Chaos in Congress: Conservatives Caught Cluelessly Conflicted

(Looks at the article title) Does that make ANY sense...? 

Anyways, as mentioned yesterday, the House Republicans were all set to implode today when they opened the 2023 congressional session and were supposed to vote in a Speaker of the House.

And they failed.

Three times. Via Deirdre Walsh and Dustin Jones at NPR:

Leadership of the House of Representatives remains in limbo as California GOP Rep. Kevin McCarthy faces internal opposition to his bid for speaker.

On the first day of the new Congress, McCarthy failed to secure the 218 votes necessary to become speaker of the House in three rounds of voting. The House cannot conduct any business, including swearing in new members, until a speaker is chosen.

Tuesday's vote was the first time in a century that the election of a House speaker took multiple ballots to complete. The longest vote in U.S. history took place in 1855, lasting 133 rounds over two months, from December 1855 to February 1856.

McCarthy faces a Republican bloc of critics who want changes to the way the House operates. Although he's given in to many of their demands, he remains short of the votes needed.

Instead of celebrating their return to the majority on the first day, McCarthy and other GOP leaders were sorting out how to respond to an open rebellion that showcased division and cast doubt on their ability to govern.

As expected, the Freedom Caucus - the Far Right members who genuinely want to shutdown government in order to gut every social net and deregulate every industry and send us all back to the 1850s - refused to accept any deal from McCarthy, essentially putting the burden on the majority of other Republicans to figure out a way to break the impasse. Even with the clear evidence that 203 other Republicans won't side with them, these handful of extremists are going to double down on withholding their votes - backing Jim Jordan, an extremist wingnut - because they know they've got the rest of the GOP in a bind.

This is even after McCarthy is willing to give them committee chairs, willing to give them the Motion to Vacate power, willing to let them "investigate" - in truth, to harass and defame - the FBI and DOJ for daring to investigate Republican misdeeds (such as insurrection), and willing to let them gut their own congressional Ethics office so they can break even more rules.

You can't make deals with extremists, Republicans. The Freedom Caucus group will keep moving the goalposts and demand more, they will take more hostages and demand more. They will keep insisting the point, to where they will have all the power to abuse everyone else with none of the accountability our constitutional system requires. Even this block on the vote plays into the Caucus' interests: They are holding up the entire House of Representatives to where nothing can get done (just the way they like it).

To be honest Republicans, you need to make the hard decision now and kick the Freedom Caucus to the curbside. Take away all the promises you made to them because obviously they didn't work as incentives. McCarthy, you're going to have to make a deal with the House Democrats. You can make a deal, because at least the Dems want government to work.

The House Democrats shouldn't make too many demands other than: 

• Ensure the 'Motion to Vacate' is back to how Pelosi had it in 2019 (Only the party leaders can request that motion), so that the few members of the Freedom Caucus can't veto a thing; 
• Put a majority of Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee and any other committees that could be used to harass the Justice Department while they investigate trump for his misdeeds;
• Agree that the Hunter Biden laptop is compromised, and not worthy of congressional investigation (this will be a problem, because even mainstream Republicans want to embarrass Biden's family for political points);
• Promise not to file impeachment charges against Biden and Harris unless credible allegations of official misconduct is uncovered (this will also be a problem);
• Deny every congressperson - 20 of them - who voted against McCarthy any committee assignment as their punishment;
• Reinstall the electronic security gates to ensure the gun nuts don't waltz into the House chamber with freaking firearms;
• Less talk and more rock. Oh c'mon, every deal should include this as a clause.

You can even throw in the Sanity Clause while you're at it.

Either McCarthy and the rest of the sane members of the House Republicans make a deal with the House Dems that both parties can agree to, or McCarthy and the sane members of the House Republicans have to deal with the insanity of repeating the same roll call vote over and over while the Freedom Caucus holds up the entire system.

Insanity is repeating the same mistake expecting a better result. Well, there are no better results dealing with goddamn wingnuts, Republicans. It's about goddamn time you all learned what the rest of the nation learned since 2010, and stop dealing with Jim Jordan and the rest of those lunatics.