Join IFA in praying that the process of electing a House Speaker will make things better and change the status quo in ways the Congress needs.

From The Epoch Times. Eleven defeats in Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) speakership bid is about what it should take to carry the job, said Fox News’ Tucker Carlson on Jan. 5, adding that “accountability” is a key factor in the ongoing Republican standoff.

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McCarthy, the party favorite from California, has been blocked by up to 20 hardliners out of the 222 House Republicans over the past three days from commanding the speaker’s gravel in the 118th Congress. Staunchly conservative members say he hasn’t performed well in the past as a minority leader and will not institute changes they see as necessary if he assumes the speakership.

The bitter race marked the first time in a century that a House Speaker nominee was not decided on the first vote, as the GOP leader lost an 11th straight vote late Thursday. Many politicians and commentators from both sides of the aisle have described the standoff as a calamity for both the GOP and Congress.

But Carlson thinks otherwise.

“It’s not a disaster. It’s how the system is supposed to work,” the popular cable news host said on his Thursday night show. “Here we will have suffering, accountability, and repentance. Those are not bad things—No, those are the best things,” he said.

“If there’s one thing that Washington hates, on a bipartisan basis, it’s accountability. And unfortunately, the Republican Party is no different in that. No one is ever punished for failure or ever forced to explain how those failures happen,” the conservative political commentator added. “And as a result of that lack of accountability, no one ever improves. Everybody just keeps getting rewarded for producing the same disasters.”

Carlson cited the GOP’s disappointing performance in the midterms, which he said McCarthy shares responsibility for.

Republican leaders in Washington “have no plan to change. They’d like to ignore what happened in November and move on as if everything is fine,” Carlson said. “Republican voters see the same people in charge producing the same mediocre results, paying a lot more attention to lobbyists than to them. That’s not democracy. Actually, it’s the opposite of democracy,” he continued. …

‘Messy by Design’

Many have called the House GOP struggle a win for democracy, despite McCarthy repeatedly falling short of the votes he need.

“Sure, it looks messy,” said Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) in a Wednesday speech nominating McCarthy for speaker. “But democracy is messy—by design,” the Wisconsin Republican continued.

“That’s a feature, not a bug, of our system,” Gallagher said. “We air it all out in the open for the American people to see because, at the end of the day, the president is not in charge, the Supreme Court is not in charge, speaker of the house is not even in charge. The American people are in charge.” …

Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who earlier this week warned of “chaos” if McCarthy opponents didn’t coalesce around the party leader, also appeared to change as the events unfolded. …

I prefer the clumsy, frustrating open process in the US House to the way Putin or Xi Jinping or the Iranian Ayatollah or Kim Jong Un would handle it. Yes freedom can be frustrating, sloppy, slightly uncontrollable and amazingly creative. That is the joy of being an American.

— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) January 4, 2023

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(Excerpt from The Epoch Times. Photo Credit: Getty Images)