Multiple House Republicans are telling us the resolution to temporarily empower Speaker Pro-Tem Patrick McHenry “is dead.” Won’t come to the floor for a vote
Rep Jim Jordan (R-OH) will plow ahead and try to change the minds of the 22 (so far) defectors
They’re nowhere
— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) October 19, 2023
Apparently, a cunning plan was hammered out to let McHenry keep the gavel (and his personal tiny chair) until the next Congress convenes in January — with the understanding that Jim Jordan would be the ‘speaker designee’ once that happened. For some reason, this attempt to placate Jordan by giving him everything he wants did not appeal to the Republicans who have made it very clear that they don’t want Jim Jordan as Speaker!
INSIDE THE JORDAN MEETING — Every Republican who met with Jordan today told him they would not back his candidacy for House speaker, according to multiple sources in the room.
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) October 19, 2023
Per a source in the room, McCarthy screamed at Matt Gaetz to sit down when he went to the mics, with the source saying Rep. Bost “almost lunging at him.”
— Juliegrace Brufke (@juliegraceb) October 19, 2023
He seemed irritated as he left his meeting to return to his office
— Mica Soellner (@MicaSoellnerDC) October 19, 2023
GOP erupts in closed-door meeting after House speaker stalemate https://t.co/q1N7x3mCJz
— Juliegrace Brufke (@juliegraceb) October 19, 2023
Per Axios:
Rep. Jim Jordan’s (R-Ohio) endorsement of a plan to empower Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) until January has set off a furious reaction among House conservatives.
Why it matters: The McHenry resolution — which Jordan backed Thursday after it became clear he was bleeding GOP support ahead of a planned third ballot — will require support from Democrats in order to alleviate the speaker crisis that has paralyzed Congress for more than two weeks.
Behind the scenes: Reps. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.), Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas), Lance Gooden (R-Texas) and Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) said in a closed-door GOP conference that Jordan should step aside, according to a source in the room…
What they’re saying: Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), an influential conservative running for Senate, called the escape hatch an “historic betrayal” and “the biggest ‘F you’ to Republican voters.”
– “We don’t deserve the majority,” Banks told reporters, predicting that “more than half of Republicans” would oppose the resolution.
– Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) called Jordan’s decision “disappointing” and vowed to vote against the resolution.
– Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), a Jordan supporter who led the charge to oust McCarthy, called the plan a “constitutional desecration” and vowed to “do everything possible to stop it.”
– Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), chair of the largest bloc of House conservatives, also opposes the resolution: “We need to work every day until we get a speaker,” he told reporters…
*Every* clown wants their fifteen minutes in the spotlight!
Multiple sources tell me some of the holdouts are refusing to meet with Jordan or take his calls.
— Juliegrace Brufke (@juliegraceb) October 19, 2023
I'll ask again- who is "leadership?" Who is making decisions for the House Republican conference? I mean this literally, which specific people? It is an extremely important question and utterly opaque right now https://t.co/XbVAz0lKQn
— Aaron Fritschner (@Fritschner) October 19, 2023
I think we've just seen what happens when Republicans try to build a coalition.
— Ted (@trom771) October 19, 2023
Also too, the MAGAt arseholes who keep voting for these grifters, clowns, and mooks!
Raven
Buncha punks
satby
None so pious as the reformed whore, or so I’ve heard.
(AL will get this)
Phylllis
You hate to see it. Narrator: No she doesn’t.
Scout211
Joe Walsh makes sense. Huh.
RePosting link from downstairs:
Jordan had planned to meet with the 22 holdouts but only a “handful” showed up.
It was not a win for Gym Jordan.
hueyplong
We’ve been calling them fascists, but I think they might just be a bunch of nihilists, Donny. There’s nothing to be afraid of.
MattF
Well, gosh. All Jordan did was encourage death threats towards the people who opposed him. When did that become a no-no??
prostratedragon
Just, wonderful! It has seemed to me in recent weeks that these outer limit fools have greatly underestimated the level of hatred against themselves that they’ve been inciting in people whom they clearly think are muppets.
Righteous Hazard
The throughline is always the traitor trump
Delk
So, the republicans do not want to allow a Democrat-backed coalition government. Ever. Yet it is the Democrats fault for not working with the republicans.
dexwood
@hueyplong: Or, just a bunch of power drunk assholes.
Martin
Ok, let’s all be honest here – can anyone realistically describe a path out of this that doesn’t involve actual violence? I don’t think it’s a fluke Jordan holdouts were getting threatening calls.
cain
I was expecting Joe Walsh to blame the Democratic Party.
The centrist Dems need to stay out of this whole mess. Any participation by us will get the press to label this as a bipartisan shit show.
As Martin said in one of the previous threads – it’s all performative until that deadline happens and people are out of work and the govt starts getting all shuddering and rocky. Everyone is going to look to the House GOP for direction and they are going to choke because the minority wants a shitshow. They don’t give a fuck. So do the GOP voters.
Hopefully, this will kill MAGA and we can finally get strong enough majorities next election to get this country back on the right path.
Shalimar
Did Joe Walsh ever pay his back child support? If so, I might reluctantly even like him at this point.
VeniceRiley
🍿
I know, it’s bad. Mostly because a huge percentage of GOP voters think Dems abort full term babies for fun sexy devil adrenochrome drinking sex traffic parties; SO doing anything with Democrats is off the table even if you know its bullsh**
But POPCORN! No one is liked or respected by their entire caucus.
artem1s
???? ‘scuse me???? did anyone bother to ask the Democrats if they had any interest in this McHenry plan? What exactly will they get out of it? How is it any different than the McCarthy speakership plan they’ve already rejected? The atrophy of reasoning brain cells in both the GOP and MSM is beyond belief.
prostratedragon
And speaking of wonders, “brother” Harlan Crow it is now?!
Frankensteinbeck
Who’s to blame for the Republican Party? Their voters, who when a black man was elected president swore that they would never compromise, never allow anything but total war against Democrats ever again.
WaterGirl
Joe Walsh. Blind squirrel?
cain
@Frankensteinbeck:
This whole thing started in the late 90s with Gingrich. The swing into authoritarian bullshit started then. Just remember what a clown show the GOP House was back during Bush years as well. Even Bush couldn’t do anything with those people.
bbleh
@MattF: ohh nononono, he reportedly said in the meeting that he had “nothing to do with it.” And after all, in Washington one’s word is one’s bond, and that’s certainly true of Republicans!
I can imagine myself becoming stone-cold infuriated if he stood there and lied to my face, knowing that I knew it. I guess it’s the Nazi way, but it’s sure not a good way to convince someone to vote for you.
And btw, as to McHenry as sorta-Speaker-pro-tem-plus, I’ve seen rumor reported that he is and would have been Jordan’s sock-puppet, which if true I’m sure many of the Republicans adamantly opposed to the idea knew perfectly well.
Anoniminous
Jordan is such a fuck-up. Twits saying he isn’t telling GOP House members if there is going to be a vote tonight.
HumboldtBlue
@WaterGirl:
That smarmy fuck has been playing the “we’ve lost the real GOP with Trump” card since 2016.
piratedan
@MattF: as this has been reported, has any Hill stenographer asked him about it so he can give the perfunctory non-denial denial?
I still think we have a ways to go as we watch those with loftier ambitions attempt to seek the brass ring. Suspect that there’s going to be others lining up, Emmer, Stefanik, and quite possibly a few more as some look to draw into an inside straight politically.
smith
@cain: I agree — Gingrich was the one who made scorched-earth politics into the hallmark of the GQP.
cain
@artem1s: I think in one of the other threads it was stated that the Dems were against this.
I think part of the whole give McHenry powers till January is that it was going to switch to Jordan without a vote. WTF..
Scout211
More on the McHenry plan, which it appears is dead. NBC News
japa21
@WaterGirl:
Walsh is still a conservative but has actually apologized for his days as a flame thrower
WaterGirl
@Anoniminous:
Why the hell is it up to Jordan? I second the “who the hell is the Republican leadership” right now?
Jeffro
@WaterGirl: I have to say, for the past several years and especially since J6 he’s been pretty spot-on most days and on most issues.
gets right to the point, too: defeating MAGA must be this country’s #1 priority
hueyplong
@Scout211: That kind of tells me Jordan isn’t the next name on McCarthy’s list. Kind of makes you wonder who is.
Anoniminous
@japa21:
Until he “apologizes” by committing seppuku he can GFH.
Odie Hugh Manatee
I wonder what would have happened at their meeting if open carry was allowed…lol! I am loving the fact that pissed off Republicans revealed how Hannity puts his thumb on the scale to influence the House (and probably Senate) Republicans to push them to do what he wants them to do. Or else…
Hannity was trying to do Gym Jordan a solid so he would have additional influence on his tenure as speaker and continued control of the cowed Republicans in office. Hannity should be called out by the press but we all know that they are too busy worrying about how old Biden is. Fox Nooz is a billionaire’s corrupt influence operation and should be put out of business. It’s a threat to peace, domestic tranquility and life itself.
cain
The canoodling lady, lover of Beetlejuice from Colorado is enraged.
https://www.rawstory.com/lauren-boebert-jim-jordan/
“‘I will not sit back and watch’: Boebert threatens to derail GOP ‘plan’ for speaker”
We know lady – that’s why you’re in trouble to begin with.
WaterGirl
@japa21: Really? I had no idea.
hueyplong
@cain: In her defense, she does sort of play it so that others can sit back and watch.
Brachiator
This should be brought up whenever some media nitwit asks why the Democrats don’t try for more bipartisanship.
Frankensteinbeck
@WaterGirl:
Presumably it’s up to McHenry, and McHenry’s policy is to let the front runner decide whether to call an official vote. It’s sounding like McHenry wants his position to hold as little power as possible, which would make that strategy sensible.
Tony Jay
You read about the last years of Rome. Petty nobodies manoeuvring around in the ruins of a once great state wheeling and dealing and putting knives in the backs of anyone who stood between them and their brief period as Imperator Augustus Caesar, Dominus of Sweet FA. You’d wonder – why did they bother? But you weren’t there, so you can’t possibly understand their motivations.
Turns out, they were all just Republicans. Take that, Caesar! Brutus won in the end.
Shalimar
@Jeffro: That is my impression of Walsh too. He’s still fairly conservative. I don’t agree with him on a lot of things. But I do agree on how awful Republicans are. And he has been human about everything else too for a long time now.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
Poor Ruprecht…whose he gonna find to put the corks on the ends of his forks if this keeps up?
Chetan Murthy
@WaterGirl: @HumboldtBlue: On the one hand, Walsh has been a stalwart anti-Trumper, and has pretty harshly excoriated the GrOPers. On the other hand, he’s no Jennifer Rubin. He’s not even a Tom Nichols. So he’s got a long, long, long way to go, before I’ll think nice thoughts about him. That said, … Hitler … Hell …. kind word in the House of Commons.
It is what it is.
hueyplong
Had they “saved” him, wouldn’t McCarthy’s continued speakership have been a “Democrat-backed coalition government?” So it’s Dems’ fault that McCarthy was ousted, but taking their help would never be ok. No wonder they can’t govern. They can’t finish a thought without contradicting themselves.
WaterGirl
Hot off the presses:
cain
@hueyplong:
Indeed. She derailed things then too and certainly made people feel uncomfortable. So I guess this threat is real and forthcoming.
Geminid
I bet those people are looking forward to the weekend. Maybe they’ll try one more vote tomorrow. Then they might trample each other running for the exits.
Mai Naem mobile
I guarantee you none of these GOP congress critters who’ve been threatened by Jordan and his snakes didn’t say anything when Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss were getting threats. I bet these same people never said anything when Dem congress people were getting death threats and still holding townhalls when the ACA was being passed. I have empathy here, but just like everything else, they always pooh pooh it until it affects them personally.
Chetan Murthy
@Tony Jay: I’m one who heard the “how many times a week do you think about Rome?” question and guffawed. OTOH, I do think about it, b/c of the parallels between the end of the Roman Republic (and rise of Empire) and our time. Edward Watt’s _Mortal Republic_ lays out the case pretty clearly that the mechanisms of compromise broke down, as the plebs demanded more, and the patricians were unwilling to part with their wealth. That led to civil wars and eventually to dictatorship and Empire. B/c the mechanisms of -governing- froze up completely. When I read that the GrOPers refuse to compromise with the Dems, when their margin is … five goddamn votes, I hear echoes of those two-millennia-old struggles.
MattF
@Brachiator: Right. ‘Bipartisanship’, ‘compromise’, etc., are simply not part of the Republican behavioral repertoire. It’s not that they won’t, it’s that they don’t actually know what those words mean.
Scout211
My goodness, these Republicans are all over the place. NBC News
Yes Kevin, I agree you should be listening to the President.
Bill Arnold
Question: Does the Hastert Rule apply to the current House under pro-tem leadership?
I.e. if a potential vote in question is related to electing a new speaker, could it be put up for a vote if it would pass with votes from Democratic Party house members?
cain
@WaterGirl:
The Last Passion of Jordan.
Tony Jay
Just agree that every GOP Representative gets a chance to be Speaker for a month. Draw the names from a hat and nobody gets to go twice. Couldn’t be worse for them than watching Gym Jordan snuffling around in circles trying to remember where he buried his plan to become America’s Speaker.
cain
@Tony Jay:
Let Fox News readers pick their favorite. Then blame Dems when it doesn’t work out. Everyone wins.
Tony Jay
@Chetan Murthy:
Yup. It’s how it happens. Everything compresses down to a point where radical change is absolutely vital, but also absolutely impossible for the people with the power to enact change to contemplate.
America isn’t there yet. The UK pretty much is, but you lot still have the advantage of time.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: That vote should be the end of Jordan. Then they’ll have the weekend to figure out who’s next. I guess it possible they can come up with someone who can get to 217 votes.
Maybe they’ll come up with three, and schedule votes on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The three candidates could play rock-paper-scissors to determine who goes first. They really need to expedite this process.
Frankensteinbeck
@Bill Arnold:
Since the Hastert Rule existed nowhere except in Boehner, Ryan, and McCarthy’s minds and represented only what they felt like bringing to a vote, the answer is ‘Ask McHenry’.
Chetan Murthy
@Tony Jay: Tony, I see what’s happening in the UK, and I’m horrified. It’s clear that the wealthy simply won’t relinquish even a single copper, not one, not one. Appalling.
Geminid
@Bill Arnold: The Hastert Rule is a Republican Caucus Rule, not a House Rule.
smith
@Bill Arnold: The alternative would be to never hold a vote for Speaker as long as a situation like the current one holds. I don’t see that as a stable solution, though it’s not far off from the one floated today about just letting McHenry act as if he had Speaker powers without any vote to that effect.
Uncle Cosmo
FTFY. And you’re very welcome! :^D
BlueGuitarist
3 swing state Biden district reps embarrassed themselves by voting for Jordan –
PA-01 Brian Fitzpatrick,
AZ-01 David Schweikert, and
AZ-06 Juan Ciscomani.
These congressional districts overlap multiple down ballot swing districts crucial for control of the state legislatures, and at the top of the ticket these are key states for the Electoral College and US Senate.
These will be crucial places to get out the vote next year.
Bill Arnold
@hueyplong:
Why not both? (bold mine. And we’re mostly not talking about Republican intellectuals.)
Fascism and cowardice (Paul StJohn Mackintosh)
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
FTFY, WG
WaterGirl
@cain: I’m sure that cross he is carrying is getting pretty heavy!
piratedan
@BlueGuitarist:
Ciscomani has a rematch with Ms. Engel, where he defeated her narrowly on a character campaign and portraying himself as a moderate GOP family man while serving as one of Gov. Ducey’s henchmen.
https://blogforarizona.net/engel-campaign-to-voters-juan-ciscomani-is-among-the-endangered-house-republicans-in-the-2024-cycle/
Now, he has a record and I suspect it will be another tight race. Especially so if Engel is able to hang Trump around his neck.
Schweikert keeps eeking out wins against pretty solid campaigners, but it’s hard to say if we can finally pick him off this time. Slimy SOB has even been convicted of campaign fraud and the GOP still got his ass back in office.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: Appreciate your stepping up to help me out! :-)
M31
So it’s like the Prisoners’ Dilemma, but also Catch-22, is that right?
And Monty Hall opens every door and it’s a pile of goat shit no matter what?
“it’s the best catch there is”
Jay
https://nitter.net/MuellerSheWrote/status/1715075662762140026#m
Detroit News is subscription only.
Anoniminous
@WaterGirl:
He’s their nominee so he gets to call the shots.
WaterGirl
@Anoniminous: no wonder he’s fighting so hard to keep the Nominee status, even though there is no hope.
WaterGirl
@Jay: I have that in the next thread, too, but I postponed it because this one went up later than expected.
Gvg
@Chetan Murthy: it has seemed to me he has made more sense the longer he has been exiled from the Republican power. At first he was just anti Trump, but the longer he has been “away” the more he seems to see. I think he is deprograming. Still conservative as you say, but I guess he is hanging out with saner people or something and not marinating in toxic kookiness.
Jay
@WaterGirl:
Srry, did not mean to bigfoot, yeti.
Redshift
@Mai Naem mobile:
Well, yeah – they’re not against bullying and death threats, they’re just against being in the receiving end of bullying and death threats.
C Stars
@M31: I was going to say the Jerry Springer Show of politics, with all the lunging and the shouting and the cheating.
Martin
@WaterGirl: Because McHenry decided it was up to Jordan.
There really should be a rule here where the House will stay in session until a speaker is chosen. The house has a room full of cots. I’m sure they have list of approved pizza vendors.
WaterGirl
@Jay: Oh, no, just didn’t want you to think I was stealing from you without attribution. :-)
If we are going to expect commenters to be able to see the future, we are going to have a lot fewer commenters!
M31
@C Stars:
it’s the shrieking women and calm cat meme only the cat is Nancy Pelosi
“OMG IT’S SO HARD TO MANAGE A SLIM HOUSE MAJORITY”
BlueGuitarist
@piratedan:
do you have any insight on the down ballot candidates, in LD 2,4,9,13, 16,17?
Laura Terech in LD 4 and Lorena Austin in 9 were 2 of the successful down ballot super swing district candidates Balloon-Juice supported last year.
zhena gogolia
@cain: lol!
eversor
@Frankensteinbeck:
Nah they screwed the pooch when they invited in Christianity and Goldwater of all people called them on that. This has all just been the same religious shit show rolling on since then ending exactly where Goldwater said it would.
Invite in the Christians and you get this. They are going to have to throw the Church out of their party and work against it to gain any sort of sanity but if they do that they won’t win.
At the end of the day we are going to have a democracy with freedom and rights or we are going to have Christianity. Pick your side now.
TriassicSands
It would appear that there is no hope, and hatred of Jordan makes his rejection seem inevitable. But, one should never ignore the ability of Republicans to fold. It does seem like there are at least enough Republicans to sustain this to the bitter end. However, I would never bet on anything positive happening that depended on the courage and integrity of Republicans.
As for Jordan’s “cross” getting heavy, he’s a former two-time NCAA DI national wrestling champion and is probably as fit as anyone in the House. Plus, he’s a fanatic. He may quit when he is certain there is no longer any chance, but I doubt if anything like physical exhaustion will be involved. And how can a brain with only a half dozen working cells get tired?
Ideally, if they do hold another vote tomorrow, he will get even fewer votes than he did the second time. In some ways, although I would like him to be gone permanently from consideration, a few more votes with Jordan getting fewer votes each time would be entertaining. But not for him. Total humiliation for Jordan would be the best outcome for the rest of the world. And the more inept the Republicans look, the better.
Frankensteinbeck
@eversor:
This is incredibly ahistorical. You know that, right? Like, Christianity was here from 1500 years before day one. Both parties had already invited it in. It was always involved at some level in all the governments whose traditions ours is based on for that time. Christianity has a major hold in the Democratic Party, which is not having the same problems.
If you mean specifically American White Evangelical Protestant Christianity, whose rising involvement in modern American politics and its effects on the Republican Party can be tracked, say that. If you mean Mormons or Catholics, say that, but their histories have a different track and are much more complicated. Only white evangelicals are really consistent.
Outside of those three you have a gigantic sea of Christianity that is not politically aligned with the Republican Party and has been on both the good and bad sides of every conflict in the US’s history.
Chetan Murthy
@Gvg: 100% agree. I can remember when Jen Rubin was a Mittbot.
Subsole
@hueyplong:
Oh no, they are assuredly fascists.
This right here, this utter goatfuck of a clownshow? This is what happens when you put fascists in charge, because this is the caliber of people drawn to fascist rule. Gaze deep into Gaetz’s eyes, and you will see Goering looking back at you.
Put it this way: Rush Limbaugh is how fascists triumph. He is also how their regime ends up as a thin film of incredibly ‘hot’ ash settling daintily on the suddenly-tropical tides of Omura Bay.
hueyplong
@Subsole: Looks like I picked a bad day to quote The Big Lebowski for effect after a GOP flop.
Ksmiami
Either the current Republican Party dies, or America does.
Subsole
@Martin:
Ask if I care.
20 years we’ve suffered these assholes. Damn near a quarter of a century these blood-drunk, spittle-flecked, hamfisted, two-faced doubletalking cravens have been reeling around the nation scattering burning coals on everything. Every single delight my home holds, these fuckers have tried to incinerate. And then sat there bitching at us because we weren’t flapping our arms hard enough to spare them the smell of smoke.
I don’t give a shit if they hurt each other. They spend all their time shrieking about Civil War 2 and Liberal Hunting Permits. They want a little taste of the real deal? Great. Maybe sticking themselves in the gut with their own sword will have a salubrious effect on their capacity to perceive what is.
It’s time for America to stop babying these people.
When you sow fire, you reap ashes.
Fuckem.
Subsole
@prostratedragon:
I am so thoroughly nauseated I genuinely don’t know what to say.
Subsole
@hueyplong:
Well, that’s just, like, your opinion, man…
There is never a bad day to quote The Dude. Long may he abide.
Ken
From one of the linked articles, another profile in courage:
piratedan
@BlueGuitarist: the link I provided in my earlier response does go into more granular information on the state lege races (I believe there’s a candidate profile on the LD-2 candidate on the main page). I would encourage you to bookmark it and check in on it (just like I do) for AZ specific information.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Subsole: You have provoked me to search out efgoldman. I encountered him at Obsidian Wings. I wish I had been here at BJ sooner.
ETA P. S., I make it 30 years, dating from the odious little butterball Newt.
Subsole
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
Fair. A third of a century. At least.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Subsole: just to be clear, I share your sentiments.
C Stars
@M31: that is a meme for our times. Someone needs to shop Gym’s head on the lipstick lady.
Llelldorin
@Chetan Murthy: Back when a lot of conservative Democrats were switching to the Republicans, “I used to be a liberal Democrat, but now that I’ve switched parties I’ve gotten very angry about Chappaquiddick” was something of a meme — people switching parties over bussing or taxes or whatever would suddenly adopt every last Republican shibboleth.
We seem to be seeing the opposite now — people who leave the Republicans over Trump, then start realizing that a LOT of what they used to be concerned about was basically horseshit.