To paraphrase an old proverb, if you lie down with a pack of mangy, snarling, rabies-addled hyenas, you get up unable to stumble forward because of all the mangy, snarling, rabies-addled hyenas with their teeth clamped firmly onto your ass. I refer, of course, to the ongoing House GOP leadership fight. Here’s a quick status on the horserace from racing sheet Politico:
While Scalise’s allies had hoped Wednesday’s vote would propel the party to coalesce behind him, Scalise is still laboring to complete what would be a compelling rise to the House’s top spot.
One bloc is refusing to back anyone besides Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Scalise’s opponent in the speaker race, even though Jordan vowed to support his foe on the floor. Then there are McCarthy loyalists, including centrists in tough districts, many who have known no other leader but the deposed Californian who never fully embraced Scalise.
That’s not to mention the Republicans who simply aren’t convinced Scalise can win the 217 necessary votes on the floor…
“Let’s be clear, January was a coronation,” said Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who said he remains “very reluctant” to back Scalise because of his position on government funding. “This is a competition, and it’s going to be even more difficult.”
The January “coronation” Massie is referring to was McCarthy’s epic humiliation-a-thon — a 15-round, ego-scorching siege during which McCarthy was forced to trade away every scrap of power for votes until all that was left was the gavel and fancy office suite. That serial beclowning was a stroll down the red carpet in Westminster Abbey compared to wait awaits the next speaker, according to Massie (who, it should be noted, is dumb as a stump so perhaps wrong).
Still, the signs aren’t good for Scalise. Malevolent Toxic Greene had thoughts:
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is vowing to oppose her party’s nominee for speaker of the House when it comes to a vote on the floor — because he has cancer.
“I like Steve Scalise, and I like him so much that I want to see him defeat cancer more than sacrifice his health in the most difficult position in Congress,” Greene wrote on Twitter. “We need a Speaker who is able to put their full efforts into defeating the communist democrats and save America.”
Christ, what an asshole! And the King of the Assholes also allegedly had thoughts:
Scalise has yet to endorse Trump’s 2024 White House campaign, which may dissuade the former president from helping to lobby detractors in Scalise’s direction, three sources familiar with the former president’s thinking told The Messenger.
“Trump personally likes Steve. There’s no real animosity,” said one of the sources. “But the fact is, loyalty is a two-way street and Steve had a chance to support the [former] president but he didn’t.”
“So if Trump has to work for it in Steve’s eyes, Steve is going to have to work for it in Trump’s eyes,” the source added.
The Greene creature expressing fake concern over a colleague’s health? A Donald J. Trump operative declaring that “loyalty is a two-way street”? Can any Repub top that for bald-faced hypocrisy? Yes!
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) said in a Wednesday interview that she still plans to vote for Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) to be the next Speaker when the matter is brought to the floor for a House vote.
“I would not. I plan on voting for Jim Jordan on the floor,” Mace said on CNN when asked whether she would have voted for House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), the GOP nominee, had the House vote been held Wednesday afternoon.
“I’ve been very vocal about this over the last couple of days: I personally cannot, in good conscience, vote for someone who attended a white supremacist conference and compared himself to David Duke,” she continued. “I would be doing an enormous disservice to the voters that I represent in South Carolina if I were to do that.”
As a member of the Misogyny & White Supremacy Party, Mace’s pivot from fake concern about women’s issues to tank McCarthy to fake concern about white supremacy to tank Scalise is a classic of the genre. Valued commenter Geminid has speculated that Mace has her eye on Lindsey Graham’s U.S. Senate seat, and if this performance is part of the audition, we must admit Mace nailed the spinning weathervane trials.
Possibly the only remaining U.S. Senator with a classic flat-top haircut put it best:
Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., said that the chaos in the House makes governing harder but that the Senate would moderate any extreme legislation it were to pass.
“I can’t see how this makes it better,” Tester said. “But who knows? It’s been kind of a s— show there for nine or 10 months. They might get their poop in a pile and things average out here.”
Thanks, Tester. Can’t really sum it up any better than that.
Open thread.
On The Road – twbrandt – Iceland – The Laugavegur Trail (1/2)
bjacques
The GOP are the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party, but in the House they’re the Cats Pooping In People’s Shoes Party. Scalise says: I never thought they’d poop in *my* shoes!
Baud
From Blue sky
bsky.app/profile/avielroshwald.bsky.social/post/3kbjouslyq72p
Tony Jay
“Come on, Steve. We’ve got the narrative framing all ready and stuff, would you pleeeeeease just get this done?”
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Trump babbled incoherently about Hamas overrunning the U.S. – Mexico border yesterday:
I wonder if that got any MSM coverage here. I mean, he’s the GOP frontrunner, and he’s crazier than a sprayed roach. That’s news.
Geminid
@Baud: The Friday after the 2020 election, AP and other news organizations finally declared Joe Biden the winner. Netanyahu called Biden 2 or 3 days later to congratulate him, and referred to Biden as an old friend.
Trump never got over it. “Fuck Bibi,” Trump told an Israeli reporter a year later.
oldster
“I personally cannot, in good conscience, vote for someone who attended a white supremacist conference and compared himself to David Duke,” she continued. “I would be doing an enormous disservice to the voters that I represent in South Carolina if I were to do that.””
Telling South Carolina voters that Scalise is a white supremacist? Is Mace trying to be his hype-man?
Betty Cracker
Whoa, my niece just texted to find out if we’re okay — a tornado hit nearby, and the schools and highways are closed, she says. We’ve had wind and rain but nothing like that so far. Yikes!
Ben Cisco
@Betty Cracker: Stay safe, BC.
Ripley
I think we just need Jared to get everyone in a room and tell them to knock off the bullshit, right?
Right?
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: I have a customer who said the same thing about the border. We were talking, and I mentioned that I had been up late over the weekend following the war in Israel and Gaza. She said it was just as bad here! We don’t know how many Hamas agents are coming in from Mexico! She and I talk politics some, generally in a respectful way, but this time her husband had to intervene.
Jane used to do volunteer work for Planned Parenthood, and she volunteered for Paul Tsongas’s campaign in 1992. When I met them 15 years ago, she and her husband were what I would call Wall Street Journal Republicans. They started drifting right over the the past few years.
Then, during the pandemic, Jane got a free copy of Epoch Times and decided to subscribe. A big mistake.
Ben Cisco
Does it really matter who “wins” the gavel? They’re ALL unfit, individually and collectively. It’s like picking a fish for dinner from a barrel of bloated, rancid fish.
Geminid
@oldster:
Racy Mace, is in the race.
“I’ll set the pace,” said Racy Mace.
Geminid
@Ben Cisco: It would be the same Circus, different Ringmaster.
But I’m not sure Republicans can elect a new Ringmaster this time.
Baud
@Ben Cisco:
Competent Democrats are all alike; every incompetent Republican is incompetent n their own way.
Jeffro
@Baud: here, I’ll translate it: “holy SHIT are we glad Biden is president and not that Swiss-cheese brained corrupt moron!”
So say we all, Israeli TV. So say we all.
Frankensteinbeck
For all the media is sure Trump is in control, the guy Trump ordered the Republican Party to appoint got less votes than the mainstream guy.
@Betty Cracker:
All brown people are the same to him, and to his base. That’s one of the major elements of racism. Plus, they’ve been waiting to go back to ‘Muslim terrorists are coming over the Southern border’ for two decades. They loved that one after 9/11.
eclare
@Baud:
Excellent literary appropriation.
Jeffro
@oldster:
@Geminid:
I wonder what it would take to keep Nancy Mace off-camera for 24 hours, or if such a thing is even possible.
Betty Cracker
The weather people are talking about “tornadic waterspouts,” a term I’ve never heard. Waterspouts are a pretty common phenomenon around here, and you don’t want to run into one in a boat. But they tend to weaken as they move toward shore. Well, the meteorologists are saying tornadic waterspouts are coming onshore strong enough to flip over cars and lift off roofs. What fresh hell? I wonder if this is a climate change thing? Still no problems at our place so far.
Matt McIrvin
I half expected Trump to take a vaguely pro-Hamas position just to fuck with people and get reporters buzzing (his supporters wouldn’t care). But I guess the old border scare is the best he can come up with.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Sharknado was prophecy.
Dangerman
Time for the TP Party to show up (core issues being “flush the poop” and “make America regular again”).
chrome agnomen
@Dangerman: drain the colon!
Ben Cisco
@Geminid: I am pretty sure that they cannot.
@Baud:
Infinite
Dumbassery in
Infinite
Combinations
Ceci n est pas mon nym
It’s a tight race between Sad Clown Nobody Likes and Guy Who Sweeps Up Elephant Poop.
Marmot
What! A narcissist like TFG hates anyone who’s not positively supportive. They separate everyone into good and evil based on that alone.
@Geminid:
Yeah, that’s pretty much it.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
The opening sentence of that literary classic, Anna Paulina Luna.
Ben Cisco
@lowtechcyclist: You made me look her up. Learned something today. Thanks!
topclimber
Elise Stefanik looking better everyday as the compromise candidate if the Scalise-Jordan match sputters into stalemate.
Election denier: check.
Forced birther who shows that not all women are pro-choice: check.
Revenge agent for TFG, having ousted Liz Cheney as the #4 person in the GOP House hierarchy: check.
Newcomer to House leadership position, so less likely to draw the ire of the Freedom Fascists: check.
Scandal free (so far): 1/4 check because a minor issue for Republicans.
I could go on but I don’t want to throw up.
If only she had Nancy Mace’s looks and media savvy, she would be a shoo-in.
Brachiator
@Matt McIrvin:
Trump always returns to his old standards when he does his demagoguery.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
kalakal
@Betty Cracker:
I first saw them use that one (tornadic waterspouts) about a year ago.
Got woken up by a warning last night, looks like it hit around Dunedin Causeway about 5 miles from here.
https://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/news/2023/10/12/tornadoes-move-across-tampa-bay-overnight–damage-in-multiple-counties?firebaseString=true&cid=app_share
sab
7:30 am and it is still dark out while tje kids are waiting for their school buses.
If it only lasts 4 months, why do we still call it Standard Time? Daylight Savings Time is Rich Men Want to Golf after Work until the Snow Falls.
BretH
“If this performance is part of the audition, we must admit Mace nailed the spinning weathervane trials.”
Way to put a smile on my face early in the morning.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@sab: I suspect that it’s “Standard Time” because it’s closer to the sun being at its highest at noon.
Betty Cracker
@kalakal: Glad you’re safe!
CBS is saying there’s a waterspout coming ashore west of us now and heading this way. Hopefully it peters out before it gets to a populated area. At least the sun is coming up. I hate bad weather at night.
Geminid
@topclimber: Rep. Stefanik may be entangled in the Santos affair. She likely won’t face charges, but I expect her name to come up in other people’s indictments. Involvement in criminal activities probably isn’t a dealbreaker for Trump, but getting caught might be.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@topclimber: Stefanik fits the bill so well but isn’t even on their horizon. Why oh why could that be? Oh yeah! Girl cooties.
Ukko
As a certified yokel I am disappointed in the malapropism from Montana. It is “get your poop in a group” not a pile!!
Baud
@Ukko:
Rhyme vs. Alliteration. A conflict as old as time.
lowtechcyclist
@Bruce K in ATH-GR:
Or because it’s the time that resulted from standardizing times by time zones around the end of the 19th century. Before that, every town had its own local time, and railroad companies each kept their own time, which apparently got interesting when their lines intersected.
kalakal
@Betty Cracker: Thanks.
Hope you stay safe too.
Me too! I am so over being up half the night while Hurricane Genghis (or whatever) pays a call.
At least Florida tornados tend to the low end of the scale.
oldster
@lowtechcyclist:
“In a November 2018 Fox News segment, [Anna Paulina Luna] compared Hillary Clinton to herpes, leading the network to cut the segment short and host Rick Leventhal and anchor Arthel Neville to apologize to viewers.”
from the Wiki page of this stalwart Republican Congressperson.
An entire party of crazy people, and a system rigged to elect them.
lowtechcyclist
@Ukko:
He was probably just trying to avoid the S-word, as in “Republicans can’t get their shit together.”
LiminalOwl
@Betty Cracker: oof! Very glad you’re OK.
Chris T.
@Baud:
It’s Fight Night in the Literary Lounge! Who will win the bin and take home the precious prize?
LiminalOwl
@rikyrah: good morning!
LiminalOwl
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: Thank you! I never thought of that, and it makes sense.
eta: and so does lowtechcyclist’s explanation, hmmm.
OzarkHillbilly
A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Ben Cisco
@OzarkHillbilly: “Waaahhh, you won’t acknowledge my fake-ass wealth!! Waaahhh!”
Whiny jackass.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@OzarkHillbilly: He thinks including “hereby” makes it an official document.
There go two miscreants
You should check out the late-night thread — it had me roaring with laughter at 5:30 (Eastern time)!
kalakal
@OzarkHillbilly: A creep on his petty pace
He’d think you were quoting MacDonald’s
catclub
What have you got against lutefisk? Except for the smell, taste and texture?
AM in NC
@Betty Cracker: “he’s crazier than a sprayed roach.” I just could not let that go by without praise. Just a perfect description of too many of these GOP creeps (and the creep-in-chief most of all).
Suzanne
@Ben Cisco:
This is 100% the right take.
Like, it’s only amusing as theater. The lack of an ability to choose is just indicative of their collective ineptitude and failed culture (where are their fathers?). It doesn’t matter which crab crawls to the top of their particular bucket.
catclub
@Geminid:
The second part was of course a total lie.
hueyplong
@OzarkHillbilly: Trump’s patterns when not being ghostwritten are getting simpler and simpler. Any publication that criticizes him is not just “failing” but must explicitly be referred to as same, in each comment.
Trump’s inability to resist demonstrating his pique at Netanyahu is one of the first signs I’ve seen that the end may be near. That combined with Israel’s daily, demonstrated embrace of Joe Biden gives hope that Israel might stop looking to the GOP, paving the way for an alignment of the US, Israel and Ukraine on one side and Putin/Hamas on the other that can’t help but put pressure on GOPers in the House. Their collapse on opposition to Ukrainian funding would further split the howler monkeys into intramural shrieking and accusations of betrayal that make Trump look more and more like Bruno Ganz in the bunker.
So I’m saying there’s a chance.
Geminid
@catclub: Maybe not a total lie. They’ve known each other a long time, and Biden has always been an influential supporter of Israel. So they have had a cordial and at times constructive relationship in the past.
This time around though, Biden has kept Netanyahu at arms length. A lot of that is on account of the National Religious party goons Netanyahu welcomed into his coalition, and has kowtowed to ever since he started forming his government a year ago.
Biden knows that Netanyahu is a lying, self serving tinhorn, and believes he is a danger to Israel’s safety (as we have just seen). Everybody knows he’s a self serving liar, even his own party members and coalition partners.
Ken
For Republican values of “compromise”, meaning that we’ll see 20 votes that are about a 50/50 split between Scalise and Jordan, followed by 20 votes that are about a 33/33/33 split between Scalise, Jordan, and Stefanik. With the occasional few votes for Trump or McCarthy.
(I’m ignoring Jeffries in the above, obviously; otherwise it would be about a 50/25/25 split in the early rounds, then a 50/34/33/33 split in the later rounds.)
espierce
@kalakal:
I live 1.5 miles North of the Dunedin Causeway and received an alert at 1:42 am then went back to sleep after checking my radar app.
Looks like a water spout that came ashore from the Twitter photos in that Bay News 9 article.
hueyplong
@Ken: I’m rooting for the news that EMS has been called to the closed-door room at which the GOPers are meeting because things got physical during the course of their “frank” discussions about the speakership.
catclub
The previous insult was when Biden visited Israel as Vice president and Netanyahu just happened to announce more building of illegal settlements in the West Bank. Was that one of the constructive times?
Anyway
@Ukko:
City mouse here and both versions are new to me. I like the Montana alliteration..
poop in a scoop??
Manyakitty
@Betty Cracker: whoa! Hope it all stays far away from you!
WaterGirl
Did the earth open up and swallow Trump whole when he said that “loyalty is a 2-way street”?
Geminid
@catclub: No.
Ken
@WaterGirl: Like Satan wants him.
WaterGirl
@Marmot:
Dear god, i agree with Trump on something. :: shudder ::
kalakal
@espierce: glad to hear it missed you.
That must have been the same alert that woke me up
Brit in Chicago
@Frankensteinbeck: “the guy Trump ordered the Republican Party to appoint got less votes than the mainstream guy”
Perhaps because it’s a secret ballot?
SteveinPHX
@Betty Cracker: Your mining of the Southern idiom just keeps turning up diamonds!
“crazier than a sprayed roach” Wow!
lowtechcyclist
@Frankensteinbeck:
This was just among the GOP contenders.
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
SFB/TFG has been loony for his entire life. Loony in that he “thinks” he’s the top guy in humanity, but in this case that bit of humanity is stuck in a locker at the men’s club, for the last 8 yrs, with what was once a pile of very sweaty workout clothing but is now a moldy pile of more mold doing duty as ThatFuckingGuy’s brain. There is a reason I call him ShitForBrains.
Ruckus
@Ben Cisco:
Wouldn’t a barrel of bloated, rancid fish actually be a better result than the winner of the gavel?
Subsole
@Baud: Sure, Fyodor.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
Trump always returns to his old standards when he does his demagoguery.
When the lock on the safe(brain) is rusted shut, one has to use what is at hand. In his case he’s trying to keep the rusted safe shut, because even he knows what is inside never, ever should come out. And that is because his “brain” has aged so far that it has turned into that moldy, useless pile of 8 yr old sweaty gym wear.
Subsole
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
“I. Declare. Baaaaaaaaaankruuuuuptcyyyy!!!”
Ruckus
@Ben Cisco:
Whiny jackass
I believe we have the new standard description for SFB/TFG.
Whiny jackass
Says everything in 2 words or less. A winner.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Subsole: beetlejuice beetlejuice beetlejuice
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
Unfortunately, NO it did not.
Individually or as a group we are never that lucky.
Subsole
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
Oh now you’ve done it.
Candyman. Candyman. Cand…
Nah. Nope. I ain’t even trying that shit. Not even online.
Subsole
@WaterGirl:
As if the water table needs that leeching into it…
Misterpuff
@Chris T.:
May I suggest:
Alliteration vs Rhyme. A conflict as old as time.
sab
Ponyo the tick bringer, lurking around my bed acting all contrite, pretending she has no idea what she did. ” Ticks, to my bed, two of them, and you wouldn’t even let me check.” And then we chec1ked and there was one. Deer jump into our backyard all the time. They are verty big and very springy. And often there, and also often have ticks.