[img_assist|nid=1138|title=U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy|desc=|link=none|align=none|width=420|height=315]WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy is one of the few people who will become so animated when talking about Congressional elections that he leans forward in his seat in mid-conversation and touches the arm of the person he is speaking to.

“I believe everyone is addicted to something in life,” he said in an interview with PolitickerCA.com, and the first term Republican congressman said for him “it just happens to be politics.”

McCarthy’s enthusiasm and energy for politics, coming at a bleak time for house Republicans, has made him something of a standout in his freshman class and the party in general. Already, the Bakersfield congressman has been placed in an advisory position at the National Republican Congressional Committee and has been tapped to head up the party’s Platform Committee at the national convention in September. He’s a member of the Young Guns, a group of Republicans whose mission is to prop up house challengers around the country.

In a recent interview in his Longworth Building offices in Washington, McCarthy, who has been mentioned as a potential candidate for NRCC chair, said that his party needs to take an aggressive approach in elections.

“I think the greater offense you have, the greater ability you have to win seats,” he said. “If you get into a defensive mode, where you say ‘we’re defending our current members,’ then all we do is go down. If we start out saying, we’re going to capture these seats because we have the right message, we go recruit the right candidates for the district, then we have a much better approach.”

Aside from his offensive posture, McCarthy calls his vision for the party “commonsense conservatism.” It is striking because it differs from the polarizing tactics that had recently been practiced by some of the party’s other top strategists. McCarthy argues the party should be inclusive of Republicans with diverse views.

“I never walk away from my belief that if someone has a different view they should be involved in the party,” he said.

McCarthy’s inclusive outlook has shown itself, perhaps more than anywhere else, in his attempts to bring members of differing philosophies together.

“His ability to relate to all members is uncanny,” said U.S. Rep. John Campbell, who also served with McCarthy in the Assembly.

“He’s very, very popular,” said U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, adding that McCarthy tends to “move between groups.”

“One of the things I realized when I got here was that people on both sides of the aisle really like him,” said Jean Fuller, who assumed McCarthy’s seat in the Assembly after McCarthy left for Washington in 2006.

McCarthy’s approach has its roots in the political terrain of Bakersfield. The congressman started out as an intern for U.S. Rep. Bill Thomas, a Republican whose seat McCarthy now occupies. McCarthy spent 15 years working for Thomas, eventually rising to become the congressman’s district director.

Thomas, with the help of longtime area political consultant Mark Abernathy, operated a political machine in Bakersfield and became known for winning control of the areas seats by taking moderate conservatives under his wing and pushing out more down-the line Republicans. Even today, there is a small core of Bakersfield Republicans who view McCarthy’s victory over conservative city Councilman Mike Maggard in the 2002 primary for the area’s state Assembly seat as an example of Thomas’s machine at work.

“Bill Thomas was McCarthy’s mentor and he came up in the ranks of the Thomas machine, which became identified with the moderate wing of the Republican Party, which was in the minority at the time,” said Vic Pollard, a longtime political reporter for the Bakersfield Californian. “The split still exists between the Thomas and McCarthy people and the conservatives.”

“They were ruthless and they were liberal. Take no prisoners,” Mike Spence, chairman of the California Republican Assembly and a foe of Thomas, said of the Bakersfield machine.

While few would doubt that McCarthy is personally conservative -- the nonpartisan National Journal recently gave McCarthy a conservative composite score of 80.8, placing him on the right end of the House -- McCarthy’s experience in the Thomas clan is instructive about his approach.

“Why would we be afraid in the Republican Party for someone to have a voice?” McCarthy asked.

Should McCarthy seek out the top job at the NRCC, the campaign arm of the party which is charged with recruiting candidates from all corners of the country, his philosophy of pragmatism first would likely be attractive to fellow members.

“He’s already earned a spot at the table,” said Issa, the San Diego-area Congressman, referring to McCarthy’s prospects for the committee’s chairmanship.

Even foes of Thomas admit that McCarthy has worthy political skills.

“There’s no doubt that he’s an efficient political operator,” says Spence. “I would prefer to have him on our side than not on our side.”