McCarthey out as Speaker of the House - Bozo the clown on deck

[Copernicus]

Emmer just withdrew.

Hence, no GOP House member can get enough votes from the Trump-besotted party caucus to win the speakership. The only path forward is for a small rump group of Republicans to make a deal with Democrats. Hakeem Jeffries or some Republican who agrees to certain conditions that the Democrats require.

 

[bilby]

They spend all fucking day to select and unselect the candidate... now on another break.

It seems the lunatic fringe wants a candidate that will burn DC down to the ground, enough so they are stopping people who are incredibly conservative but not firebugs from becoming speaker. And enough (just barely enough) of the GOP don't want someone to burn DC to the ground.

So we are at an impasse over whether the Speaker should support burning DC to the ground.

Perhaps they should just outsource the role to the British Army.

 

[Tigers!]

Only you Yanks can look at a perfectly simple process, like electing a Speaker, wonder how you can complicate it, stuff it up and then go and do so.

Extreme irony calling the conservative Republican party who is gumming up the government works as the “Yanks.”


I mean I know non-USAians think of all the country as “the Yanks,”. I get that, but it doesn’t make it less ironical and funny when they do.

Its easier to put all of you Yanks in the single basket labelled Yanks. One rotten apple and all of that.

 

[ZiprHead]

 

[blastula]

What if the Dems vote “present” or just don’t appear? Doesn’t that lower the threshold? Could Emmer get the gavel, or would he have to offer up his firstborn?

I feel like Dems should extract some punitive concession but then maneuver a Republican into the position (Emmer might be the best they can hope for). If they hold out for a Republican consensus, the Tantrum Caucus will get their way, and we will pay.

Repubs will never work with the enemies of America, the Democrats. They fear they'll be labeled traitors forever in their party.

 

[lpetrich]

Why do Congressional Republicans put up with Donald Trump? He seems so hostile and belligerent.

House speaker vote live updates: Rep. Tom Emmer drops speaker bid hours after winning nomination

Emmer's decision to drop out of the race a mere four hours after Republicans elected him as their nominee sends House Republicans back again to try to find a new nominee after three weeks without a permanent speaker.

...
Emmer won an election Tuesday against a large field of eight Republicans. Rep. Mike Johnson came in second place after several rounds of voting. Johnson tried to rally holdouts around Emmer without much success.

... A roll-call vote in the conference indicated that there were over 20 who opposed Emmer, far more than the four Republicans he could afford to lose on the House floor.

...
Speaker Pro Tempore Rep. Patrick McHenry is in charge, but insists his role is limited to overseeing the election of a new speaker. An effort to potentially expand McHenry's power shriveled last week.

This can't look good for the US's image elsewhere in the world, even if nobody in other governments may be willing to go public about that. Just like Donald Trump's Presidency.

A vote on the next House speaker won't happen Tuesday night, according to the Democratic Whip's office.

...
Rep. Kevin Hern, the chairman of the Republican Study Committee, told reporters that he decided to forgo his candidacy for speaker and is instead supporting Rep. Mike Johnson.

...
GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik tweeted the full list of candidates shortly before the candidate forum was to begin this evening. Reps. Byron Donalds of Florida, Chuck Fleischmann of Tennessee, Mark Green of Tennessee, Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, Mike Johnson of Louisiana and Roger Williams of Texas, are running.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

View attachment 44543

Nice anti-Semitic mic drop.

 

[lpetrich]

Why the 8 Republicans running for House speaker are equally disappointing

Normally with this many candidates in the running, I’d be loath to make such sweeping statements. But sort through the stack of mostly generic Republicans who’ve decided to shoot their shots and you’ll feel comfortable doing the same. I pay far more attention to Congress than the average American, and I’d still be hard-pressed to pick most of these candidates out of a lineup. (Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., the only Black candidate, is an obvious exception.)

Their bland anonymity exists even though many of them serve in House leadership. ...

Because they don’t have the kind of name recognition that sets them apart, one has to sift through the details to come up with any real discerning features among them. ...

... At the top of the list is funding the federal government before the stopgap bill passed this month expires on Nov. 17. ... (Talk about an own goal for the conservatives who hated McCarthy but who also hate stopgap bills.)

It’s doubtful that whoever becomes speaker will have time to hammer those out and get them in line with the Democratic-led Senate’s versions. And, tellingly, all eight candidates apparently told their colleagues that they would not bring an omnibus spending bill to the floor to fund the government for the next year. If that’s the case, then another continuing resolution is likely to be needed. And that’s where the trouble begins.

 

[bilby]

"Has he only changed because that's what it takes to win?" - Donald J Trump, massive hypocrite.

 

[lpetrich]

I like this:

The question for the next speaker, then, becomes whether to follow McCarthy’s lead into yet another a stalemate or risk the wrath of the chaos caucus.

"Chaos caucus"

 October 2023 Speaker of the United States House of Representatives election

They released the vote of earlier today. The rounds of voting:

• Dan Meuser, Gary Palmer withdrew before the vote
• Pete Sessions was eliminated
• Jack Bergman was eliminated
• Austin Scott was eliminated
• Kevin Hern was eliminated, Byron Donalds withdrew
• Mike Johnson was eliminated
• Tom Emmer won

They took a vote afterward: Tom Emmer 193, Jim Jordan 15, Mike Johnson 4, Byron Donalds 1. Not enough to elect a new Speaker, so TE withdrew.

The article now has a section on "Calls for a bipartisan coalition" and one on "Proposals to expand the powers of the Speaker pro tempore"

 

[robnisch]

They spend all fucking day to select and unselect the candidate... now on another break.

It seems the lunatic fringe wants a candidate that will burn DC down to the ground, enough so they are stopping people who are incredibly conservative but not firebugs from becoming speaker. And enough (just barely enough) of the GOP don't want someone to burn DC to the ground.

So we are at an impasse over whether the Speaker should support burning DC to the ground.

Perhaps they should just outsource the role to the British Army.

If the repugs burn it down, how are they going to keep on grifting?

 

[Patooka]

They spend all fucking day to select and unselect the candidate... now on another break.

It seems the lunatic fringe wants a candidate that will burn DC down to the ground, enough so they are stopping people who are incredibly conservative but not firebugs from becoming speaker. And enough (just barely enough) of the GOP don't want someone to burn DC to the ground.

So we are at an impasse over whether the Speaker should support burning DC to the ground.

Perhaps they should just outsource the role to the British Army.

If the repugs burn it down, how are they going to keep on grifting?

"Never Forget" merchandise that's made in China. Duh.

 

[Swammerdami]

Repubs will never work with the enemies of America, the Democrats. They fear they'll be labeled traitors forever in their party.

It would take only five Gopsters to wrest control of the House from the Insurrectionists and back to the Party of Humans. But will they find five righteous Gopsters in the House? The five could never be re-elected to public office of course, but at this point they'd be in fear of their families' lives.

As I previously recounted, this story was prophesized in The Book of Genesis with the God of Abraham unable to find five righteous men in the Republican Caucus.

Spoiler

Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only twenty righteous can be found in the Majority Caucus?” He answered, “I will not do it if I find twenty there.” Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only ten can be found there?” He said, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.” Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only five can be found there?” He answered, “For the sake of five, I will not destroy it.”...

The two angels arrived at Capitol Hill in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. “My lords,” he said, “please turn aside to your servant’s house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning.” “No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.” But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate. Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the Majority Caucus—both young and old—surrounded the house. They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.” Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him and said, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing..."

“Get out of our way,” they replied. “This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.” They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door....

The angels said to Lot "We are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the Lord against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it.”...

Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on the Majority Caucus and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land.

Reheated by the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Jim Jordan has denied he knew about sex abuse on Ohio State wrestling team. Here’s who says he knew, and who says he didn’t

Several people who were affiliated with the Ohio State University's wrestling program say Champaign County Republican Rep. Jim Jordan knew that team doctor Richard Strauss sexually molested wrestlers while Jordan was an assistant coach in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Jordan denies knowledge...

www.cleveland.com

“Jim Jordan called me crying, groveling… begging me to go against my brother…That’s the kind of cover-up that’s going on there,” said DiSabato

I forget which scandal that is.
Is that the coach Sandusky who was banging kids in the team showers, and everyone knew but wouldn't talk about it because it would interfere with fundraising?
Tom

Jordan is just a wannabe. Apparently he raped no children himself. Dennis Hastert became a GOP Speaker, but he was a REAL Republican, not just a rape onlooker like Jordan. Donald Trump is a serial rapist and child molester and is the quintessential GOP hero, now shown with a 78% chance to be the next GOP nominee for President.

I think Matt Gaetz could become Speaker if he embraced his inner self. "Yeah I f**ked that 17 year-old bitch until she was sobbing and screaming. Then I asked her if she had a younger sister." He'd get the 217 votes easily if he went with that.

 

[Ford]

Emmer just withdrew.

The only path forward is for a small rump group of Republicans to make a deal with Democrats. Hakeem Jeffries or some Republican who agrees to certain conditions that the Democrats require.

And as Saint Reagan said "well...there you go again."

The folks on the right who are gumming up the process absolutely do not want a "path forward." I'm increasingly convinced that they want the government to shut down more or less completely. Let's say a half dozen of them vote for a compromise candidate or even Jeffries. What happens then? The government keeps doing stuff, and bits and bobs of the Biden agenda keep moving forward. That cannot happen. Because thus far Biden's agenda has been pretty damned productive for Americans and the GOP knows that if November of next year rolls around and folks are thinking "things are actually going pretty good overall" their chances for holding the House and gaining back the Senate are slightly less.

One need only to look over at the "grown ups in the room" in the Senate to see how this plays out. Mitch "Mr. Freeze" McConnell held up a Supreme Court nominee for almost a year and then rammed one through in a few weeks. Senator Tuberville has been holding up a huge part of the military that his party usually worships over reproductive rights for service members and the party is fine with that. If the GOP manages to take back the Senate, all those officers will be promoted in a hot second.

This is about power. This is not about a path forward. This is "either you give us complete control or we will burn it all down."

 

[bilby]

It would take only five Gopsters to wrest control of the House from the Insurrectionists and back to the Party of Humans.

I misread that as "... only five gophers..." and was wondering how you'd even go about training ground squirrels to attack insurrectionists, and why it's not been tried yet.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

So Mike Johnson is the fourth / fifth person to become a nominee.

Here are the vote totals on the ballot that elected Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) as speaker designate: Johnson, 128; Donalds, 29; Others, 44 (43 of them for McCarthy); Present, 1

Who are these people that are voting for a no experience Donalds?

So is Johnson "conservative" enough without being too "conservative" to get to 217? Who the heck knows.

 

[Derec]

Why do Congressional Republicans put up with Donald Trump? He seems so hostile and belligerent.

Partisan primaries. Both parties are finding themselves very vulnerable to primary challenges from the fringes.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Why do Congressional Republicans put up with Donald Trump? He seems so hostile and belligerent.

Partisan primaries. Both parties are finding themselves very vulnerable to primary challenges from the fringes.

That didn't remotely answer the question. Trump isn't remotely a Conservative. He has zero principles. The question is why do people give a damn what Trump thinks? Mark Meadows just flipped on the jackass... yet, the GOP is still swerving towards mindlessness and Trump despite an almost certain conviction(s).

Meadows flipping is icing on the well iced cake of the election fraud was a bald faced lie... and GOP'ers are out there still railing on fraud. They are so committed to the lie, perhaps that is why they are still pushing Trump and the lie that he is remotely capable of leadership.

 

[lpetrich]

Mike Johnson picked as new GOP speaker nominee just hours after Tom Emmer drops bid | CNN Politics

The rounds of voting:

• Chuck Fleischmann was eliminated
• Roger Williams was eliminated, Mark Green withdrew
• Byron Donalds was eliminated
• Mike Johnson won

MJ won 100% of the votes for someone to advance to the full House, though 3 voted present, and 22 did not vote.

Mike Johnson placed second in the previous multiround vote, with Byron Donalds just behind him in both votes, and the only other one in both votes.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

22 GOP'ers were not at the last vote. So that remains the only remaining wrinkle as it looks like almost all others support Johnson. So around 1 PM, we might know if we have a new Speaker... who'll likely do the same exact thing as McCarthy would have done. The only remaining question is whether Gaetz and the other crazy people have a one person super veto on the Speaker still.