Bipartisan discussions about how to end the two-week speaker vacancy are growing in seriousness as Republicans’ chaotic efforts to elect a permanent speaker struggle to gain traction.
“I don’t dislike it,” said Biden-district Rep. John Duarte (R-Calif.), but “anything I’m going to vote for on the floor is going to be something that’s … supported by a majority of the [Republican] conference members.”
But Kevin was supported by a majority of the Republican conference members, as was Steve, as was Gym. Neither is currently speaker because you need a majority of the whole chamber, and since the Republican majority is so slim you need almost everyone, unless you pull in a few Democrats with you.
That’s the irony of Matt Gaetz’ stunt to fire McCarthy. He claims he did it because McCarthy was making too many deals with Democrats, and he used his freedom Caucus leverage to fix that. But it may very well end up with Democrats gaining more influence, making the Freedom Caucus irrelevant in the process.
Newton’s third law right? For every action in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction. In the world of politics it’s called blowback.
“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
I hope Democrats insist on a moderate and not hand the position to a MAGAt. It’s way too dangerous to put one of them in that position, that’s just about the only thing that foiled their previous coup attempt.
It would be really interesting to see the DNC and the handful or remaining sane GOP members join forces to elect a moderate despite the MAGAts refusing to budge.
I think electing a true middle of the road moderate is unlikely because I don’t know how many are left. Some form of minority rights could be possible. It looks like the problem solvers caucus is looking at McHenry. Time will tell. Jordan isn’t giving up though - for now at least.
The “middle of the road” window seems to be shifting to the right, but there are some folks there. If Gym’s Speakership really is dead, it’s probably due to some of the key Republicans on the Appropriations Committee voting against him. They are afraid that Gym will make good on Grover’s pledge to drown the government in the bathtub.
I’ve always seen the United States as a center right country. I’m not saying that I agree with it but our conservatives are more conservative than other first world countries and our liberals are more moderate than other first world countries.
True, but the Conservatives here have been getting more extreme over the past 20 years or so. Reagan would probably be too liberal to get elected now.
Republicans are at an infection point. They have to decide what their party will look like going forward. I think the last Democratic inflection point was 68 national convention in Chicago. This Republican infighting will continue until one side gives up.
I’d really love it if some talented animator(s) made a Reagan vs Trump cage match cartoon because that’s what’s basically happening.
The choice should be easy since most of their base is literally close to death. The trumpanzee wing is demographically doomed this decade. That’s what makes them so dangerous since they need to seize as much power as possible very quickly or they’re done forever.
I think you’re right. Trump wasn’t a two term wildly successful president like Reagan. Really only time will tell.
It’d never happen, but, I would love to see a handful of moderate/establishment Republicans join with the Democrats to make Liz Cheney the speaker. Just a big old fuck you to the insurrectionist wing of the party.
The Overton Window is deeply askew when Liz Cheney gets described as a “moderate” and no one bats an eye.
Man, if this were a secret ballot it’d be ugly as hell for ol’ Gym Shorts.
That said, I still think it’ll be pretty ugly. I foresee serious defections.
Don’t forget Reagan’s 11tg commandment, “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.” Republicans don’t typically have as much internecine (i.e. intragroup) conflict - typically - this fiasco is an outlier. It’s a little more common for Democrats to fall all over themselves. Sometimes that’s good, Democrats calling for menendez to step down, and sometimes not, calling for franken to step down (my opinion).
