Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn and Illinois Rep. Peter Roskam have been getting their names bandied about as possible successors to outgoing House Speaker John Boehner, writes
John Fund at National Review.
The two seem like dark horses, Fund admits, but notes that the prospects of the favored candidates from the GOP establishment (Wisconsin's Paul Ryan) and the House Freedom Caucus (Florida's Daniel Webster) are looking bleak.
Ryan reportedly doesn't want to run, with sources saying variously that he wants to spend time with his young children and that he feels the job could be career suicide.
Webster has the Freedom Caucus' backing, but that group has only 40 members, and Webster isn't picking up a lot of traction outside that group. He's also in danger of being gerrymandered out of the job as his district is likely to go Democratic.
And other members such as Utah's Jason Chaffetz and Texas' Bill Flores also are running as conservatives. Both say they'd bow out if Ryan runs.
Blackburn was tea party before tea party was cool, Fund notes, and Roskam has experience dealing with President Barack Obama when the two were members of the Illinois Senate.
"The more time that elapses from Kevin McCarthy’s bombshell departure from the speaker’s race, the more it looks as if GOP members are coming to realize that no savior or simple solution will heal their internal divisions," Fund writes. "That’s why more and more of them are starting to look at members such as Blackburn and Roskam, who both want the job and are likely to have the skills to carry it off."
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