I’m beginning to believe in the idea that whoever delivers the Republican State of the Union response is cursed.
In recent years delivering the GOP response has spelled doom for the person delivering it. For example, former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell has been indicted, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal will never be allowed to forget “volcano monitoring,” and Senator Marco Rubio will always have that moment he reached for the water bottle.
The Republican party’s most recent spokesperson is now facing an investigation by the House Ethics Committee.
House Republican Conference Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who delivered the GOP response to the State of the Union address, is accused of hiring political operatives to work alongside her official staff during her bid for the chairmanship.
A complaint was filed in July with the Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent watchdog tasked with investigating alleged wrongdoing by members of Congress.
Rodgers allegedly used privately funded and publicly funded operatives for the same purpose; winning the conference chairmanship. They reportedly did so while on the clock on the taxpayer dime which is prohibited by ethics rules.
There’s no guarantee that this investigation will result in substantive consequences, but it’s clear that anyone who delivers the Republican response will see their stock plummet shortly.