Obviously, I’m partial to Paul Ryan ., if only because of his deep blue eyes and his super-sexy economic policy, but Jason Chaffetz ., who is also rumored to be running for Speaker now that Kevin McCarthy . has dropped out, seems like an intriguing choice as well. He’s not well known, but he’s young, mostly acceptable to several warring factions of the Party and he has had a few high-profile opportunities of late.

The only problem with Chaffetz? He seems to have blown them all. And that could have an impact on his chances for speaker. First, he made the Planned Parenthood hearings into a festival of demagoguery, as his colleaguess in the House, instead of pressing Cecile Richards on the fact that her organization harvests the babies they kill for spare parts, spent the alotted time grandstanding. And now, he seems to have completely lost support on his Internet regulation bills. His Remote Transactions Parity Act, which would force Internet retailers to charge state taxes for out of state customers even if they had no presence in the customer’s state, is beloved by exactly no one, especially states’ rights activists. His Restoration of America’s Wire Act, which would severely curtail Internet gambling, fares only slightly better.

It drew one whole person to its policy briefing. 

RAWA (H.R. 707) is dying the slow death of bills that aren’t sexy enough to draw attention away from much sexier issues. With the House speakership up for grabs, a looming budget crisis (again), and presidential primaries heating up, folks on the Hill seem to care little about a long-shot proposal to ban Internet gambling. Perhaps this is why an event to discuss the measure—one which featured two former members of Congress and three respected political strategists—attracted just one attendee. That is, there was only one person in attendance 20 minutes into the hour-long event, after three other people (myself included), were asked to leave.

If Chaffetz were to ascend to the highest rank in the House, it could be problematic for those who value Internet freedoms, both from taxation and from unnecessary regulation. Luckily, though, it seems like the Internet is winning the battle.