Are the six holdouts Biggs, Boebert, Crane, Gaetz, Good, and Rosendale?
Yup, those 6
Math is hard. How many of them would have to switch to “present” to hand it to McCarthy, assuming everyone else is there and nobody else changes their vote?
Edit: for context:
All 6 would have to vote present, or 3 would have to switch, or some combination between those (say 2 voting present and 2 switching).
Thanks! Boebert and Gaetz seem like the kind of craycray that’s going to spurn any deal that moves them out of the limelight. Unless two others switch and two vote present, I don’t see it happening.
Speculation that there will be a call for an adjournment until 10pm partially to get the two GOP missing back and to try to negotiate with some of the six holdouts.
And to think, this is how the founding fathers thought most presidential elections would be decided!
~Max
Voting for adjournment is in progress. Will the six holdouts force them to stay?
It sounds like McCarthy thinks he has the votes. Rosendale seems to be concerned about a primary fight against Zinke, another Montana Republican, to win the Republican nomination to run against Jon Tester for Senate in ‘24. My guess is McCarthy had to promise to stay neutral in that fight. CNN also reported that Crane is supposedly worried about being primaried from the left (yes, that sounds strange to me), and he wants McCarthy to stay out of his race for re-election in ‘24 as well. Those seem like easy things for McCarthy to give up on, so he probably has it.
ETA. Anderson Cooper is ahead a whole week, saying that today is a lucky Friday the 13th for McCarthy 
.
If this goes on a little longer, the failed vote count will be over 18 and Gaetz will lose interest.
Does this include the concessions to the insane caucus? It doesn’t sound like it from the description; I’m certain McCarthy will jettison those given half an opportunity.
He can afford to lose Biggs, Boebert, Gaetz, and Good. No need for him to concede anything to them.
If those four lose their gamble against McCarthy, it should be noted in the schadenfreude thread. They will be dirt beneath his feet.
Not that McCarthy is much of a much, but we takes our schadenfreude where we gets it.
It includes most or all of them, including the provisions for the snap vote to hold onto the position and, more importantly, the concessions on having 1/3 of the Rules Committee and more memberships on other key committees from the Freedom Caucus.
That’s how he picked up most of the 14 votes. Several of them came out and said that their support came after getting those concessions. He’s not going to be able to jettison those provisions without starting all this nonsense again.
I don’t see how this devil’s bargain will be worth it to him in the end. He’s going to be dealing with infighting inside his caucus more than building anything resembling a legislative agenda. But maybe just winning the position is all that matters to him.
Politicians never, ever, admit that they could ever lose in the future. “I’ll have to votes tonight.” “The next President of the United States…” etc.
That head-in-the-sand optimism is even more annoying than the speeches and ovations during the floor votes.
Ow! Well played!
But if his goal is simply to be the Speaker, and just achieving that is his ambition. Even for a day or week.
Why would he need or want an agenda?
Yeah, I thought their “agenda” for the last 15 years has simply been to block whatever the Democrats want to accomplish.
Don’t forget the GOP triple goal of tax cuts, tax cuts, and more tax cuts.
Plus a little bit of tax non-enforcement, but mostly tax cuts.
How is McCarthy keeping track of all his promises? He must be handing them out like a mo-fo at this point, like a desperate junkie. Does he have a minion following him around writing this stuff down? Or is all of this just a bunch of air castles?