We can only hope. Knowing that it is a long shot, I think that the US House of Representatives should follow the Texas House of Representatives’ lead and elect a true statesman as Speaker.

For those of you that aren’t clued in on either the US House of Representatives or the Texas House of Representatives, here is the situation. As of today, the US House of Representatives has a Speaker wanting to resign but there is no clear successor to his post. A guy from California, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, backed out today because he didn’t think he could secure enough votes to succeed current Speaker John Boehner.

It takes 218 votes to become speaker out of 435 representatives. In other words, 1/2 more than half, which would be 217.5. Apparently, this guy McCarthy couldn’t get 218 of the 250 Republicans to vote for him on the first ballot, so he stepped aside. Which, in hindsight is a good thing because anyone scared of going to a second round doesn’t deserve to be Speaker of the House. It’s a big job, dontcha know!

Way back in 2007, the Texas House of Reps had a problem. Then Speaker Tom Craddick decided to be an a-hole, ignoring everyone but the folks that funded his campaign. Under Craddick’s leadership, the Republican majority in the House had dwindled from 88-62 to 76-74. Not good, if you are a Republican.

A few Republicans (11 to be precise) decided that this wasn’t the best way to govern Texas and got together to pick a new leader. Out of this group, they decided that a relatively new representative named Joe Straus would be their choice. They teamed with Democrats to form a majority, then approached Republicans with their ideas of running the House smoothly, letting members decide what would or would not go forward, and ultimately Straus was elected Speaker unanimously.

Under Speaker Straus’ leadership, Texas has succeeded beyond anyone’s expectations. Republicans have a huge majority in the House, conservative legislation rules the day, and the state is financially stable, which is remarkable given the state of the economy under President Barack Obama during the same time frame. No, Speaker Straus isn’t solely responsible for Texas’ success, but he damn sure played a huge part in it.

So that is exactly what the US House of Representatives need to do now. A group of center-right representatives need to come together, pick a center-right Speaker candidate, then convince a large enough group of center-left Democrats to join them in voting for this person as the new speaker.

It was worked miracles in Texas. It has diminished the role of fringe candidates from the left and right and resulted in government from the center-right, with a few wins here and there for the center-left. As is should be because believe it or not, not everyone in Texas is a left wing or right wing kook. And sometimes the center-left position is the right position.

So, US House of Representatives, give it a try. Best I can tell, you only need a center-right caucus of about 50 people, if you can get center-left Democrats on board.

We, the people, deserve it. And if you need a few tips on how your candidate should handle the inevitable criticism from the fringes, give Speaker Joe Straus a call. I promise he will help you.