Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

This really is a full service blog.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Everybody saw this coming.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

After roe, women are no longer free.

We still have time to mess this up!

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Not all heroes wear capes.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

In my day, never was longer.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Repubs in Disarray Open Thread: Kevin McCarthy Genuinely Wants to Be A Chewtoy

Repubs in Disarray Open Thread: Kevin McCarthy Genuinely Wants to Be A Chewtoy

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Odds are, in the end, Kevin McCarthy gets his dream job because all potential challengers are either too smart to try, or too disorganized to win, at taking him down. But for us Democrats, it’s great fun to watch the sausage being made! Gift (un-paywalled) link to the Washington Post‘s excellent, exhaustive story:

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy and his allies have spent the holiday weekend working the phones and meeting with members, trying to salvage his career goal of becoming speaker on Tuesday as Republicans continue to argue over whether he deserves the top spot.

While an overwhelming majority of Republicans want to elect McCarthy (Calif.) as speaker, roughly 15 have put the outcome in serious doubt. McCarthy can afford to lose only four Republicans in Tuesday’s floor vote, and the razor-thin margin has emboldened staunch conservatives within the House Freedom Caucus, who have made specific demands in exchange for their votes…

Five Republicans have remained firm in their opposition to McCarthy, or are leaning toward no, since the midterms. They include Rep. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), who lost to McCarthy in a conference vote behind closed doors in November but will challenge him publicly on the floor Tuesday.

McCarthy met with key lawmakers across the ideological spectrum Monday evening to walk through what to expect Tuesday. No breakthrough occurred, as the holdouts emerged reiterating to reporters that they were still against his candidacy.

While McCarthy has made numerous concessions in an effort to win the holdouts’ votes, including changes to a provision that could limit his time as speaker, nine additional Republicans signed a letter late Sunday calling McCarthy’s proposal “insufficient,” further signaling that his ascent remains unassured…

Privately, McCarthy remains defiant, keeping some final tactics available as he intends to stay on the floor Tuesday as long as it may take to get elected, according to several lawmakers who, like others for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private and ongoing deliberations.

“To use his words, if they’re playing a game of chicken, he’s ripped the steering wheel out of the dashboard and he’s got his foot to the floor,” one Republican lawmaker said, paraphrasing a recent quip by McCarthy…

[McCarthy’s sweaty-fingered grasp on the English language remains… sweaty.]

McCarthy’s potential failure to clinch the necessary 218 votes to become speaker could derail the 16-year congressional career that he has paved to reach this moment. Although he is known for his ability to trade favors in hopes of gaining trust, his quest could be for naught if he is unable to overcome the demands by some who seek to weaken the power of the speakership.

McCarthy, who entered the rungs of leadership just two years after he was first elected, in 2007, had a front-row seat to how the Freedom Caucus influenced the demise of the speakerships of John A. Boehner (Ohio) and Paul D. Ryan (Wis.). Seeing how both men tried to ostracize the Freedom Caucus from the mainstream Republican Party, McCarthy instead embraced the group, even after Rep. Jim Jordan (Ohio) in 2015 led the group in opposition to McCarthy succeeding Boehner as the chamber’s top Republican.

“[McCarthy is] a very strong relationship guy,” said Frank Luntz, a GOP pollster who is close friends with McCarthy. “Most congressional leaders, the higher they climb, the less they listen. Kevin’s been exactly the opposite, and that’s been the secret of his success.”…

An endorsement from Frank Luntz — just what McCarthy needed in his time of trouble!

Also, the recent kerfuffle in the GOP septic tank has surfaced some memories of the last time, back in 2015, that McCarthy failed to attain his dream job: Whatever Happened to the Scandal That Derailed Kevin McCarthy’s Last Bid for Speaker?

… Remember Richard Harris in the egregious 1970 movie, A Man Called Horse, in which Harris is a British nobleman who joins the Sioux, but not before he completes initiation rites that include being hung up by the thorax with pins? Next week, McCarthy will undergo something similar—except, unlike Harris’ John Morgan, McCarthy also will have to listen to Marjorie Taylor Greene. The arrangement is blatantly unconstitutional as a violation of the Eighth Amendment. It’s cruel and she’s unusual.

You see, McCarthy wants to be speaker of the House of Representatives. Nero didn’t want to be emperor as much as McCarthy wants to be speaker. Poisoning his rivals being unavailable as a campaign strategy, McCarthy has determined instead to further poison the political culture. He has already promised endless snipe hunts into everything from the administration’s COVID and border policies to Hunter Biden’s laptop, soon to replace “But Her Emails” as shorthand for pointless wastes of time, money, and political energy, all of which would be better spent on actual problems…

Only McCarthy’s vestigial conscience can tell him if the gavel is worth his coming humiliation. At the moment, for all his truckling and groveling, he still might not have the votes. Largely through the efforts of the people he’s currently placating and the former president* to whom they remain enthralled, the new Republican majority in the House is a slim 10 votes, which means that—assuming no Democrats vote for him, and god help any who do—with six new members already on record as refusing to vote for him, McCarthy is two votes short of what he needs. Since the establishment of the Constitution, only 14 elections for speaker have gone to multiple ballots; the last of them occurred in 1923, the only time it’s happened in the years since the Civil War…


(Yep, you’re not the only one who thought Denny was dead. As my people say: Heaven won’t have him, and Hell doesn’t want him.)

Reader Interactions

148Comments

  1. 1.

    David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch

    A calamity has occurred on Monday Night Football.

    A 24 year old player was hit in the forehead and collapsed on the field. EMT administered CPR. He’s being transferred to an ER.

    Teammates and players are in tears.

    NFL has ordered them to “take a break” and continue the game. The Invisible Hand is something else.

  2. 2.

    moops

    The obvious conclusion is that Kevin wants the job and then wants to be kicked out of the job in favor of the lunatics’ next choice.   The deals he’s made can only result in the shortest Speakership in history.   He is dumb, but his aides are *that* dumb and will have explained to him how this is going to work.  The conclusion has to be he honestly wants a short reign as Speaker.

     

    Then what?

  3. 3.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Somebody on the Maddow program was talking about an unvetted candidate winding up in the Speaker’s office, and I immediately thought of Tom Delay’s meat-puppet.

  4. 4.

    kindness

    At what point does the vote for Speaker go to a majority in the House?  Wouldn’t it be funny if a Democrat won because Republicans, while good at memes, are bad at governmenting.

  5. 5.

    Miss Bianca

    Where’s Mnemosyne when we need her? Isn’t there some line from Hamilton about “you don’t have the votes, ah ha ha HA”?

    Ah ha ha HA!

  6. 6.

    Ken

    [Biggs] will challenge him publicly on the floor Tuesday.

    Is that where they beat one another with canes, or is that only for use with Senators?

  7. 7.

    Alison Rose

    Kevin McCarthy genuinely wants to be a chewtoy

    Don’t kink-shame.

    Honestly, even if he does somehow pull this off, this is still so pathetic. I really want whoever runs Pelosi’s Twitter to tweet at his account “Sup, Kev?” with a pic of her in sunglasses.

  11. 11.

    dmsilev

    @moops: Then he retires and becomes a lobbyist like John Boehner? While it won’t help the GOP much, it would help McCarthy’s bank account, and, well, priorities.

  12. 12.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    “Backup backup plan for the “Only Kevin” caucus should be to find another guy named Kevin. ”

     

    Look, would it be all right if we just called you ‘Kevin’. Just to avoid confusion?

     

    I may have to name a head of lettuce “Kevin”, just because.

  14. 14.

    oldster

    How does Santos (R, Fantasyland) fit into all of this? Presumably he is one of the R votes that KMac currently thinks he can count on?

    So, if he is off in handcuffs somewhere, KMac will have an even harder time getting to 218?

    More fun times.

    They’ll never say it in public, but eventually the tapes will leak of the R leadership saying, with a mixture of desperation, puzzlement, and fury, “How was Nancy so *good* at this?”

  15. 15.

    Anne Laurie

    @lgerard: John Boehner is orange and ready!

    Oranj Jawn, consummate professional, got the fvck out while the gettin’ was good.

    Kevvy & the ‘Young Guns’ were the bane of Boehner’s speakership. I suspect he’s watching the current sh*tshow, cigar in one hand & bourbon in the other, and chuckling to himself.

    (Or maybe DMing rude notes to every one of his former colleagues!)

  16. 16.

    bbleh

    Nobody who has any ambitions beyond being Speaker wants to be Speaker with a margin this narrow and a caucus this crazy.  It’s a recipe for constant headache and embarrassment.

    All the Republicans with any smarts will be happy to let someone — maybe Kevin, maybe someone else — stand in the spotlights and deal with all the questions about the coming madness, all the while jerking his/her strings.

    Fantastic job, Republicans!  You built this!

  17. 17.

    Nicole

    I’m so sad that we have seen the end of Nancy Pelosi’s Speakership, because she is truly one of the great Speakers in the history of this fine nation, but I will allow myself to enjoy the McCarthy shitshow of the next few days.  He’s the bad sequel after the blockbuster.

  20. 20.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Anne Laurie:

    Oranj Jawn, consummate professional, got the fvck out while the gettin’ was good.

    I can’t remember where we were with all the Senate gangs (god I hate that usage), but I think if Boehner had bit the bullet and passed some kind of immigration reform before he zippity-doo-dah’d his way to open day-drinking and lobbying for legal pot, we might be in a very different country today

  23. 23.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Another Scott: as I recall, Scalise says he has no memory of saying that, which suggests to me he’s not sure it wasn’t recorded by someone, somewhere, or at the very least some credible witnesses might decide to stop covering for him.

    also, too, just about eight years ago

    The House Republicans’ embattled majority whip, Steve Scalise, said Tuesday that he regrets his “mistake” in attending a white supremacist conference, as new questions emerged about his insistence that he was unaware of the group’s extreme views.

    The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee called on Tuesday for Scalise’s fellow Republican, House speaker John Boehner, to publicly condemn Scalise’s appearance at a 2002 conference held by a group organised by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.

  25. 25.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Good. I couldn’t imagine making those players go back on the field tonight after that.

    ESPN reports that Hamlin is in critical condition.

    Only 24 years old and his mother was there at the game

  26. 26.

    Geminid

    @bbleh: This is an inauspicious start for the Republican Majority even if they can elect a Speaker tomorrow.. For the first few weekly press conferences the Speaker will hail the important changes he and his colleagues are bringing to Congress.

    Then he’ll invite reporters’ questions and the first one is gonna be, “Do you think George Santos should resign?”

  27. 27.

    OverTwistWillie

    McCarthy is more akin to Jack Black in Tropic Thunder.

    Get it over here, buddy. Let’s do this.

  28. 28.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    @HumboldtBlue: The right call. I hope the Buffalo safety survives and is not paralyzed.  Unlike the game announcers, I remember seeing Jack Tatum hit Darryl Stingley.

  29. 29.

    coin operated

    Buying stock in companies that manufacture ball gags and lube.

    Ol’ Kevin will be buying in bulk…

  32. 32.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Geminid:

    Then he’ll invite reporters’ questions and the first one is gonna be, “Do you think George Santos should resign?”

    That will be fun to watch.

    “Mr. Speaker, is ‘George Santos’ even his real name?”

  33. 33.

    Suzanne

    How about Liz Truss? I’m sure she’s available. She killed the Queen, I’m sure she’d love to get out of Britain.

  34. 34.

    Aussie Sheila

    I’m looking forward to seeing Hakeem Jeffries’ chops over the next two years. He strikes me as being a very good ‘pol’ in the traditional sense, whilst having pretty good rhetorical flair.

    I hope and expect less of ‘we need a sane/good republican party’ and more balls to the wall opposition, in the traditional parliamentary sense. Pelosi was peerless as a traditional Speaker-strong, smart and tactically astute. However Jeffries strikes me as being more partisan ( a good thing imo), and more in tune with where the median democratic activist is on both issues and procedure.

    I look forward to seeing how McCarthy handles his humiliation tomorrow, regardless of the actual outcome, and very much look forward to Jeffries’ speech in reply, if such a thing exists after the actual vote.

    Rooting for injuries on the ‘government’ benches.😎

  36. 36.

    RinaX

    Personally, I think Mccarthy will be elected fairly quickly. None of these situations ever result in ay real shake-up for the GOP. Mccarthy seems more spineless and desperate for power than Boehner or Paul Ryan. He’ll fold easily to any of THE GQP’s demands as long as he gets to keep the speaker title.

  38. 38.

    RaflW

    He’s lusting after a job no one else wants (Biggs is a no one, and certainly won’t get it). And he may still fail. Deeeelish!

  40. 40.

    Another Scott

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Made me look.

    SPLCenter (from 2014):

    And Scalise’s claims met with skepticism even from some well-known out-of-state conservatives. “How do you not know? How do you not investigate?” asked Erick Erickson, a former Louisiana resident, on his RedState blog yesterday. “By 2002,everybody knew Duke was still the man he had claimed not to be. EVERYBODY. How the hell does somebody show up at a David Duke organized event in 2002 and claim ignorance?”

    In an interview with NOLA.com yesterday, Scalise reiterated the claim that he had no idea what EURO was and said that he “went and spoke to any group that called.” That prompted Washington Post blogger Jennifer Rubin to ask the obvious question: “Would he have spoken to a KKK rally? To the American Nazi Party?”

    The fact is that Scalise may have had some real affinities with EURO. In 1999, Roll Call reported that Scalise “said he embraces many of the same ‘conservative’ views as Duke, but is more viable.” To the extent that he had a problem with Duke, it appears it was only that he was unelectable. “Duke has proven he can’t get elected,” Roll Call quoted Scalise as saying, “and that’s the first and most important thing.”

    In 1999, Scalise voted against making Martin Luther King Jr. Day a state holiday, one of just three state representatives to do so. And in 2004, two years after the EURO conference, he was one of six to vote against the holiday.

    There appears to be no transcript of Scalise’s speech to EURO, but blogger Lamar White Jr., who first broke the story on Sunday, found postings on the neo-Nazi Stormfront Web forum that described it. In one, a user said Scalise “brought into sharp focus the dire circumstances pervasive in many important, under-funded needs of the community at the expense of graft with the Housing and Urban Development Fund, an apparent giveaway to a selective group based on race.”

    […]

    Scalise, a politician who already had national aspirations at the time of the 2002 EURO conference, certainly should have known what his dalliance with open white supremacists might cost him. In 1998, a scandal erupted when it was revealed that U.S. Rep. Bob Barr (R-Georgia) and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) had endorsed and spoken to the Council of Conservative Citizens, a major white supremacist hate group. In late 2002, after singing the praises of segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), Lott was forced to resign his leadership post.

    Now Steve Scalise should do the same.

    The RollCall story seems closest. Maybe someone created the “quote” in question, but it seems to capture the reporting pretty well. Dunno.

    Obviously, I wasn’t there. But I remember growing up in suburban Atlanta and all kinds of racist talk being framed in language that was superficially against racism. But was actually coded language against changing the system to be fair to non-whites. “No special rights! No quotas!  Neighborhood schools!” Etc. Scalise’s comments and comments by his supporters back then seem to fit that mode.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  41. 41.

    CaseyL

    @cckids: JFC.  Jeremy Renner (actor; Hawkeye in The Avengers) is also in the hospital, also in critical condition, with the same kind of injuries – but from a snow plow he was running.

    Awful as I feel for Hamlin, I am sparing some thought for the player who he tackled, god knows what’s going through his mind.

  42. 42.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    strange, small world, but maybe not so strange given the politics of the NFL owners

    Richard M. Nixon @dick_nixon 48m

    Paul Hicks, father of Hope Hicks, is Vice President of Communications and Public Affairs at the NFL. Though our responsibilities align we have not met in a professional or personal capacity. – RZ

    (for those unfamiliar, part of this guy’s schtick is sometimes posting as Ron Ziegler, Nixon’s flack)

  43. 43.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Another Scott:

    But I remember growing up in suburban Atlanta and all kinds of racist talk being framed in language that was superficially against racism. But was actually coded language against changing the system to be fair to non-whites. “No special rights! No quotas! Neighborhood schools!”

    “All lives matter!”

    Some things never change

  44. 44.

    RaflW

    Also, too, I had no idea the, ahem, Problem Solvers Caucus still existed. Probably because the GOP hasn’t had any interest in solving any problems for a solid 14 years now.

  45. 45.

    piratedan

    this 2 year renewal of MST3K Political Edition is going to be lit!….

    tbh I have no idea on how this will unfold, after all, the majority of these GOP folks are familiar with the No button on votes, why it’s almost pavlovian and these guys are incredibly adept at dealing each other dirty at the drop of a hat… they’ve already shown that they have no quarrel with people who lie and misrepresent any and every issue, as they’ve shown themselves to be two-bit machiavellis or complete cowards devoid of any moral baseline.

  47. 47.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Oh, and apparently, idiots are blaming COVID vaccines for Hamlin’s collapse 🙄

  50. 50.

    JMG

    @Cheryl from Maryland: Sadly what happened to Hamlin is worse, the collision to his chest stopped his heart. He got up and walked for a step or two before collapsing. It’s a horrible freak result of a typical football collision.

  51. 51.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    “Mr. Speaker, is ‘George Santos’ even his real name?”

    There was an article in the WaPo a couple of days ago that indicated that in fact, no, he doesn’t always go by George Santos:

    The Republican who won a congressional seat on Long Island before his claims of being a wealthy, biracial, Ukrainian descendant of Holocaust survivors were debunked had, for a while, been generally consistent about two details in his improbable life: He has long said his first name is George and his last name is Santos.

    But not always.

    Before George Santos, 34, made a name for himself in politics, he had insisted on being called Anthony — one of his middle names — and often used his mother’s maiden name, Devolder, eventually incorporating a company in Florida with that name.

    “He hated that we called him George,” a former friend and onetime co-worker said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid being associated with him publicly. “His whole family called him Anthony. He wanted to be called Anthony. He would use the name Anthony Devolder.”

  54. 54.

    Mallard Filmore

    Is a replacement part of the requirement to boot a Speaker? What happens between the time Kevin is given the boot and the next Speaker is selected? Nothing?

  55. 55.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Mallard Filmore: Once the terms of office of the current Congress expire, the new Congressmen are the ones in office: so at that point, they didn’t elect (the current) Speaker Pelosi.  Or at least, that’s what I think is how it works.  I mean, how could Pelosi be Speaker tomorrow, if tomorrow’s membership didn’t elect her?

  57. 57.

    Honus

    @Cheryl from Maryland: I remember Chuck Bednarik hitting Frank Gifford.  Gifford was completely still and taken to the locker room and remained unconscious for the rest of the game.  A number of his Giants teammates saw him lying there after the game and thought he was dead.

  58. 58.

    Betsy

    @Chetan Murthy: My understanding is the “new members” can’t be sworn in until the speaker exists, so they’re not even members until after a speaker is elected and a swearing-in can be conducted.

  59. 59.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    This is the gang of clowns that Manchin and Sinema decided should have a say in the potentially disastrous absurdity of the debt ceiling

    I think we’re all gonna have to study up on discharge petitions, which I believe is the only way to get a bill to a floor vote without the support of the ruling party’s leaders

  60. 60.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Higgins has apparently had a very rough year. His father passed away last year too. I feel for him

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    That’s incredible. Practically his entire life has been a lie

    @Alison Rose:

    “A conservative is someone who stands athwart history, yelling stop” -Lee Atwater

    Yeah, that checks out.

  61. 61.

    Mallard Filmore

    @Chetan Murthy: 

    Once the terms of office of the current Congress expire, the new Congressmen are the ones in office:

    OK, but I was thinking more along the lines of what happens after McCarthy has been Speaker for a few days.

  62. 62.

    prostratedragon

    Only such thing I recall seeing in a football game, live on tv, was a UMich-PSU game where a couple of players collided and at least one of the two of them never played again. That was bad enough. I also saw on tv the last fight of Beethaeven Scottland. I remember Kellerman’s increasing concern, and also that the opponent, George Khalid Jones, had to be made several times by the ref to resume fighting. Jones knew that Bee was badly hurt and just stood there several times.

  65. 65.

    stacib

    @Snarki, child of Loki: I have a bag of shredded lettuce.  I’m willing to sacrifice that and call it Kevin.  I’m thinking it may actually be more appropriate as KM will be totally shredded before this is done.  LOL

  66. 66.

    Princess

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): this is hitting me especially hard tonight. I just learned that my militantly unvaxxed brother in law has caught Covid, threatening him and his whole unvaxxed family. No time for these ghouls.

  67. 67.

    randy khan

    If I were forced to bet, I’d bet that McCarthy somehow gets the job, but the idea that it’s 11:00 p.m. the night before Congress convenes and there’s still significant doubt about whether he can get to 218 is just remarkable.

    Or it would be if I wasn’t familiar with the Republican caucus and what it did to Boehner and Ryan.  This is just the logical extension of those years.

    The Upton idea is the most interesting one I’ve seen in a while.  Upton was fairly well known for working with Dems when he chaired the House Energy and Commerce Committee, but also was well-respected among Republicans.  And his niece is married to new Met Jason Verlander (formerly a Detroit Tiger).  He might actually be able to get Dem votes.

  71. 71.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    well, this was inevitable

    Charles P. Pierce @CharlesPPierce 15m

    Anti- vax Idiots on Twitter now asking if Hamlin had been vaccinated and how that had damaged his heart.

  73. 73.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @randy khan: I posted this about Matt Gaetz et al earlier, and there are few other tweets from Costa. My guess is they’ll put on a show vote and make some speeches in the first round, then vote for him at some point in the day. I don’t think the Upton plan is possible given that he voted to impeach trump. He’d probably get more D votes than R, and still not make it to 2018

    And his niece is married to new Met Jason Verlander (formerly a Detroit Tiger)

    that’s Kate Upton, the model, isn’t it? and all that Whirlpool money

  74. 74.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Alison Rose:

    To be fair, it was a no-brainer and the league allows the players and coaches, those literally with skin in the game, to make the call is good PR.

    And I’m not being cynical. The incident was different from any we’ve seen before from the off. When the words CPR and nine minutes were uttered by Joe Buck, it changed the feeling from will they continue, to this is gotta be suspended.

  76. 76.

    mvr

    @Nicole: FWIW, the only one with the talent to be speaker with this R majority would be Nancy Pelosi. And I don’t think she’s available.

  79. 79.

    dww44

    @Ken:  brain tumor as I recollect without going googling to check.   Also very repentant at the end for his political dirty tricks

  81. 81.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Damar Hamlin runs an annual toy drive for kids in his hometown

    Tommy Vietor @TVietor08

    This fundraiser organized by Damar Hamlin to buy toys for kids in need has raised over $600,000 — most of it this evening. Clearly lots of worried people want to reach out and try to help him in some way.

    It’s actually close to a million, maybe over since I clicked on it

    Jack McGuire @JackMacCFB
    Here is Hamlin at his Toy Drive on Christmas.
    A phenomenal human being.
    May God bless him.

  82. 82.

    geg6

    @Cheryl from Maryland:

    This is very sad.  I really hope he comes out of this okay.  He’s a local guy who went to Pitt.  He’s from one of the poorest towns just outside of Pittsburgh proper, McKees Rocks.  He does a lot for the kids in the community there.  Damn.

  86. 86.

    prostratedragon

    @Achrachno: ​ Yeah, I think not too. But everything I can find is wonderously elliptical on what would happen should a Speaker not be elected at the start of a new session. The Clerk “certifies” the new members, but not clear whether that means they’re effectively sworn in. Among other things.

  87. 87.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @HumboldtBlue:

    You’re right, it was a no-brainer choice by the NFL. I felt pretty bad for Booger and the others on ESPN having to commentate. They were pretty shook up

  89. 89.

    Mike in NC

    McCarthy would be better off if he went back to selling frozen bait or whatever his claim to fame was in shitty Bakersfield.

  91. 91.

    CaseyL

    There are a lot of people with ambition, and nothing else inside them.  Defined, consumed, and composed of ambition. Stefanik is one; McCarthy could well be another.

    I paid no attention to him whatsoever Before Trump, so I don’t know if he ever had principles, or delivered for his constituents, or anything.  (The first time I heard his name, I thought of the actor by the same name, and for a very long time had trouble remembering what Republican McCarthy even looked like.)

    I only know him as a complete licker of Trump’s boots – that turnaround he did after January 6, in less than 24 hours, gave Lindsey Graham a run for the money as Most Repellent Sycophant.

    McCarthy has, apparently, one ambition in this whole world, and that is to occupy the Speaker’s Chair (and office which, per the news, he’s already moved into).  He’ll do whatever he needs, whatever the Insane Clown Caucus and Insane Traitor Caucus require of him.  Just to get the title, Chair, and office.

    I know there are people like that.  I just can’t imagine what it’s like inside their heads.

  92. 92.

    HumboldtBlue

    Commotio cordis (Latin, “agitation of the heart”) is an often lethal disruption of heart rhythm that occurs as a result of a blow to the area directly over the heart (the precordial region) at a critical time during the cycle of a heart beat, producing what is termed an R-on-T phenomenon that leads to the condition. It is a form of ventricular fibrillation (V-Fib)

    I missed the original play and having seen the replays the hit to the chest, whether from the Bengal receiver or the fall to the ground, certainly make sense for a serious blow to the chest and heart as a possible reason for the trauma.

  93. 93.

    Chetan Murthy

    @geg6: Stupid-as-a-post, that one.  Couldn’t get into a single one of her law school picks, even with a Harvard BA.  Not one.  Not one.

  94. 94.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Good news:

    Jordon Rooney

    @jordonr

    Update on Damar:

    His vitals are back to normal and they have put him to sleep to put a breathing tube down his throat. They are currently running tests. We will provide updates as we have them.

  95. 95.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Stalwell was tweeting he thinks McCarthy will promise the Freedom Caucus anything to get their votes for him as Speakers and simply forget all those promises afterwards.

  96. 96.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @CaseyL:

    I know there are people like that. I just can’t imagine what it’s like inside their heads.

    They’re incredibly self-important people obsessed with power, even with the mere appearance of it in some cases like McCarthy

  97. 97.

    Achrachno

    @prostratedragon: We’re breaking new ground then.  My fingers are crossed that a good path can be found.  But, I fear that even if she’s able to apply full powers, that’ll just motivate the Rs to unify behind someone.  They will not be able to tolerate another female Democrat leading the house for more than a day or two, especially not a Black woman.

  98. 98.

    randy khan

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    that’s Kate Upton, the model, isn’t it? and all that Whirlpool money

    Indeed it is.  But as a Mets fan, I had to run with the Verlander bit.  (And I have a suspicion she will be happier to be in New York than Houston, although with the amount of money each of them has made over the years, she probably doesn’t need to live where he plays.)

    (If you’re not already familiar with it, it’s worth looking up her tweet after Verlander didn’t win the Cy Young Award in 2015.  It’s a hoot, although NSFW.)

  99. 99.

    Redshift

    @Anne Laurie:

    I suspect he’s watching the current sh*tshow, cigar in one hand & bourbon in the other, and chuckling to himself.

    Remember, Boehner’s recent response when asked to comment on McCarthy’s situation was “you can’t get in trouble for things you don’t say!”

  100. 100.

    Glidwrith

    @prostratedragon: If I were running a seditious party, this is the scenario I would run: don’t allow a Speaker to be elected. No Speaker means no legislation, especially no lifting of the debt ceiling. Alternatively, set it up so McCarthy is elected to fulfill the swearing in, then toss him out with no new Speaker. Still have no legislation, but now they have authority to run as many star chamber hearings as their little black hearts desire.

  101. 101.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @CaseyL: McCarthy has a history of telling inconvenient truths, or he did up until a couple years ago, he’s the guy who was caught on tape telling Paul Ryan and a couple others that he thought trump was on the take from Putin

    On June 15, 2016, McCarthy told his fellow Republicans, “There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump.” (Former Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher earned a reputation as one of Russia’s biggest congressional supporters.) McCarthy added at the time, “Swear to God.”
    According to the recording, then-House Speaker Paul Ryan immediately interjected, insisting that the assembled Republicans — some of whom were heard laughing at the comments — not tell anyone about what McCarthy had just said.
    “No leaks,” Ryan said at the time, adding, “This is how we know we’re a real family here.”
    A year later, a recording of McCarthy’s comments leaked.

    He also said out loud that the Benghazi hearings were a political ploy against Hillary Clinton.

  103. 103.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Take a step back and look at this from another direction.  Blithering incompetent McCarthy is the best the GOP has.  No one else is competing with him that has enough support to be noticeable.  The only other name that has even come up is Scalise, and we don’t know if he could get the job or how incompetent he might be because he says he doesn’t want it.  This is it.  McCarthy is the cream of the House GOP leadership crop.  Isn’t that… sad?

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    the potentially disastrous absurdity of the debt ceiling

    I think we’re all gonna have to study up on discharge petitions

    We’re not going to default on the debt ceiling.  McCarthy doesn’t have enough control over his caucus.  If it comes down to it, enough GOPers will defect to join the Democrats to get it done.  They’re really, really hoping that’s not necessary, though, and it probably isn’t.  McCarthy is a spineless schmuck.

    @craigie:

    “A conservative is someone who stands athwart history, yelling stop”

    Why does anyone think this sounds like a good thing???

  104. 104.

    Redshift

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: That actually seems fair, since he keeps giving in to their demands and they respond by saying they still won’t support him.

    Since he apparently wants to postpone announcing committee chairs until after the Speaker vote, I’ve read activations that he’s promised the same chairmanship to multiple people in return for support.

  108. 108.

    CaseyL

    @Redshift:

    I’ve read activations that he’s promised the same chairmanship to multiple people in return for support.

     

    GQP Thunderdome: Two Committee Chairs enter… only one leaves.

    Put that on PPV, and pay off a nice portion of the National Debt!

  110. 110.

    Redshift

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Blithering incompetent McCarthy is the best the GOP has.

    Boehner was smart enough to see the GOP House had become ungovernable and quit. Paul Ryan accepted the post because he wasn’t smart enough to grasp that, and now the primary qualification for the job is being too stupid to avoid it. (Okay, that doesn’t narrow it down much; I guess it’s now being too stupid to avoid it and not so obnoxious that you can’t get minimal support.)

  113. 113.

    Captain C

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    We’re not going to default on the debt ceiling.  McCarthy doesn’t have enough control over his caucus.  If it comes down to it, enough GOPers will defect to join the Democrats to get it done.  They’re really, really hoping that’s not necessary, though, and it probably isn’t.  McCarthy is a spineless schmuck.

    If nothing else, there are probably still a dozen or so sane enough Republicans to realize that a Republican-caused default, even if temporary, would cause pretty much the entire business community (outside of a few ideological fanatics) to at least reconsider the entire notion of whether Republicans are the better party for business.

  114. 114.

    Martin

    @Ken: If Santos is out, I’m guessing that district elects Zimmerman. Not like MTG getting run out where they’d find some other GOP idiot – the GOP loses NY-03.

  115. 115.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Ken:

    “Here come the scores… 6.0… 6.0… 6.0… 5.8 from the Russian judge… 6.0… 6.0…”

    Hahaha

  116. 116.

    Captain C

    @CaseyL: And if we get enough of them to take out each other, we may have at least a temporary Democratic majority after all.

    ETA:  Ken beat me to it and also noted the “George Santos” extradition possibility.

  117. 117.

    West of the Rockies

    Yesterday NY Giant Thibodaux was doing a pretend snow angel inches from a player he just put into convulsions.  I hope he feels like an A-hole.

  119. 119.

    Brachiator

    GOP Leader McCarthy has moved into the speakers suite but if he fails to secure 218 he will have to move all his stuff back out .

    Oh please, oh please, oh please….

  120. 120.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Martin:

    Looked him up:

    Block died at age 55 in a snowmobile accident near Woodland, Utah on January 2, 2023. The Wasatch County sheriff’s department reported that Block had been riding in the Mill Hollow area when his snowmobile upended on a steep slope and landed on top of him. Block was declared dead at the scene of the accident

    Goes to show death can happen at any time. Very sad

  123. 123.

    eclare

    Wow…I don’t know where Damar’s charity GoFundMe started, but it’s at $2.2M.  The original goal was $2,500 for toys for underprivileged kids.

  124. 124.

    prostratedragon

    I hsd the same problem with actor Kevin McCarthy, one of those people who wad in everything. Too bad he’s no longer around for the parody movie. Oddly enough, he was a relative of Sen. Eugene.

    @Achrachno:  I was thinking that might motivate them.

  125. 125.

    moops

    Kevin in the bast the house has to offer.  A leader of low quality and none suitable to step up.

     

    Because the GOP no longer selects for leaders, or skills, or the ability to legislate, or caring about caring or leading.   Now, it is racism and empty Republican shibboleths about their old platitudes.  You can’t win a primary now if you have a brain in your skull and care about anything real.

     

    The next Speaker when Kevin is dumped in a month will be worse.  Then it will keep running down the gutter.

  126. 126.

    Mallard Filmore

    @Glidwrith: 

    If I were running a seditious party, this is the scenario I would run: don’t allow a Speaker to be elected. No Speaker means no legislation, especially no lifting of the debt ceiling.

    I have to wonder if any “sane” Republicans would choke on this and vote with the Democrats for a Speaker.

  129. 129.

    Chetan Murthy

    @moops:

    The next Speaker when Kevin is dumped in a month will be worse.  Then it will keep running down the gutter.

    You know your Party is in a parlous state when Marge Three Toes is trying to be the voice of sanity.

  130. 130.

    Aussie Sheila

    @Chetan Murthy:

    Not sanity. Power. I hope the Dems in the House pummel them over the next two years. I also hope that any attempt to refuse dealing with the debt limit meets with unyielding opposition from both the WH and the congressional Dem caucus.

    No horse trading, no sops to deficit fetishism, no social security or Medicare deals-just nothing, until they do their legislative duty.

    Let the electorate see clearly who and what they are, for once.

  131. 131.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Aussie Sheila: I have bad news for you from the American electorate: they have *never* been able to properly assign blame.  They assign it to the party in the White House.  Part of the reason the Dems have to cave on the debt ceiling, on funding the government, is that shutdowns get blamed on the party in power, which is the Dems right now.

    I don’t have to like it, but …. our electorate is pretty goddamn stupid.

  134. 134.

    Amir Khalid

    @CaseyL:

    McCarthy has, apparently, one ambition in this whole world, and that is to occupy the Speaker’s Chair (and office which, per the news, he’s already moved into).

    To become Speaker, he will happily bargain away the powers of the Speaker — that is, his ability to function as Speaker. Which leads me to conclude that, like TFG with the Presidency, he wants the Speaker’s title and privileges, and to hell with the actual job.

  135. 135.

    Aussie Sheila

    @Chetan Murthy:

    In the past I think you are right. The much vaunted ‘Madisonian Democracy’ does a good job of shielding political power from electoral accountability in the US.

    However I think things have changed, not just in the Dem base, but also in the electorate at large. Of course a lot depends on how it is played by the Dem leadership. I have a lot of confidence in Biden, and I think Hakeem Jeffries will prove pretty wily.

  136. 136.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    I think we’ve crossed wires (it’s OK, busy night here), because I’m now chuckling at how much fun one can have with the latest term I encountered — Thesbian.

    There is a lot of word play there.

  137. 137.

    frosty

    @Chetan Murthy: There’s always the Constitutional play – the debt of the United States will not be questioned and the Executive just blows off the Legislative bullshit. Or the trillion dollar coin. Whatever.

  139. 139.

    Glidwrith

    @Mallard Filmore: What constitutes sanity for these people? Their supporters have shown they would rather overthrow the government to maintain their delusion of supremacy. They kill themselves with Covid, rather than wear a mask. In their context, just five of them is enough to derail almost all federal governance.

    I would start looking at the parliamentarian rules to determine how power of the House works when the Clerk is in charge or if a Speaker is chronically unavailable.

  140. 140.

    Martin

    @Mallard Filmore: I think Adam Schiff suggested that wasn’t entirely out of the question. I wonder if they could get someone like Brian Fitzpatrick. It’d need to be an R, but an R that recognized that GOP only legislation was likely not possible if they couldn’t find consensus on a speaker within the party. Guessing the GOP would have to fail a lot for it to come to that.

  142. 142.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Martin: I’m not sure why the GrOPers would find inability to pass legislation to be a problem.  Anything they really need done, they can get their “super-legislature of six” to pass up at SCOTUS.  And for the rest …. gridlock and dysfunction plays to their wheelhouse as the party of “government is bad and we will eliiminate it”.  Look at how little they got done during TFG’s reign under Ryan.

    I mean, *sure* it’ll look a little embarrassing.  But for their Base and for their funders, it’s catnip.  Why would they want to elect a Speaker with Dem support and end up passing legislation, when they can cavort in chaos and *not* pass legislation ?  The *only* reason I can see for them to want to elect a Speaker, is that they cannot pass House rules, which means assigning committee members, until they elect a Speaker.  And they need to do that, in order to start all those damn investigations, IIUC.

  144. 144.

    Geminid

    @randy khan: Fred Upton is one of the 10 House Republican Impeachers. He would be anathema to the Republican caucus. I’m not sure Nebraska’s Don Bacon named Upton as his potential Speaker candidate. Other retired Congressmen like Tom Reed (NY) or Charlie Dent (PA) seem more suitable for the purpose.

    Bacon may be floating this possibility as part of the public bargaining process, saying that his faction can nominate their own guy if McCarthy is not voted in and that Scalise would not have clear sailing on a second ballot.

    That faction would be the purple district members who would be the most endangered if the Freedom Caucus holds the whip hand in the larger caucus.

    Bacon himself barely hung on to his Omaha-based seat the last 3 cycles. He retired once already as an Air Force general and may not be planning on running again.

  145. 145.

    Geminid

    @Martin: There might be a primary. A young, up-and-coming NY State Assemblyman is being mentioned as a potential Democratic candidate also. It being a special election, he would only have to give up his seat if he won the general election.

  147. 147.

    AM in NC

    @Chetan Murthy:  That was the thing that stood out to me in that WAPO (or was it NYT) article on her slide from “moderate, fun Havahd undergrad” to “former friends surprised by fascist”.

    How do you not get into a single law school with a Harvard degree?  Her LSATs must have been absolutely abysmal, and her writing ability must be high school level.

    Plus, maybe the stench of fascism and ambitious greed-head may have put some admissions officers off their feed.

  148. 148.

    RAM

    The philosophy Kevin has firmly embraced as he desperately strives to grasp the Speaker’s gavel: “Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.” Groucho Marx.

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