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With another five weeks before the House decides who will become the next majority speaker, Congressman Kevin McCarthy has a math problem. There are a total of 222 House Republicans and front-runner McCarthy, R-Calif., needs 218 votes to secure the leadership position. That means McCarthy can only afford a handful of rejections, five to be exact. And so far, at least four Republicans from the far-right have signaled their opposition. On the other side of the aisle, things are more predictable. 52-year-old Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., will replace Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who is 30 years his senior, as House speaker. Now the main focus of speculation is whether or not Pelosi will leave the House after her lame-duck session. Straight Arrow News contributor Newt Gingrich believes she will and speculates on when that could happen and why.
Some people believe that she secretly wants to be the ambassador to Italy. And certainly when Calista and I were in Italy last summer for the Fourth of July, and Nancy and Paul Pelosi were there, every indication we got was that she was checking out Villa Taverna which is the residence of the ambassador of Italy.
And so I wouldn’t be at all shocked if suddenly one morning it was announced that she had stepped down, probably after the end of the lame-duck session. The lame-duck session is called that because it occurs after the election. And it’s the people many of whom have already been defeated or have announced their retirement, but they’re back for one last try. I suspect she will not announce that she’s leaving for good until after that session is over which could be as late as Christmas Eve.
Or in a worst case could be as late as New Year’s Eve. Because she would give up her last power if she was too obviously going to leave. But I will be back and report to you in January.
I’ll be very surprised if she in fact ends up staying because I just think it will be so uncomfortable having been that powerful and now being just one of the group.
