hajario
January 6, 2023, 5:25pm
1561
What would endear McCarthy to Democrats? Democrats aren’t his audience nor are they who he is trying to convince.
Are you under the table yet?
Gyrate
January 6, 2023, 5:28pm
1564
BTW, have we mentioned Matt Gaetz’s “threat” to resign if moderate Republicans work with Democrats?
“If Democrats join up to elect a moderate Republican, I will resign from the House of Representatives. That is how certain I am. I can assure your viewers that won’t happen,” he told Fox News on Thursday night.
The threat was welcomed by several social media users who urged Democrats to help him make good on his word.
If Gaetz were clever, this would be a ploy to tempt Democrats to support a Republican candidate. Gaetz would then refuse to resign and claim he’d suckered them.
But he’s not that clever.
Ooooh, Gaetz is going after McCarthy.
Spoons
January 6, 2023, 5:29pm
1566
Let’s add two to flurb ’s list: “Patriot” and ''patriotism." Those, together with the other words, and the drinking game players would definitely be under the table by now.
hajario
January 6, 2023, 5:29pm
1567
who was that throwing a fit and interrupting Gaetz and what was his issue?
You guys, Matt Gaetz looks so much like Butthead (as pointed out earlier in this thread) I can’t stop seeing it. Even his ears look weird, like a poorly-drawn cartoon.
Oh dear, Jim Jordan back in nomination.
hajario
January 6, 2023, 5:30pm
1570
I don’t think that that’s what really happened. He was just saying that it will never happen so it’s more like “I’ll eat my hat if that comes to pass”
Spoons
January 6, 2023, 5:31pm
1571
Is Hern one of those who are absent for family/medical reasons?
Gaetz was casting McCarthy as entitled and not worthy of being speaker.
Northern_Piper:
Johnny_Bravo:
The Freedom Caucus is showing that they have no interest in being part of the GOP anymore. And, absurdly, I think they could actually make a go at creating a legitimate voting bloc as a legitimate third party because I don’t think it’s out of the question for them to get re-elected as members of a “Freedom Party.” Especially if they could convince Trump to come with.
Why bother going to the trouble of creating a 3rd party? They just keep running as Republicans in the GOP primaries, win that, and win in the general. That way, they don’t have to run as « Freedom Party » against a GOP candidate. They just describe themselves as « True Republicans » or something.
In addition to the personal dislike for McCarthy, there seems to be a more principled approach: they want to change the operation of the House from two-party to more of a European parliamentary system, where they get elected as Republicans, but then in the House act as a third-party, forcing the Republicans to give them concessions.
Here’s an article on it:
A week after the midterm elections in November, a small group of far-right GOP lawmakers and activists gathered on K Street in Washington, D.C., to discuss strategies to use their narrow majority to extract power in the House. The next Congress,...
The strategy outlined by Corrigan went beyond just extracting concessions from House leaders — it amounted to a game plan for the House Freedom Caucus to operate as a third party in a de facto parliamentary system, essentially co-governing the chamber with mainstream Republicans. As lawmakers prepared for a seventh round of voting on Thursday, House Republicans appeared to be on the precipice of allowing that to happen.
“What would coalition government look like in practice?” Corrigan asked the group, which was filmed and livestreamed but has attracted little notice beyond conservative media. “I would recommend the Freedom Caucus would be granted a specific number of committee assignments, and committee and subcommittee chairmanships,” as well as a variety of other new powers, including putting a Freedom Caucus member as chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee.
Yes, he had I believe a medical thing planned.
Left_Hand_of_Dorkness:
“But what if a majority of Republican representatives suddenly decide to act like decent, reasonable human beings?” As I keep saying, if they were going to do that, they would already have done that.
NOT decent or reasonable. Just self-interested. They’ve already been notified “We’re going to be pains in your ass for the next two years, not allies, or colleagues, or associates. PAINS IN YOUR ASS!!!”
You don’t need to be decent or reasonable to interpret that correctly.
hajario
January 6, 2023, 5:35pm
1576
Buck has a medical thing today. Hern’s mother died and the funeral is tomorrow.
And the vote begins, 3 republicans, one democrat up in nomination.
Maybe the House should adopt a rule like the Baseball Hall of Fame. If you don’t get 5 percent of the votes on your first ballot, you’re out.
Your snot is smarter than most of the Republicans caught in this fiasco.