Former Pennsylvania Republican congressman Charlie Dent is letting it be known that for the House to get in order they need to reach over the aisle with an olive branch. “The House Republican Conference is deeply fractured,” he said during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Alex Wagner Tonight.”
No, a Republican compromise would be to vote for a Democrat other than Jeffries. Just as Democrats might compromise by voting for (or, more likely, abstaining from) a Republican other than Jordan or McCarthy.
Frankly, in terms of party-building the latter would cause fewer headaches for Democrats. After all, no Speaker will have the votes to pass Democratic legislation through this House, so why would a Democrat bother to take the gavel? They would be continually frustrated and up as a punching bag in the 2024 election.
Realistically, the best strategy for Democrats is to support a Republican Speaker who will avoid a government shutdown and who is not an election denier (i.e. won’t try to overturn the 2024 election). So McHenry or Emmer are probably the best choices. Let them take the blame for the inevitable further GOP infighting and/or inaction in the House, thus setting up Democrats for outright control in 2024.
This must be a different “Republican compromise” from the usual, which is “you give us everything that we want and we’ll stop fucking everything up for a few weeks.”