According to that he got 220 votes to be speaker. The dems voted for Pelosi. If the tea party caucus had broken off from the business republicans and as a result the house couldn’t agree on 218 votes for a speaker what happens? Does one get appointed by someone else, does the house operate without one?
I think there as a recent thread which said that the House keeps on voting until a member gets a majority of those present and voting. Presumably, during those repeated votes, a lot of attempted horse-trading goes on.
Neither the Constitution nor (as far as I could determine on a very quick skim) the Rules of the House seem to explicitly require a majority vote for Speaker as opposed to a plurality, although the precedent is well established that a majority is required. That said, Wikipedia says there was at least one instance of the House agreeing that a Speaker could be elected via plurality. So theoretically, former Speaker Pelosi could have assumed the gavel. (Wouldn’t that have been a hoot, huh?)
Much more likely (or, should I say, possible), if Boehner hadn’t secured the majority needed, the House would have moved to a second ballot. Boehner would have whipped a few tea partiers with promises of drone strikes against Planned Parenthood or some similar foolishness, while the conservative wing would have whipped more protest votes in the hope that eventually the Speaker would see it as a lost cause and withdraw his name. Then voting would continue until a new candidate (presumably Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who is more connected to the conservative wing of the GOP) secured a majority.
Cantor is a terrible dude, and within the universe of possible options, Lachrymose Larry is a much better choice for the future of the Republic. But I admit, it woulda been kinda cool to have a Yid in the Speaker’s chair.
–Cliffy