Part of their calculation would be, “Which of these people are smart enough to figure this out, without us holding their hand the whole way?” If there is no such person on the Republican side, then you’re pretty much doomed no matter who wins, so none of this hand-wringing will matter.
The status quo isn’t working, so I want the Dems to try something new. It couldn’t possibly make things worse, could it?
With this Congress? Don’t tempt the Fates.
The Democrats being united, calm and competent is something new.
Jeffries has been consistently getting more votes for Speaker than anyone else. There’s no reason for the Democrats to compromise away from that.
Yes. Helping elect a GOP Speaker without getting anything in return (other than “they’re smart enough to figure something out”) would be a disastrous own-goal. They’d get nothing and look like idiots.
I’m not opposed to the Dems voting present to allow a less-insane GOP rep to get the seat, but they’d better get something concrete in return. And if that makes the new Speaker’s life more difficult dealing with the FC nutjobs, that’s his problem.
Except that attitude is how they got stuck with “Give Away The Farm” McCarthy in the first place.
It should be clear by now that no Republican will ever vote for a Democrat as Speaker. The question the Democrats face is, “Do we want a Speaker chosen on the basis of Republican in-fighting and eventual fatigue, or do we want a Republican Speaker who knows they owe us?”
If you’re okay with the Fatigue Induced Speaker, fine, but don’t go complaining when the Government shuts down next month.
As much as Emmer may appear to have a significant lead, the remaining candidates are pretty hard-right. I expect they’ll coalesce around an alternative to Emmer. But whoever wins is going to do so with a small margin.
emmer and johnson are the 2 left, final round about to happen.
I saw Hern got eliminated but isn’t Donalds still in it?
ETA: I see now that Donalds withdrew
This doesn’t exist.
Even if you had a signed witnessed contract, the Speaker would renege.
There is literally no way to force compliance and no downside to weaseling out.
If the Ds go down this road, they will have fully embraced the label “suckers”.
Agree. the Democrats have no incentive to help out here, other than to get the government functioning again. If they cross-over to help Emmer get over the line, they should expect nothing in return, other than the ability to possibly work on preventing a catastrophic government shut down right during the holidays.
Not guaranteed. The Speaker’s “treason” (making cause with the enemy across the aisle) could unify the entire R party against them and their D backers.
There will be no progress if it appears to originate with the Democratic Party.
4th ballot
Emmer- 107
Johnson- 56
Donalds- 25
Hern- 25
Other- 4
Present- 2
Donalds and Hern are out. It’s a two person race.
And Emmer wins
I feel like I’m at the racetrack, but I don’t want any of the horses to win.
The Ds are going to eat a sh*t sandwich no matter what, but they might as well think about which sh*t sandwich they end up with. Doing nothing means the person who wins may be the worst option of all the worst options. If the Rs never pick a Speaker, that’s a good option for the Ds since it exposes the Rs incompetence. It’s going to be painful for the country, but hopefully it will help out in the next election and lead to a strong D presence in Congress that may help in the long term. But if the Rs actually end up being able to vote someone as Speaker, that person could be pretty terrible and may have cut lots of terrible deals to get the win. It may be better for the Ds to nudge the least offensive person to the top rather than completely sit back.
And these would be enough to sink a candidate once it comes to the whole House voting.
I think no matter who they choose, they still won’t get a Speaker in the final vote.
NY Times:
“Republicans are now expected to take another closed-door vote to see how many members in the conference will pledge support for Emmer on the House floor.”
Good luck with that.
emmer is in.
the republicans have the majority, they have the responsibility to get the vote count. they either vote as a block and get 217, or enough don’t show up or vote present to get the magic number. that is how they got mccarthy over the line, a handful voted present.
there is no reason for the democrats to do anything but vote for their candidate.