# 2025 House Speaker election **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [December 27, 2024, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2025-house-speaker-election/1012245 "2024-12-27T23:24:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2025-house-speaker-election/1012245/101 "2025-01-04T06:57:32Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Not sure what Massie’s deal is. Kentucky-4 is a safe district, R+19. Massie was first elected for the 2012 term. I see he has voted against a lot of GOP leaders: Might just be a contrarian. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2025-house-speaker-election/1012245/102 "2025-01-04T08:12:23Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Mike Johnson is better at this than Kevin McCartney. Johnson is a deal cutter; McCartney was a weasel. Yes, Johnson is better than I thought he’d be. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2025-house-speaker-election/1012245/103 "2025-01-04T08:57:15Z")
McCarthy only ever wanted to be Speaker for its own sake and was willing to give up anything to anyone to get it. Johnson fancies himself an Old Testament prophet who’s receiving direct communications from Yahweh about how to run the country. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2025-house-speaker-election/1012245/104 "2025-01-04T12:45:40Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Johnson fancies himself an Old Testament prophet who’s receiving direct communications from Yahweh about how to run the country. Now that’s a comforting thought. Thanks for sharing. NOT! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2025-house-speaker-election/1012245/105 "2025-01-04T13:19:00Z")
> [@penultima\_thule](#): > > > [@Smapti](#): > > > > The new rules package prohibits the Speaker from suspending regular order between Thursday and Sunday > > So on the whole The Hill would prefer if American democracy and governance was only required on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday? My understanding is that one grievance of (what we in the Commonwealth call) backbenchers is that too many major deals were being cooked up by the congressional leadership, often over weekends, and then presented to the party caucus as a « must vote » for it, without examination in committee, as required by regular order. I think this provision is meant to increase the scrutiny of proposed measures. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2025-house-speaker-election/1012245/106 "2025-01-04T13:23:04Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > I think this provision is meant to increase the scrutiny of proposed measures. That would be the good governance motivation. Given the bad faith in everything these clowns do, the real reason is simply to ensure less can be done (“the only good government is no government”) and make it far easier for the clown car brigade to torpedo stuff they don’t like before it develops any momentum. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2025-house-speaker-election/1012245/107 "2025-01-04T14:51:24Z")
> [@penultima\_thule](#): > > > [@Smapti](#): > > > > The new rules package prohibits the Speaker from suspending regular order between Thursday and Sunday > > So on the whole The Hill would prefer if American democracy and governance was only required on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday? This really isn’t that big a deal. This used to be the rule prior to two sessions ago – the House could only take up bills on suspension on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. That’s because suspension is meant for post office renamings and other noncontroversial legislation. And even with this change, the House can still agree to take up a bill under suspension of the rules on another day of the week, they’d just need to pass a special rule to allow it. That would require a 2/3 vote of the House, but passing a bill on suspension requires 2/3 anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2025-house-speaker-election/1012245/108 "2025-01-04T19:19:51Z")
> [@flurb](#): > > And even with this change, the House can still agree to take up a bill under suspension of the rules on another day of the week, they’d just need to pass a special rule to allow it. That would require a 2/3 vote of the House, but passing a bill on suspension requires 2/3 anyway. Can this be done without going through the rules committee? ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2025-house-speaker-election/1012245/109 "2025-01-04T19:52:39Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Johnson fancies himself an Old Testament prophet who’s receiving direct communications from Yahweh about how to run the country. Yeah, he started in politics when he opposed a local porn store. Then he joined and founded a couple of professional Christian movement conservative legal advocacy organizations. Then he was chair of the Republican Study Committee when he was elected to the House. All of these jobs involve _working with people_. As opposed to television or radio histrionics. There’s a parallel to Dick Cheney, though Mike Johnson won’t be as effective. They are both very conservative, but they are deal cutters. Dick Cheney’s conservatism endowed him with terrible judgment on foreign relations, while Johnson’s Christian conservatism will give his movement a few gummy bears sprinkled in now and then. The big issues will be a matter of which party has the House majority. There’s only so much a cat herder can do, even if they get a lot of media attention. I don’t think Mike Johnson is the main story. The main story involves the loving embrace of what the founding fathers called factionalism by a significant rump of the House GOP. Which is fine, except our political system wasn’t built for that: we don’t have proportional representation or coalition governance. Latin American democratic constitutions in the 1800s patterned themselves after the US constitution: I understand they were prone to collapse because the US system depended upon norms far more than was understood then or now. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2025-house-speaker-election/1012245/110 "2025-01-04T20:59:15Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Can this be done without going through the rules committee? I’m not an expert on House parliamentary procedure (alas), but the Speaker’s allies plus Democrats on the Rules Committee could easily outvote the FC committee members if they needed to. I think what’s important to realize is that “suspending the rules” can be used in two different senses. The first is to “suspend and pass” a bill utilizing a procedure that the House has evolved over the course of its existence. This entails putting the bill on the “suspension calendar,” from which the Speaker can then bring it to the floor under an expedited process that limits debate, prohibits amendments and disallows other parliamentary maneuvers to delay consideration. The single motion to suspend and pass the bill requires a 2/3 majority. This is the process that the article is referring to. Prior to 2021, a motion to suspend and pass was only in order on Monday-Wednesday (or in the last six days of session). The Democrats controlling the House changed the rule to allow suspension votes any day in part to accommodate pandemic-related scheduling issues. Republicans kept that change last session and are now reverting to the previous status quo (although they apparently are removing the “last six days of session” provision). But the House can suspend enforcement of ANY rule anytime it wants to if it can get a 2/3 vote in favor. It would be more involved than the “suspend and pass” procedure – it may take longer to set up, you’d need two votes, etc. But this isn’t an insurmountable procedural bar to the House passing a budget on a Friday. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2025-house-speaker-election/1012245/111 "2025-01-04T21:42:16Z")
This sent me down a rabbit hole learning about Speaker Johnson. What a disgustingly pious fruitcake. He is more dangerous than most realize. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2025-house-speaker-election/1012245/112 "2025-01-04T23:36:16Z")
Cite? I mean I know that he represents Christian conservatives. But I haven’t seen any surprising manifestations in terms of policy. Dick Cheney wasn’t especially dangerous in the House. It was within the executive branch that he perfected the art of plutocratic trench warfare. I admit that I’m demanding a fairly high evidence bar. But in the legislative branch, I can’t think of any deal-cutters who have done much damage on their own. It’s the bomb-throwers and demagogues who do the damage (and of course congressional majorities). Counter-examples might involve somebody who slipped in a small but toxic pet program. I don’t think that’s likely to measure up to McConnellism or Gingrichism. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2025-house-speaker-election/1012245/113 "2025-01-04T23:54:22Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Cite? I mean I know that he represents Christian conservatives. But I haven’t seen any surprising manifestations in terms of policy. He’s literally said that God talks to him in the same way that God talked to Moses. I consider anyone who thinks they’re receiving direct instructions from the Almighty to be dangerous. > [@](#): > > I started praying more about that. And the Lord began to wake me up through this three-week process we were in, in the middle of the night, and to speak to me. And [I began] to write things down, plans and procedures and ideas on how we could pull the conference together. I assumed the Lord was going to choose a new Moses. And “Oh, thank you, Lord: You’re going to allow me to be Aaron to Moses.” [In the Hebrew Bible, Aaron is Moses’ brother and a priest who aids him.] > > I worked to get Steve Scalise elected. And then Jim Jordan. And Tom Emmer. Thirteen people ran for the post. The Lord kept telling me to wait. And I waited and waited. And it came to the end, and the Lord said, “Now, step forward.” “Me? I’m supposed to be Aaron.” > **[Mike Johnson Claims That God Told Him to Be a “New Moses”](https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/12/mike-johnson-christian-nationalist-lawmakers-moses.html)** > > The speaker of the House headlined an event dedicated to spiritual warfare. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2025, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2025-house-speaker-election/1012245/114 "2025-01-05T02:28:19Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > He’s literally said that God talks to him in the same way that God talked to Moses. I consider anyone who thinks they’re receiving direct instructions from the Almighty to be dangerous. Thanks for the link. The rhetoric in your quote seems to me like familiar evangelical Christianity. Not my tribe and it doesn’t inspire my trust, but how has this alleged danger ever manifested over the past 50 years? Christian fundamentalists have been in US public life for a while now after all. ETA: Thanks for the example below. Pros for your case: It’s more credible because GWBush wasn’t speaking at an evangelical fundraiser: he was speaking to Palestinian representatives. Cons: I seriously doubt whether evangelical Christianity was the prime mover for the invasion of Iraq. As an example [this article](https://tnsr.org/2023/06/why-did-the-united-states-invade-iraq-the-debate-at-20-years/) doesn’t contain the word evangelical or Christian (except as the name of someone). The neoconservatives weren’t primarily of evangelical background. Look, I don’t want to dismiss concerns about politicians espousing proof-because-God-told-me, but given the familiarity of this rhetoric I don’t want to dwell on it either. Prayer is well and good, but I’m not exactly comfortable with world leaders relying on the voices they say are in their heads. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2025, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2025-house-speaker-election/1012245/115 "2025-01-05T02:28:58Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > but how has this alleged danger ever manifested over the past 50 years? Dubyq invaded Iraq because God told him to. > **[George Bush: 'God told me to end the tyranny in Iraq'](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/oct/07/iraq.usa)** > > George Bush has claimed he was on a mission from God when he launched the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, according to a senior Palestinian politician in an interview to be broadcast by the BBC later this month. By Ewen MacAskill. People who think they’re acting on orders from the guy who created the universe and gets to decide what happens to your soul after you die are capable of causing great harm while believing they’re 100% justified in it. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2025, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2025-house-speaker-election/1012245/116 "2025-01-05T03:58:34Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Cite? I mean I know that he represents Christian conservatives. But I haven’t seen any surprising manifestations in terms of policy. Yeah, in fact he has been pretty reasonable on things like shut-downs. > [@Smapti](#): > > He’s literally said that God talks to him in the same way that God talked to Moses. So? It hasnt really affected this Speakership. Reagan relied upon Astrology. > [@Smapti](#): > > Dubyq invaded Iraq because God told him to. No matter what people think -Vice president Cheney was not God. Obama went to Church on a regular basis. So did JFK. So did FDR. Obviously Carter also. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2025, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2025-house-speaker-election/1012245/117 "2025-01-05T04:16:07Z")
> [@](#): > > I started praying more about that. And the Lord began to wake me up through this three-week process we were in, in the middle of the night, and to speak to me. Three _whole_ weeks? Wow, can’t say he hasn’t paid his dues. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2025, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2025-house-speaker-election/1012245/118 "2025-01-05T04:45:55Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Obama went to Church on a regular basis. So did JFK. So did FDR. Obviously Carter also. How many of them said God was telling them how to run the country? It’s one thing to talk to God in your prayers, but when God starts answering back, nine times out of ten you ought to see a psychiatrist. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2025, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2025-house-speaker-election/1012245/119 "2025-01-05T04:50:31Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > How many of them said God was telling them how to run the country? I dont know, none of them ever said as much. But they did pray and get guidance of some sort. > [@Smapti](#): > > It’s one thing to talk to God in your prayers, but when God starts answering back, nine times out of ten you ought to see a psychiatrist. This is not true. Now, hearing ‘voices’ that tell you to do bad things generally is, but not thinking God answers your prayers. it is not considered a mental illness at all. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2025, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2025-house-speaker-election/1012245/120 "2025-01-05T04:52:21Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > I dont know, none of them ever said as much. Then the answer to the question “How many of them said God was telling them to run the country” should be “none of them”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2025-house-speaker-election/1012245.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2025-house-speaker-election/1012245.md?page=7)