Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) is clearly not a fan of Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who many Republicans were trying to make the House Speaker on Tuesday after the forced exit from the role two weeks prior of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
“When the dog catches the car, what’s he going to do? He’s been barking for years. I don’t know that he’s ever passed a piece of legislation, so what happens when he’s speaker?” the Utah Senator asked this week, according to journalist Igor Bobic. Romney also commented elsewhere on the prospect of Jordan becoming the lower legislative chamber’s leader. “I’d rather see a centrist than someone who’s been a part of a small subsection of the House. But that’s their choice,” Romney said, according to a report from POLITICO.
It has, in fact, been said against Jordan already as he’s been vying for the Speaker role that he’s never gotten a piece of legislation originating with him fully approved in Congress and made law. That observation doesn’t mean he hasn’t signed on as a cosponsor for other members’ proposals, but it suggests for some a lack of substantial focus on actual policy from Jordan.
He focuses largely on investigations, including those part of the work of the subcommittee examining the so-called weaponization of the federal government that is part of the House Judiciary Committee, both of which Jordan himself leads. The subcommittee, though, hasn’t held a publicly noticed hearing since July. And the Judiciary panel as a whole continues pursuing arguable dead ends like a potential impeachment of the president (spearheaded for now elsewhere).
Jordan, though backed by most Republicans, failed to get the majority support needed to actually win the Speaker’s role in the first vote on Tuesday, and next steps weren’t clear. Many Republicans were prioritizing advancing the interests of those in their party, even as they kept failing to assemble even a reasonably unified position, above any bipartisan arrangement with Democrats that would get the House functioning again with a Speaker.
Romney on Jim Jordan:
“When the dog catches the car, what’s he going to do? He’s been barking for years. I don’t know that he’s ever passed a piece of legislation, so what happens when he’s speaker?”
Also called his role in Jan 6 “outrageous”
— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) October 17, 2023
