Anybody wanna hand them some sharp implements? Nothing too dangerous — maybe some sharp scissors?
Note sender:
https://t.co/vxYqKnLxNq pic.twitter.com/Z48ppBkBZQ
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) September 20, 2023
McCarthy genuinely making the case for sending the GOP back to minority where they can do less harm: “just want to burn the whole place down.” https://t.co/7TugFOToLA
— Laura Rozen (@lrozen) September 21, 2023
The House GOP, which is “tearing itself apart”, is divided into three factions. There’s the Freedom Caucus; abt 160 reps who do what the Freedom Caucus tells them to do; and about 20 moderates who bitch and moan before doing what the Freedom Caucus tells them to do.
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) September 20, 2023
House Republicans like Gaetz, Greene, and Boebert are “not serious people,” @JohnJHarwood tells @brianstelter. “They’re on television, they have podcasts or whatever, but they’re not built to do what politicians have to do to make government work.” https://t.co/TG9vlTO9By
— Michael Calderone (@mlcalderone) September 21, 2023
This is all GOP nonsense.
When @HouseDemocrats had a slim majority, we made investments in infrastructure and manufacturing. We cut the cost of prescription drugs.
Instead of honoring our bipartisan deal and protecting American jobs, McCarthy is consumed with keeping his job. pic.twitter.com/Hr8frpkeKa
— Katherine Clark (@WhipKClark) September 21, 2023
dmsilev
That tweet from the White House is just perfect. 10/10.
Alison Rose
Whoever runs the WH Twitter account deserves a raise.
dmsilev
I think the chances of a shutdown are pretty damn high at this point. Not guaranteed, but close to it. How will that end? At a guess, once the pain becomes high enough, a CR is passed with 90% of the House GOP and however many Dems are needed to reach the majority. 30 nanoseconds after that happens, one of the Freedom Caucus loons pulls the trigger on the whole motion-to-vacate thing.
bbleh
I remain somewhat agog that McQarthy reneged on the debt-limit deal almost immediately and nobody called him on it. And yes, in a way it doesn’t matter because we got the debt limit extended, but jeebus how can a Speaker, negotiating for the entire party with the blessing of the Senate Republican leader, just walk away almost immediately from a deal and not render his word absolutely worthless from that day on?
HumboldtBlue
Taylor Swift’s voting registration push brought in more than 30,000 new registrants. I guarantee you, none of those who registered have ever visited Ballon-Juice, and to be honest, they’re too smart to do that.
That’s not an insignificant number.
bbleh
@dmsilev: … and behind the scenes, enough Dems have agreed to vote “present” in exchange for the CR being at debt-limit-deal levels, over several months, plus some extra goodies.
Hold his feet to the fire (cuz he traded his nuts away long ago).
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
This is a whole new concept of individuals that just want to burn the whole place down. That doesn’t work.
::Sniff:: ::Sniff:: Smells like ad fodder…and a fireplace. I love the autumn.
WaterGirl
Boy oh boy, Josh Marshall nailed that one in his tweet.
Dan B
@HumboldtBlue: I believe it was 30,000 the first day alone.
Hoodie
@dmsilev: Thing is, pulling the motion to vacate thing will be like the dog catching the car. None of these clowns can be speaker and no one else wants to be speaker. McCarthy was the only clown who wanted the job. He somehow made the debt limit deal and wasn’t replaced, don’t see why this would be any different.
Dan B
In the meanwhile in “important running the government” news, Joe Manchin wants the dress code in the Senate restored. The people of West Virginia must be proud.
bbleh
@Dan B: THIS person gave up on Joe long ago. He’s in it for himself, and his vision, like (ahem) other things, is pinched.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Dan B: Joe Manchin is a dipshit, that is all.
Old School
The White House tweeted something from The Onion?
Wow.
geg6
@Dan B:
I think that’s right.
dmsilev
@Hoodie: Oh, certainly, but the Matt Gaetzs of the House aren’t going to care.
Mike in NC
Honestly, shutting down the government is the only thing Republicans are good at.
sab
As a faithful Democrat and Boomer, I am glad that I am already collecting Social Security. As I understand it, government shutdown prevents people from applying for Social Security and Disability benefits, but does not effect those of us already on the monthly rolls from collecting.
dmsilev
It’s so bad, even the some of the political media are forgetting to bothsides the issue. Here’s the lead story in the Post just now:
Dorothy A. Winsor
Clark’s tweet is good too. The D leadership team is proving to be smart.
WaterGirl
@Dan B: What a petty, vindictive man he is. Glad to have his vote when we have it, but damn, he is a pain in the behind.
Dan B
@bbleh: Manchin is in it for the dirty, dirtier than ordinary, coal. Among other things.
Jeffro
@dmsilev: Naming names? In the Post?
Why, whatever will they think of next? =)
HumboldtBlue
If they’re gonna do the work, let them do the work for you.
Hoppie
@bbleh: You do have to give the Freedumb Caucus credit for finding something that tiny to grab. Like in miniscule.
Dan B
@sab: I hope SS continues to function as it is my only income at present.
Roger Moore
@Mike in NC:
Shutting down the government is the only thing the Republicans care about. At least since Reagan they’ve been saying the government is the enemy, and they’re acting on that enmity. They want to take over the government because it’s easier to destroy things from the inside.
MattF
And political junkies will note that Pelosi + Dems repeatedly passed historic legislation with a majority about the same size as McCarthy’s. So, yeah, it’s the R party that’s in free fall. Or maybe it has hit the ground, passed through Earth and is flying on to Mars, to join Elon.
Dan B
@HumboldtBlue: Woohoo!
HumboldtBlue
@Dan B:
I think those early hourly numbers were inflated a bit.
Frankensteinbeck
@dmsilev:
Side effect of stenography, perhaps. The Republicans are publicly blaming each other. Both sides say this is all the GOP’s failure.
hueyplong
@Mike in NC: They can do 2 things: (1) shut down the govt; and (2) preen.
What they can’t do is govern, but proof of that is irrelevant to a voting block that insists on electing internet trolls.
Steeplejack
@Dan B:
I checked the other day to reassure an (even more) elderly friend. Social Security benefits are considered “mandatory payments” and will continue if the government is shut down. But, as others have pointed out, Social Security “business” will be suspended.
dmsilev
@Frankensteinbeck: Seems plausible.
Eolirin
It’s being made even harder to boths sides this shit by the Senate Republicans passing appropriations bills and shaking their heads sadly at their house counterparts
Baud
@HumboldtBlue:
I hope they’re invited to speak at the DNC.
HumboldtBlue
@Baud:
Only if they’re in the pillory and we have baskets of rotten vegetables.
Roger Moore
@MattF:
In fairness, Nancy Pelosi is a political genius; that she managed to pass historic legislation with the slim voting margins she had is testament to that. Almost anyone in history would look bad compared to her. That’s not to say that McCarthy is anything but horrible, just that you’d show it more readily by showing how bad he is in comparison to such incompetents as John Boehner and Paul Ryan.
Jeffro
Btw this Jeffrey Goldberg piece in The Atlantic is just stunning, even though most of the events and issues noted have already been reported on.
How Mark Milley Held The Line
Still, a nice thing to beat RWNJs over the head with tomorrow – it’s Fri-Yay, after all! =)
Scout211
Interesting read about government shutdowns. What could happen if the government shuts down
Did you know that during the Trump administration, there were 37
shut-downsdays that the government was shut down? I guess I tried to block out those years from my memory. But even worse was during the Carter administration, with 56 days that the government was shut down.I did not remember there were so many
shut-downsdays in so many previous administrations that the government was shut down.Knowing that this is not an unusual negotiating tactic in Washington, it does take the sting out of it a bit.
ETA: Oopsie, I read that chart wrong. It was number of days in shut-down, not number of shut-downs.
Xavier
@Roger Moore: Obviously.
Frank Wilhoit
@Hoodie:
There is not, and there will not be, any Republican who can get 218. It is just conceivable that Hakeem Jeffries might be able to get 218; but that would be an empty stunt unless a handful of Republicans crossed the aisle, and that, in turn, would be an empty stunt unless ~all of Marshall’s 20 crossed the aisle. The game is to move their incentives in that direction.
HumboldtBlue
I still can’t believe we endured four years of the Trumps shitting all over our institutions.
Another Scott
@Scout211: Eh? That sounds like someone who made the graphs is confused…
Wikipedia:
Emphasis added.
Until Civiletti’s opinion, a lapse in funding didn’t actually shut anything down; that’s why lumping pre-1980 Carter in with Reagan and all the rest doesn’t make any sense.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jackie
@bbleh: Biden needs to push that part HARD. “My Kevin” reneged on his handshake with Biden publicly. Younger voters might not “get it,” but a handshake contract is at least as binding as a written contract, universally.
Kevin has shown the world his word is worthless. But, he even isn’t shamed – in true TIFG style.
RaflW
@bbleh: Since Quevin’s word was already absolutely worthless, there was no markdown remaining.
Shalimar
@dmsilev: If they’re stupid enough to shutdown the government, I doubt it will go past November 7th, when Republicans get slaughtered in the Virginia elections. That should be enough to terrify most of them about their prospects for re-election next year.
beckya57
Sure, they’re horrible, but ad hominem arguments only take you so far. You have to look at the underlying structures and incentives: how people like this get elected, and what will get them re-elected. I don’t have specific information on their districts, but I suspect gerrymandering is big part of this. People elected in gerrymandered extreme districts have to worry about the primary, not the general, and about not being out-extremed in the primary. So this kind of performative rage against the opposition is what gets rewarded, and the actual work of governing, which often requires compromise with one’s opponents, gets punished. As long as we have a lot of gerrymandered districts we’re inevitably going to see this kind of nonsense.
RaflW
@Dan B: Manchin knows that Fetterman has more authenticity, more cred with voters, and just more appeal than he’ll ever have.
I don’t know what Joe has planned down the road, but unfortunately for the continued functioning of the nation, I think he’ll be able to dress however he likes by January of ’25. (I think he’s a preening ass, but he generally votes the right way, when he has to. And W.VA. voters will punish him for that.)
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
Fetterman might also be a better contemporary model for rural Democrats than Manchin ever was.
H.E.Wolf
There’s a reason the song “Queen of Suffolk County” made the rounds on social media when Clark became one of the Democratic whips earlier this year.
(In joke for locals. It’s a song by the Boston-area band Dropkick Murphys, about a woman who’s wicked tough; Rep. Clark’s district includes parts of Suffolk County.)
Geminid
@beckya57: I have seen how gerrymandering has induced a race to the bottom among Republicans that has degraded the quality of their officeholders. What strikes me is how gerrymandering has not seemed to affect Democrats the same way. I think the quality of our members of Congress has remained high, and might be even higher in the last few years. I’m not sure why this is but I like it.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Geminid: Democrats are held to standards in our public discourse while Republicans are held to none. It doesn’t even matter that the standards aren’t any good. They exist and require a certain degree of professionalism to maintain.
It also helps that, as far as I can see, virtually every elected Democrat wants to help people.
Regnad Kcin
@H.E.Wolf: not that other Suffolk County, thank Belichick
Shalimar
@beckya57: Gaetz’s district is the northwest part of Florida, under Alabama. It includes Pensacola and Fort Walton Beach all the way to half of Walton county. The 3 counties further east, Holmes, Washington, and Bay, were all at least 71% Trump. The rest of Florida is gerrymandered to hell, but not the panhandle. There is no way to draw a district there that is less than 70% Republican.
Uncle Cosmo
Yep, just like a scattering of neutrinos. Y’think mebbe we should call GOP House members neuteredinos? Since we know the Squeaker Qevin left his fambly jools with the Freedumb Cockus…
sab
@Dan B: Most of mine too.
Anne Laurie
Also, Clark grew up in Suffolk County, during the period the Dropkick Murphys sing about… and the woman playing the current version of the Queen in the music video looks quite a bit like Clark!
Geminid
@Shalimar: That’s sort of the situation with Marjorie Greene’s district in northwest Georgia. Its basically the corner of Georgia between Tennessee and Alabama. No Democratic Congressional candidate has come within 20 points there since the district was created in 2011.
Ken
Practice, practice, practice.
RaflW
As a Minnesotan (but not in MN-06), I want to point out that Majority Whip Tom Emmer is a useless blob. Can’t whip a g.d. thing. But he is a pugnacious d–k. I know that from the one time I helped lobby him when he was in the MN Lege many years ago.
During the maladministration, he toadied up to Trump somethin’ fierce. I hope this shutdown spanks his butt.
Odie Hugh Manatee
There is no deal to honor as there is no honor among thieves and liars. Let them hang themselves since they insist on it.
Roger Moore
@beckya57:
Part of the danger is that districts don’t have to be gerrymandered to be extreme in one direction or the other. There’s been a huge sorting of liberals into cities and conservatives into exurbs and rural areas, probably as a result of White Flight. The net result is that even states that have adopted methods of apportionment intended to prevent gerrymandering can have districts that are so extreme to one party or the other that they’re basically foregone conclusions. Here in California, for instance, our apportionment is handled by an independent redistricting commission, but fewer than 1/3 of our Congressional districts have a Cook DVI less than +10. That might be less the case in smaller states, but even a completely fair apportionment is going to result in a lot of safe seats. That’s just how our politics look these days.
RaflW
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation: Absolutely. The day John Fetterman drives a Maserati, well … uhh … I don’t think that day will come. If he does ever drive, I’d want him in a ’72 Olds Cutlass 442.
RaflW
@Roger Moore: I’ve seen just a bit of info on the idea of having fewer, much larger districts that would be demographically diverse, and then having the district elect multiple Reps at large.
Seems unwieldy in other ways, but that or having states carve up a bunch of pie-shaped districts that could have closer to a balance of urban-sub-ex-rural might work, but would really mess with compact (though wouldn’t have a problem with contiguous, really).
Roger Moore
@Geminid:
I think there are two things going on:
Roger Moore
@RaflW:
One of the ideas I really like is mixed-member proportional. The basic idea is that you have the state divided up into fewer districts than it has seats. The districts then have regular elections, with the remaining seats handed out to the parties in a way that makes the overall congressional delegation proportional to the vote. It allows people to be represented by a specific representative for their area while negating (or at least drastically reducing) the ability to gerrymander.
wjca
What are the odds that, if handed scissors, they mostly try to use them as brass knuckles? Sticking the points into someone (often themselves) only by accident.
russell
McCarthy is the head clown of the clown brigade. He wanted it, now he has it.
BruceFromOhio
Anvils. Throw anvils. Lots. Of. Anvils.
BruceFromOhio
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation:
It isn’t, but it has certainly ascended to new heights since idiots put other idiots in charge of stuff that matters.
Manyakitty
@Jeffro: and yet nobody said anything while it was happening. Milley gets a pass as he was in the thick of it, but all these “heroes” like Mattis and McMaster held their tongues, even after they left the administration.
(Walks away, shaking my head in disgust)
satby
@HumboldtBlue: I guarantee you, none of those who registered have ever visited Ballon-Juice, and to be honest, they’re too
smartto do that.You misspelled “young”.