So, the Republican House Caucus voting is done, and Steve Scalise may have the nomination. But he doesn't have the Speakership. (via Susan Davis, Deirdre Walsh, and Lexie Schapitl at NPR):
Scalise defeated Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, by a vote of 113-99. That gave Scalise a narrow majority of the Republicans' 221 votes in the chamber, but he has yet to lock up the 217 votes necessary to win on the House floor. A source with direct knowledge of the matter said Jordan plans to vote for Scalise on the floor of the House and is encouraging his colleagues to do the same.
Ha. There's already reports of House Republicans refusing to back Scalise for the necessary votes to clear the full House, as Democrats are in lockstep behind Hakeem Jeffries and it will take 4 votes - depending on who shows up - to deny Scalise similar to how Kevin McCarthy was denied fifteen times this past January.
Haley Talbot with CNN is keeping tally on the NO votes:
If he had the votes, they’d be voting
— Haley Talbot (@haleytalbotcnn) October 11, 2023
House adjourns until NOON tomorrow pic.twitter.com/oTFbzgDyvQ
Unless Scalise panders to those naysayers - without alienating the people who backed him this far - he's not going to win.
Unless six or more Rational Republicans realize they won't get anywhere with these lunatics and flip to the Democratic caucus - either as independents or full party flip - we as a nation are going to be stuck with this traffic jam for a long time.
Welcome to a new Long October: The Long October Of Party Chaos.
1 comment:
The goddamn Republicans couldn't elect Jesus as their speaker if he was running, let alone one of the festering turds in their conference. There needs to be some mechanism to remove legislators who refuse to do the work we pay them for.
-Doug in Sugar Pine
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