someone from winning it. That's not the same as a victory.
While the identity of the next speaker remained in doubt Friday, it's without question an important decision for the nation. In terms of governing, not much can get accomplished without an effective speaker of the House in place.
Commentary on 10/12/2015