[img_assist|nid=919|title=U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy|desc=File Photo|link=none|align=none|width=420|height=179]WASHINGTON -- Kevin McCarthy, the first term U.S. Congressman from Bakersfield who is widely seen as a rising star within the Republican Party, tells PolitickerCA.com that he would not take the reins at the beleaguered National Republican Congressional Committee should sitting chair Tom Cole step aside.

"I don't think that you change midstream. You create a strategy and you play out the plan. Does the plan have to adapt? Yeah the plan has to adapt. I think the strength Cole - he's been in the foxhole before," said McCarthy this morning while sitting in his office in the Longworth building, a block from the U.S. Capitol.

With Republicans losing a congressional election in Mississippi this fall in a heavily conservative district, coupled with similar special election losses in Louisiana and Illinois, there has been talk of changes at the NRCC, the organization charged with overseeing the party's House races.

But McCarthy, who is frequently mentioned as a future NRCC chair, said that Republicans could emerge from the losses with a renewed sense of focus.

"Those that write the party off right now - and watching the headlines in the news is tough for us - but this is really what makes people. This is where it begins. And the more that we are tighter and the more that we retool, the better off we are," said McCarthy.

McCarthy's rise in the Republican party has been meteoric. McCarthy, a former Republican Assembly Leader in the state legislature, served as an aide to former U.S. Rep. Bill Thomas, the onetime chair of the powerful House Ways and Means committee. He won election to Thomas's seat less than two years ago.

Since arriving in Washington last year, McCarthy has helped to found a group of Representatives called the "Young Guns" who seek to raise money for Republican House challengers. He has also been tapped to serve on a 12-member committee that is advising the NRCC this cycle. Earlier this month he was chosen to head up the Republican platform committee at the GOP convention in August.

Stay tuned next week for more of PolitickerCA.com's interview with McCarthy.