# The Great Ongoing Revolving Speakership of the 118th Congress {Mike Johnson is new speaker as of 2023-10-25} **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 12, 2023, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432 "2023-10-12T02:05:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 36
**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:** [October 20, 2023, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/701 "2023-10-20T01:26:52Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Apparently today’s conference meeting literally devolved into a slapfight. I didn’t realise Will Smith was a member of Congress. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/702 "2023-10-20T01:32:06Z")
Hopefully this incident produces a similarly iconic image for the House: > **[The Caning of Charles Sumner](https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/caning-charles-sumner)** > > January 22, 2018 Newspaper headlines shocked readers in late May 1856 with descriptions of a violent attack within the United States Capitol Building... ---
**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/703 "2023-10-20T01:35:13Z")
> [@flurb](#): > > All this “solution” would have done is shift onto his shoulders the responsibility for making the tough decisions that his caucus is incapable of making, and he would have been savaged no matter what he did. Exactly. If you can’t agree to elect a Speaker, then you can’t agree on any legislation. There’s really no practically difference. May as well go without a Speaker. > [@Smapti](#): > > Apparently today’s conference meeting literally devolved into a slapfight. Is there anything the Democrats won’t stoop to? Now they’re making the GOPs slap each other. Why didn’t they just vote for McCarthy? ---
**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:** [October 20, 2023, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/704 "2023-10-20T01:38:24Z")
This just keeps getting more silly > **[In the latest sign of House chaos, the temporary speaker is threatening to quit](https://www.yahoo.com/news/latest-sign-house-chaos-temporary-234103667.html)** > > Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., is resisting a push to get him to move legislation without an explicit vote to expand his powers. I wonder who’s next on the list. ---
**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:** [October 20, 2023, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/705 "2023-10-20T01:40:57Z")
I think you mean “Who’s next in the barrel?” ---
**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:** [October 20, 2023, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/706 "2023-10-20T01:41:33Z")
Totally. What if it’s Jordan? ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/707 "2023-10-20T01:42:45Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > > [@LSLGuy](#): > > > > the structure of Congress and of the EC ensures a 3-party system resulting from a schism yields perpetual government by the opposing team (D’s in this case) until the schismatic parties can reconnect. Which might take decades. > > I fail to see the downside. The downside is the last section of LSLGuy’s same post. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > As many folks have said in one form or another, when the rightists realize their views can’t win elections, they’ll abandon democracy & the constitution before they’ll abandon their views. Which we’re already seeing getting in (R) states with supermajorities - combining urban areas that lean (D) so they can only compete with each other, while creating new districts for (R). So you can have 55+% of the population voting D, with less than 25% actual representation in the national Legislature. And that’s leaving out little things like Florida’s armed para-military voter security force… ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/708 "2023-10-20T01:43:14Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > I didn’t realise Will Smith was a member of Congress. “You keep the name of my Constitution out of yo’ mouth!” ---
**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:** [October 20, 2023, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/709 "2023-10-20T01:45:01Z")
I saw a teaser article behind a paywall that predicted Jordan now could lose 30 or so former supporters. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/710 "2023-10-20T01:51:48Z")
This just seems like an episode of Star Trek TOS, wherein the adults disappear for some reason, and the children are in charge. They do the best they can, bless their hearts. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/711 "2023-10-20T01:59:08Z")
Moderating: > [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > This just seems like an episode of Star Trek TOS, wherein the adults disappear for some reason, and the children are in charge. This is exactly the sort of comment that derails and hijacks threads. Please stop doing this. ---
**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:** [October 20, 2023, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/712 "2023-10-20T02:05:58Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > > “to pray for an end to the madness” > > Thoughts and prayers, people, thoughts and prayers! It’s not just for gunfire anymore! You Sir have the clarity of mind and raw cutting power of a ninja wielding his katana with great élan. I salute you! ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/713 "2023-10-20T02:06:09Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > This just keeps getting more silly He’s got a point though. Such a body should not just be winging it as they go along, just to avoid having to have a binding vote they have to force themselves to live with. Its whole point is to debate and make such kinds of votes. And once again the Republic runs into the whole _“well, we never **wrote** a rule about what happens in such a case, because we never expected it to get to that”_ situation. It would be a different thing if there were already in the book a rule explicitly setting up procedures for actual legislative action in exigent circumstances during _sede vacante_ – but again _“well, someone at that level would not be so pig-headed as to let it go on for weeks, could they?”_ ---
**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:** [October 20, 2023, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/714 "2023-10-20T02:16:24Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > The downside is the last section of LSLGuy’s same post. I’m not sure I follow. Long-term rule by Democrats will result in Republicans running everything? ---
**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:** [October 20, 2023, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/715 "2023-10-20T02:19:31Z")
While I would love to see the Republicans in electoral purgatory for about 30 years, the frothing rightists will probably start a civil war rather than be rendered powerless by their own incompetence. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/716 "2023-10-20T02:20:19Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > I suspect (and I mentioned this upthread) that when (as seems most likely right now) the government shuts down, the big money backers of the remaining “mainstream” (read bought) Republicans are going to say “FIX THIS, or your sinecure after you’re done is GONE”. > > Will they fix it by caving to Jordan? Maybe. How will that not wind up in a shutdown? Jordan will demand a budget with items in it that the Senate won’t pass and Biden won’t sign. That may make it easier for them to blame it on the Democrats. But it won’t keep the government open. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/717 "2023-10-20T02:21:24Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > And once again the Republic runs into the whole _“well, we never **wrote** a rule about what happens in such a case, because we never expected it to get to that”_ situation. I’m of the opinion that this is fine and that the implicit rule should be that the citizenry should be so horrified by such a state of affairs that it gets severely punished at the ballot box and if the citizenry ever devolves into not providing that check & balance, then any rule is just rearranging deck chairs on the titanic. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/718 "2023-10-20T02:31:19Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > > [@ParallelLines](#): > > > > The downside is the last section of LSLGuy’s same post. > > I’m not sure I follow. Long-term rule by Democrats will result in Republicans running everything? No, and as @LSLGuy themselves pointed out, it means that if they can’t rule by technically legal means, they’ll abandon those for illegal ones with enough of a fig leaf to con their carefully insulated supporters. Or more direct methods. Or we’ll end up with some variation of a cold civil war where certain states do things they’re own way (see Texas and their little river stunt) and dare anyone else to intervene. > [@thorny\_locust](#): > > How will that not wind up in a shutdown? Jordan will demand a budget with items in it that the Senate won’t pass and Biden won’t sign. > > That may make it easier for them to blame it on the Democrats. But it won’t keep the government open. Your response leaves out the fact that the pressure was applied to make sure the traditional donors interests were protected. I suspect that if it did happen, AND they chose to rally behind Jordan for the appearance of unity, that he, just like McCarthy would be beholden to that influenced group. And he may be in the same boat of being told “You have to pass something that makes everyone unhappy, including you, for the good of our corporat… America” or you’ll be right back out. But seriously, while I mentioned the ‘bought’ Republicans rallying behind Jordan to get something, anything done, I don’t consider it _likely_, especially as it appears he’s losing ground steadily. Remember, my scenario was several _weeks_ into a future shutdown due to lack of government spending. By which point both the Republicans, the corporate overlords, and America in general may well be willing to find a solution where everyone can go back to a semblance of normal. ---
**Author:** ![MulderMuffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldermuffin/32/2862_2.png) [@MulderMuffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MulderMuffin)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/719 "2023-10-20T02:49:53Z")
CNN is reporting that Jordan will hold another vote tomorrow morning. > Jordan’s office said the Ohio Republican is pressing on, telling reporters the House is expected to hold its next vote for speaker on Friday at 10 a.m. ET. Also a few more salacious details about the fighting behind closed doors: > In a sign of the emotional tone of the meeting, Gaetz was at one point told to sit down by McCarthy and refused to do so, which led to Rep. Mike Bost of Illinois becoming “all emotional and ugly and was cussing him,” and “telling him it’s all his fault,” one member said describing the meeting. > Other sources, confirming this exchange, said McCarthy “yelled” at Gaetz to sit down. And when Gaetz didn’t listen, another member in the room yelled “sit the f\*\*\* down, Matt.” [https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/19/politics/jim-jordan-speakers-race/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/19/politics/jim-jordan-speakers-race/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/720 "2023-10-20T03:00:47Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > Your response leaves out the fact that the pressure was applied to make sure the traditional donors interests were protected. I suspect that if it did happen, AND they chose to rally behind Jordan for the appearance of unity, that he, just like McCarthy would be beholden to that influenced group. And he may be in the same boat of being told “You have to pass something that makes everyone unhappy, including you, for the good of our corporat… America” or you’ll be right back out. The days of big money men having a stranglehold on Republican politicians is long gone. The rise of the conservative media echo chamber, easy internet donating and networks of right-wing campaign fundraisers sharing donor lists and likely leads has upended traditional campaign fundraising. If you look at the source of donations to Jim Jordan’s PAC, 2/3 of his donors gave less than $200. I’m not saying the big dollar boys aren’t influential, but Republican politicians have to pay at least as much attention to the desires of their small-dollar donors. And these donors, driven on by Fox News, Newsmax, Breitbart, Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapiro, etc., want to see politicians ready to burn the motherfucker down. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432.md?page=35) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432.md?page=37)