I’ve always heard that they want any single representative to be able to demand a vote to vacate the Speaker’s position. If McCarthy accepts that, I give him maybe three months as Speaker.
Would the five have to be from the majority party?
I forget the exact details, but yes, it was worded something like “from the conference that elected the Speaker” or some such thing.
Good question! I’ve wondered that myself, and concluded to myself that it must be the case, otherwise the MAGA crowd would have been trying to vote out Pelosi every other day.
The next two years are going to be a shitstorm of a completely obstructionist House doing everything they can to derail anything the Senate sends their way while mugging for the cameras with all of the ridiculous “investigations” they’re planning to parade in front of us. It sincerely worries me.
This would be an unprecedented new rule.
(a) term limits as members (as opposed to in institutional offices) would probably require constitutional action
(b) renouncing challenging incumbents in the future, combined to the vacating motion, basically would render a Speaker politically powerless
It adds up to “if you want to be Speaker SO bad, be our bitch, punk”. By being so obviously craving of the post he has forfeited respect.
I think this has the potential to be very good for the Dems in 2024. It gives Biden and the Dems a boogey man to run against. This level of scumbaggery and obstruction won’t be the net positive these nutballs envision.
There was a quote from a McCarthy ally in another article that summed it up — “We’re negotiating with jello.” Even if McCarthy says, “I accede to all your demands,” the Freedom Caucus will just “clarify” that their demands include other, unstated elements that they need to have guaranteed before they’ll vote for McCarthy.
There’s no “getting to yes” with this squad through further concessions.
Hunter Biden Laptop 1
Hunter Biden Laptop 2
Hunter Biden Laptop 3
Hunter Biden Laptop 4
Hunter Biden Laptop 5
Hunter Biden Laptop 6…
One advantage of not having a Speaker is that those investigations can’t start. In fact, no House committee can do any business, including paying their staff.
It looks pretty unlikely to me that McCarthy will win today, and increasingly likely that the Republican disarray, some forty years in the making, is about to have a historical meltdown.
Something has to give, and whoever ends up giving will lose a lot of face. There’s ways out of it, but some on the Republican side will get screwed over in the process, and those people are NOT going to be happy.
ETA: Has the shitstorm officially started, or is it still 10 minutes away?
Watching CSPAN right now. It hasn’t started quite yet.
Juicy! I’m so torn. On the one hand, bring out the popcorn! I’m down for a hilarious cat fight. On the other hand I weep for the future of our country that it’s come to this. It might spell the doom of the radical Republicans, but it will drag us all down with them as they implode.
ETA: looks like they’re getting ready to get started.
cnn’s john king just went through the various maths. this is going to be quite wild. i’ve got my lunch and i do indeed have popcorn should this go past my finishing lunch.
i hope everyone went through the mags today.
here we go!
I expect it’ll be fairly boring, since they have to rollcall every member, all 435 of them.
So after the first ballot fails does anyone know how it worksm going forward? Do they have some procedure for floor debate? Do they just keep on calling the roll to see if they get a different result? Do they close the session and say let’s try again tomorrow?
Hakeem Jeffries (D) just got nominated. One article I read said he’s got a good chance of getting more votes than McCarthy in the first round.
Looks like Gosar is about to nominate someone, I assume Biggs.
Andy Biggs just got nominated as well. Three-way vote for the first round!