Highlights: Their third speaker pick in three weeks lasted barely four hours. Now, with their desperation on full display, Republicans are trying again.
The House GOP is convening Tuesday night for its fourth internal huddle of the day as it hears from yet another unwieldy field of candidates to lead its broken ranks. No one has demonstrated the ability to do what the three previous failed speaker hopefuls couldn’t: Unite enough Republicans to land 217 votes on the floor.
Two members of tonight’s five-man field have already run and lost. That includes Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), the second highest vote-getter earlier Tuesday.
There’s little hope for relief among the bitterly divided GOP, where the fruitless search for a speaker has become so miserable that some members even floated a return to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy — with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) as an “assistant speaker.” (The idea has not been taken seriously inside the conference.)
[M]any Republicans fear they’ve reached the point where no candidate can get 217 votes on the floor.
There is a mechanism to expel any member of Congress, just needs a 2/3rd vote. So it would need cooperation from Democrats.
Plus the whole issue here is that there isn’t a group of 217 who could govern, unless you include Democrats. Vote out the 8 Republicans who voted out McCarthy and suddenly Democrats have the majority.
I don’t think the Democrats would mind giving a helping hand in such a case.