You’ll hear this about picking the next House speaker, but…

At some point in the next 24 hours, you may hear a talking head bloviating on a 24-hour news channel that the next speaker of the House doesn’t have to be a member of the House. So, the bloviator will say, they could pick an outsider who is acceptable to a majority of Democrats and Republicans and blah, blah, blah.

Technically, that’s true. The Constitution says only “The House of Representatives shall chuse their speaker…” (The Founding Fathers were not sticklers for grammar or spelling.)

This comes up every time the House changes speakerships under some type of duress or scandal or upheaval — which is to say, quite often. Tom Foley was fond of mentioning this as he was ascending to the speakership.

But it has never happened. NEVER.

Members of the House do not give the most important job in the chamber to an outsider. So when you hear someone launch into a discussion about this in the wake of Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s announcement, do yourself a favor. Change the channel.