House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy is poised to be the next Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. Last year, I had the great fortune of spending some time with him in Kokomo.

Most high ranking government officials get a little squeamish in the springtime as the seemingly endless string of rubber chicken and dried beef dinners that we Republicans fondly know as our annual Lincoln/Reagan Dinners roll around. In addition to generally questionable food for the masses, we subject our Republican leading lights to a barrage of questions and comments delivered up close and personal by folks exercising their rights to free speech. The hand that moments before held the chicken wing now pumps the hand of the guest speaker and John Q. Public grills them on the more remote aspects of the law, religion, government or pop culture.
The typical Lincoln/Reagan Dinner experience leads the average politico to want to rush in, rush out and get another calendar page turned. Obligations fulfilled. No damage done. I’ve seen my share of political “dine and dash” and in 2014, at our Howard County Lincoln/Reagan Dinner, I expected to witness another.

When Fourth District Congressman Tod Rokita contacted me to see if Howard County would be interested in hosting United States House Republican Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy as our Lincoln/Reagan speaker, I jumped at the opportunity. You see, there is this basic formula when it comes to political events: Big name speaker equals big attendance equals big cash flow equals less begging for bucks later on. A House Majority Leader definitely filled the equation!
To be honest, I expected Kevin McCarthy to arrive late with an entourage like the Pope, give a short canned speech and then leave before the locals had time to ask him if his job was anything like Frank Underwood’s on House of Cards. Boy, was I wrong!

McCarthy arrived with Congressman Rokita when the doors of the banquet hall opened. He mixed and mingled, shook everyone’s hand, answered tough questions with candid responses and then asked his own questions of our Republican faithful. After the pre-dinner reception where he obligingly posed for photos with everyone, he moved into the banquet hall and worked the crowd tirelessly. He absolutely wowed the Lincoln/Reagan Dinner crowd with his friendly demeanor and willingness to rub elbows with them. Kevin McCarthy was no ordinary politico!

McCarthy’s meteoric rise is the story of legend. The son of a staunchly Democratic firefighter, McCarthy was another of those who were brought to the Republican Party by President Ronald Reagan. An entrepreneur at an early age, McCarthy found a way to buy and sell used cars at a profit while still in high school. He cashed in big when he was one of the first winners of the California lottery. McCarthy invested his $5,000 winnings into a sandwich shop and launched a successful business career at age nineteen. It was through the process of running his business that he acquired his interest in government. Nothing quite exposes a person to bureaucracy, taxes, onerous regulations and governmental roadblocks to success like owning your own business. McCarthy learned quickly that, despite what President Obama believes about who is responsible for your success, when you run a business, it is you against the world.
If there was one theme that I believe sums up McCarthy’s political philosophy, it would be an Abraham Lincoln quote the Majority Leader used. Lincoln said, “Property is the fruit of labor. Property is desirable, a positive good in the world. Some shall be rich shows that others may become rich and hence an encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is homeless pull down the house of another, but let him labor diligently and build one for himself and thus by example assuring that his shall be safe from violence.”

Kevin McCarthy’s advice to President Obama may reveal his own managerial philosophy. McCarthy advised the President to make decisions and expect results. Expect subordinates to succeed, replace them if they don’t and reach beyond the typical to find success. I don’t expect McCarthy, if he ascends to the Speaker’s position, to go down the well-worn path of gridlock and no results. He impressed me as a man of action who is willing to take calculated political risks to achieve a greater good.

McCarthy also emphasized that our governmental leadership should be focused on the next generation. He expressed a distinct objective that our children and grandchildren enjoy the same privileges that we have all enjoyed. He also called upon the President to stop the finger pointing, stop the class warfare and stop harping on wedge issues and unite the country. I didn’t get the feeling that McCarthy was merely talking the talk. He struck me as a man who has a servant’s heart and will act in the best interests of his country. He also strikes me as a man who knows that to make an omelet, you need to break a few eggs.

The United States Congress is full of people who have made their careers by playing to narrow interests who refuse compromise and put their own interests ahead of the country. P. J. O’Rourke calls it the “Parliament of Whores.” Kevin McCarthy will need to deal with a caucus where some are flexing their muscles and crowing over their destruction of Speaker John Boehner while at the same time needing to coordinate strategy with a Senate that offers the same challenges faced by Boehner. Getting his own house in order will be his first business before he can hope to forge a productive relationship with the Democrats in the House, let alone a lame duck President.

I wouldn’t bet against Kevin McCarthy. If past is prologue, he will find success in the Speaker’s chair. I know that he will have 300-400 friends in Howard County rooting for him!