Blum knows what he wants in next speaker, but not who

CEDAR RAPIDS - First District Rep. Rod Blum knows what he wants from the next Speaker of the House, but hasn't decided which of three Republican colleagues he will back when the House GOP caucus votes for a successor to John Boehner.

He's 'impressed” with Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who chairs the Oversight Committee Blum sits on, and voted for Florida Rep. Dan Webster when the House organized in January. However, he won't make a decision until after House Republicans interview them as well as current Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California Wednesday.

His top concern is that the new speaker is someone who can 'sell” Republican principles to the American public much in the way President Ronald Reagan did, the Dubuque Republican said during a visit to the Dennis & Donna Oldorf Hospice House of Mercy in Hiawatha.

'I think that's one of the biggest parts of the job, especially since we don't have the presidency,” Blum said. 'We need that voice to go out on the Sunday talk shows, to the media, and sell our principles to average, everyday Americans.”

That is not the strong suit of Speaker John Boehner, who has announced his resignation as speaker and will Congress later this month, Blum added.

The new speaker has to be a strong fundraiser, Blum said, and he's looking for someone 'to keep the training running on time.”

He conceded that it's all 'inside baseball” to most of the public, but Blum wants a more open process using 'regular order” or House rules.

'One of the things I didn't like about the current speaker and the way he operated is that it was very top-down,” Blum said. 'The rank-and-file have very little to no say.”

'When five, six, 10 people go into a room and figure it out on their own and come out and say ‘Take it or leave it,' that isn't the way it's supposed to work,” Blum said. 'I don't get a chance to talk about using physician assistants and nurse practitioners at hospices or the Waters of the U.S. and the EPA and the farm community.

'So we're losing representative government. That's not right,” he said.