Well, since last I blogged, the situation with the House Republicans have gotten crazier and with 87 percent more schadenfreude, so let's go to the hits:
Jim "Scandals Aplenty" Jordan's second attempt at a floor vote lost him two more supporters, indicating how any further attempts to push him through the caucus will worsen. Realizing that every vote won't make him a martyr - more of a clownish loser - Jordan is now trying to avoid future votes with his name on the ballot. But he might not be able to, since the only thing the House can do right now is hold votes for Speakerships.
Meanwhile, reports got out how the Republican representatives who voted against Jordan - and their families - are getting harassed with texts and phone calls, highlighting the brute-force tactics of the Freedom Caucus and their media followers. Jordan apparently told his backers to stop the bullying, but enough congresscritters are upset about the abusive tactics that they're not going to deal with Jordan at all.
At one point, a suggestion that various Democratic congresspersons made to make the Speaker Pro Tem Patrick McHenry a "temporary Speaker" with enough authority to manage the House to conduct select business got some support from Jordan and other Republicans, but the deal fell through when nobody could be certain how it would work, and enough Democrats became concerned that Jordan would undermine McHenry as "Speaker Designate" (whatever the hell that is) to rule from the shadows.
Stories got out about the in-fighting going on behind closed doors between the more exasperated Republican leaders, especially fun stories about ex-Speaker McCarthy screaming at Matt Gaetz (you know, the moran who started this whole mess) while another congresscritter threatened to punch the shiznit out of Gaetz.
Per a source in the room, McCarthy screamed at Matt Gaetz to sit down when he went to the mics, with the source saying Rep. Bost “almost lunging at him.”
— Juliegrace Brufke (@juliegraceb) October 19, 2023
Brufke by the by is a Capitol Hill reporter for Axios.
This is where the popcorn GIFs would be real helpful. Especially with the current reports that McHenry is threatening to quit the Pro Tem job and throw the entire House into chaos.
SCOOP w/@RebeccaRKaplan:
— Scott Wong (@scottwongDC) October 19, 2023
In private meeting, McHENRY said he might RESIGN as speaker pro tem if Rs push him to move legislation without a formal vote to expand his powers, multiple lawmakers in the room said. https://t.co/rBUwe6W12x
Wong reports for NBC, by the by.
There's more reports McCarthy is trying to negotiate for the Speakership again, bolstered by the reality that the Republicans are now embarassed to hell and beyond by this clown show and would desire going back to how it was.
But there is no going back. The wingnuts wanted this breakdown of functional government and now they're going to make the rest of us suffer with them.
This is not going to end until enough Rational members of the House Republicans realize the only way forward is to deal with the Democrats and kick the Freedom Caucus bomb-throwers out of power.
And that's not going to happen because all the House Republicans are cowards, too terrified of their MAGA voting base to make that move.
If there's any joy to be had, it's that trump is facing multiple civil and criminal trials and suffering at each one.
Speaking of... (FORESHADOWING next blog article)
1 comment:
Jordan's bid has bit the big one. Looks like they got the shutdown they wanted, just from a different angle. Way to go employing your strongest qualities toward your objective. This, of course, makes the regular shutdown more likely. These creeps are being paid perfectly good green American money to do this job and they just flatly refuse.
-Doug in Sugar Pine
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