New Speaker of the House. Who?

The votes are in. The talk has already turned to who holds the gavel in January.

One name keeps coming up. Hakeem Jeffries.

I want to slow that down a minute. Not because of his party. Because of a meeting.

Back in late August, the news broke that Jeffries had sat down in private with Jared Kushner. Not on a stage. Not in a hearing. A quiet meeting in New York. The Speaker of the House at the time said he heard about it the same morning the rest of us did.

So I have two questions. Why? And about what?

The answer we got was thin. People close to it said they talked about “an array of topics.” They said “possible areas of common ground.” Jeffries called it the reality of governance. That is a nice phrase. It does not tell you a thing.

Here is what I know about Jared Kushner. He holds no elected office. Nobody voted for him. He has no official job in this government. And yet he stays close to the center of things, especially foreign policy. That is the definition of an insider.

Now picture the man who wants to run the House. He is sitting down with that insider before the votes are counted. Behind a closed door. With no notes for the public.

You do not have to think anything crooked happened. I am not saying it did. I am saying we do not know. And that is the problem. If the people paying the bill cannot see the deal, then it is not our deal.

This is the old way of doing business. It has been going on as long as I have been alive. Both parties do it. The handshake happens in a back room. The press release comes out later. By the time we hear about it, the terms are already set.

And money rides along with it. Big money backs every man who climbs that high. That is no secret. Every leader in Washington has donors who expect their calls to be returned. The question is never whether the money is there. The question is what it buys.

Folks keep saying they want a new start. I hear it every election. Clean the house. Drain the swamp. Change the culture. Pick your slogan.

But a new start does not come from a new face. It comes from a new way of doing business. If the new Speaker runs the House the same way the old ones did, then nothing is new but the nameplate on the door.

So what would new look like? It is not complicated.

No private meetings with power brokers who hold no office, unless the public gets told who, when, and what about. Not months later. Right away.

No special lane for big donors. Your phone call to that office should count the same as theirs. Right now, it does not. Everybody knows it does not.

No inside advantage. Members of Congress should not be trading on what they hear in closed rooms. Their families should not either. That one has been talked to death and never fixed.

And when a leader does meet with somebody behind closed doors, he owes us the reason. Not a slogan. A reason.

I will be fair here. Jeffries is not the first to do this. He will not be the last. The other side has done the same and worse. This is not about one man or one party. It is about a habit both of them share.

But he is the one asking for the gavel now. So he is the one who gets asked first.

If you want my vote of confidence, Mr. Jeffries, here is the price. Tell us what was said in that room. Tell us what was offered and what was asked. Then tell us how you plan to run the House so the next meeting is not a secret at all.

That is not too much to ask. It is the least a working man should expect from the people he pays.

I have watched a lot of new beginnings come and go. Most of them looked fresh for about a month. Then the doors closed again, and the same old business went right on behind them.

So when somebody tells me there is a new Speaker coming, I do not ask who first. I ask how. How will this one be different? Will the doors stay open? Will the deals see daylight? Will the little guy get the same hearing as the big check?

Answer that, and I will care about who.

Until then, the name on the door does not matter much. What matters is what goes on behind it.

Keep your eyes open. Ask the questions out loud. Do not let anybody tell you a private meeting is none of your business. It is your House. You paid for it.

And you have every right to know who is meeting in it, and why.

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This post was drafted with AI governed assistance and reviewed and directed by Michael S. Faust Sr. before publication.

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