Letters to the Editor: No, weak Republican leadership won’t fix Congress’ dysfunction

To the editor: I find it disingenuous of columnist Jonah Goldberg to blame Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-San Francisco) top-down leadership style as speaker for Congress’ dysfunction. To not even mention GOP culpability ignores the destructive infighting between Republicans in the House.

Goldberg fails to mention that the only goal of of House Republicans is to obstruct Democratic legislation or anything proposed by President Biden. As minority leader, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) was unable to rein in fringe members. Goldberg’s belief that a weak speaker like McCarthy would make the House stronger is difficult to comprehend.

Pelosi was effective because she was able to convince enough Democrats to support each other, unlike the chaos of Republican MAGA election deniers under McCarthy’s weak leadership.

Goldberg concludes: “A weak speaker won’t solve these problems overnight. But it would be a step in the right direction.” If that were true, then why weren’t Paul Ryan or John Boehner, both former Republican speakers, successful? And how is the inability of Republicans to elect a speaker a step in the right direction?

Nelson Sagisi, Santa Maria

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To the editor: I agree with Goldberg about heavy-handed leadership by House speakers. Except let’s not call it the “Pelosi model,” but rather the “Gingrich model.”

As Goldberg pointed out, Republican Newt Gingrich started it when he was speaker in the 1990s. Pelosi just perfected it.

Bennett Ross, Beverly Hills