# 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:** 58
**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 24, 2023, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/1141 "2023-10-24T21:22:59Z")
What a difference a year makes. > ---
**Author:** ![Akaj](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/akaj/32/145_2.png) [@Akaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akaj)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2023, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/1142 "2023-10-24T21:24:01Z")
My hunch is the “normals” eventually cave and vote for someone the FC and Trump endorse. Of the three options: 1. Voting present or otherwise handing the gavel to Jeffries 2. Resisting the FC and enduring endless stalemate 3. Voting for the FC candidate and getting the House back to more-or-less normal #3 will soon seem the most palatable. This is what the FC is counting on, and they’ll never budge because they don’t give a shit if the House never gets back to normal. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2023, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/1143 "2023-10-24T21:28:30Z")
I agree with this post. The FC will simply never, ever, allow a candidate who isn’t perceived to be “their” candidate get the gavel (no matter how genuinely conservative that member may be). I assume now they nominate Mike Johnson, who checks all the conservative boxes and doesn’t have Emmer’s issues with Trump. “Moderates” will be expected to cave. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2023, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/1144 "2023-10-24T21:30:17Z")
> [@Akaj](#): > > My hunch is the “normals” eventually cave and vote for someone the FC and Trump endorse. Sounds most likely. But hopefully, from my POV, there are at least four moderates who will block anti-Ukraine-aid Mike Johnson. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2023, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/1145 "2023-10-24T21:32:18Z")
Didn’t Emmer just leave in a huff a little while ago? I guess he won’t be part of the “forum”. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2023, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/1146 "2023-10-24T21:36:16Z")
He had to go out and blow off steam, kick some puppies. ---
**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 24, 2023, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/1147 "2023-10-24T21:45:33Z")
You know what, I _still_ don’t think it’s in any way possible for any of the Republican’s to hand it over to Jeffries “for the good of the nation” but, I’m starting to wonder if eventually, some of them will do it out of SPITE, which is a much more reasonable motivation for the personalities involved. At this rate, some of the vaguely rational ones, or the deeply irrational ones are going to get so angry at their own team, that they may be willing to “throw the game” as it were just as the flip side of the FC “Want to see the whole thing burn” position. Especially if they feel that their current positions are at serious risk anyway from the shrieking animosity and hatreds being fed by this whole process. With all the threats of retribution being bandied about, it seems likely that support for some parties who aren’t funded by independent donors may well be mixed. At least, again, it’s a more _likely_ motivation for throwing it all to Jeffries than an honest call for good government. That ship sailed 2 weeks ago. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2023, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/1148 "2023-10-24T22:01:27Z")
They got a new crop of candidates, and a few retreads… [House GOP set to hear from Speaker candidates — again: Live coverage](https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4271795-house-republicans-speaker-nominee-live-coverage/) _Latest group of GOP Speaker candidates announced_ _The candidates to be the GOP’s fourth Speaker nominee are:_ - _Byron Donalds (Fla.)_ - _Chuck Fleischmann (Tenn.)_ - _Mark Green (Tenn.)_ - _Kevin Hern (Okla.)_ - _Mike Johnson (La.)_ - _Roger Williams (Texas)_ _Donalds, Hern and Johnson ran for the nomination last time, while Fleischmann, Green and Williams are making their first run at the gavel._ _The Republican conference will hold a candidate forum at 6 p.m._ Any intel on the newbies? ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2023, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/1149 "2023-10-24T22:07:04Z")
In the future, everyone will be the Republican nominee for Speaker for 15 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2023, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/1150 "2023-10-24T22:10:54Z")
At this point, they need to give every single Republican a ballot consisting of all the Republican members of the House, and each of them should indicate which of them they’re willing to vote for. That should stop them from having these pointless meetings where they name a nominee and then have them fail to get enough support. When it reveals that none of them have enough support, I don’t have a good idea for how they should continue, but it hopefully will short cut the process they’re trying now. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2023, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/1151 "2023-10-24T22:29:47Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > He’s dropped his bid! > > Humiliating for Republicans… Emmer gerd! ---
**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:** [October 24, 2023, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/1152 "2023-10-24T22:31:59Z")
> [@flurb](#): > > The Rules Committee is enormously powerful – it sets the “rule” for when and how a bill can be debated on the floor and can even rewrite an entire bill if it wants to. Those committee appointments are set – a new Speaker can’t change them unilaterally. But it would be functionally impossible for a “compromise” Speaker to advance any remotely bipartisan legislation with the current committee membership. > > The committee membership can be changed by a resolution of the whole House, but that’s another hill that would have to be negotiated. If this were a standard Parliamentary democracy, coalition members would share seats on the rules committee. Jeffries is implicitly asking for less. He’s probably proposing a strengthening of the [discharge petition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discharge_petition), which allows committees to be bypassed. It’s easy to imagine details requiring at least a minimum number of signatures to move a bill to the floor from both caucuses, a minimum total number of signatures, limits on how many discharge petitions a member can sign per term, and special rules for passing the budget. This is entirely reasonable and quite a bit less than typical power sharing arrangements but it’s currently a nonstarter for the GOP. The Republicans will simply have to scroll through all alternatives before handing partial control to the Dems. I’d expect Elise Stefanik to take her turn in the barrel as well as some outsider like Arnold Schwarzenegger, one of the country’s most popular Republicans. > ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2023, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/1153 "2023-10-24T22:33:57Z")
From googling the most recent slate of candidates, AFAICT all of them voted AGAINST certifying the election. So none of them could even meet that low bar. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2023, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/1154 "2023-10-24T22:43:05Z")
> [@flurb](#): > > The House Republican Conference will have an “abbreviated” candidate forum at 6:00 Eastern today. Members have until 5:30 (eight minutes from this posting) to declare their candidacy. At this point, what’s the point? There is no rule in place for the Reps to vote for the HRC choice so why bother? ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2023, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/1155 "2023-10-24T22:45:04Z")
And as a small side note, let’s rename the “Hastert rule”? ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2023, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/1156 "2023-10-24T23:18:40Z")
Let’s see, Scaramucci lasted 11 days, Emmer 1/6 of a day. That makes his candidacy 0.0152 scaramuccis. ---
**Author:** ![Tride](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tride/32/13907_2.png) [@Tride](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tride)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2023, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/1157 "2023-10-24T23:19:13Z")
Man, Arnold for speaker? I’m in. He’s all out of bubblegum, far as I hear. And he does love this country more than all those miserable fucks. ---
**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 24, 2023, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/1158 "2023-10-24T23:19:20Z")
> [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/3ANufwUPFm8/hqdefault.jpg "Monty Python - silly") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ANufwUPFm8) ---
**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 24, 2023, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/1159 "2023-10-24T23:20:39Z")
I’m the OP. Tomorrow will be 2 weeks for this thread. Despite my carefully chosen title we haven’t had any revolving Speakership yet. We have however had revolving Speakership candidates. Which are themselves a prerequisite to the Speakership revolving. What is that biblical quote: wheels within wheels, circles within circles? Oh yeah, Ezekiel. Damn that dude had some good drugs. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2023, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-revolving-speakership-of-the-118th-congress-mike-johnson-is-new-speaker-as-of-2023-10-25/991432/1160 "2023-10-24T23:21:45Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Let’s see, Scaramucci lasted 11 days, Emmer 1/6 of a day. That makes his candidacy 0.0152 scaramuccis. back in post 1117, I calculated 14 Milli-Scaramucci’s. Close enough. [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=57) [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=59)