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The US Congress has two houses, the House of Representatives and the Senate. In order for anything to happen, both houses have to generally agree on it. Which means that in order for Congress to work, the House of Representatives has to work. And in order for the House of Representatives to work, they have to have a Speaker. That is, a member of the House who gets elected to lead and make various procedural decisions. Nothing can be done–they can’t even formally swear in the newly-elected Representatives–if they don’t have a Speaker.
Nancy Pelosi (Democrat) was a very long-standing Speaker. She retired without waiting to preside over the election of the next Speaker. And the Republicans have the majority of seats, but only by a knife’s edge … and they’re fractured.
When the House adjourned today, they had had six rounds of voting without anyone making it. To win, someone needs to get 218 votes. McCarthy is the leading Republican (and fairly moderate for a Republican), and the most he’s ever gotten is 203. There are about 20 Republicans who will not vote for McCarthy, and are perfectly fine grandstanding about it. The leading Democrat (Hakeem Jeffries) got 212 votes every single round.
And without a Speaker, there’s nobody with the authority to tell the C-Span cameras they can’t film the House floor in the between-votes moments when the legislators are arguing and making deals and milling about the floor. So they’ve been having a field day watching it all.
So the question is … what happens next? This can’t go on indefinitely. It’s almost certainly going to be a Republican (because there are more Republicans than Democrats, if only barely), but which one? Chances of McCarthy getting elected look slim, but there are a lot of the Republicans voting for McCarthy who wouldn’t vote for anyone the 20 holdouts would support. And despite the 20 holdouts being Trump-style extremists, a call from Trump to support McCarthy did absolutely bupkiss.
but the thing is, if the Republicans in the House can’t even get their shit together to elect a Speaker … are they going to be able to get their shit together to do literally anything else? Even after they manage to elect a Speaker?
Nancy Pelosi (Democrat) was a very long-standing Speaker. She retired without waiting to preside over the election of the next Speaker. And the Republicans have the majority of seats, but only by a knife’s edge … and they’re fractured.
When the House adjourned today, they had had six rounds of voting without anyone making it. To win, someone needs to get 218 votes. McCarthy is the leading Republican (and fairly moderate for a Republican), and the most he’s ever gotten is 203. There are about 20 Republicans who will not vote for McCarthy, and are perfectly fine grandstanding about it. The leading Democrat (Hakeem Jeffries) got 212 votes every single round.
And without a Speaker, there’s nobody with the authority to tell the C-Span cameras they can’t film the House floor in the between-votes moments when the legislators are arguing and making deals and milling about the floor. So they’ve been having a field day watching it all.
So the question is … what happens next? This can’t go on indefinitely. It’s almost certainly going to be a Republican (because there are more Republicans than Democrats, if only barely), but which one? Chances of McCarthy getting elected look slim, but there are a lot of the Republicans voting for McCarthy who wouldn’t vote for anyone the 20 holdouts would support. And despite the 20 holdouts being Trump-style extremists, a call from Trump to support McCarthy did absolutely bupkiss.
but the thing is, if the Republicans in the House can’t even get their shit together to elect a Speaker … are they going to be able to get their shit together to do literally anything else? Even after they manage to elect a Speaker?
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Date: 2023-01-05 05:18 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2023-01-05 06:38 pm (UTC)From: