House Dem leader: ‘Informal’ discussions underway on speakership mess https://t.co/eRaqRRDnq0
— POLITICO (@politico) October 15, 2023
This piece is sketchy, even by the low standards of Tiger Beat on the Potomac, but… “House Dem leader: ‘Informal’ discussions underway on speakership mess”:
Talks of a possible bipartisan solution to the House Speaker standoff that has created chaos in the Republican caucus are underway, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Sunday.
“There are informal conversations that have been underway. When we get back to Washington tomorrow, it’s important to begin to formalize those discussions,” the New York Democrat said during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
When asked what House Democrats might be asking for a deal with House Republicans, Jeffries said his caucus wants “to ensure that votes are taken on bills that have substantial Democratic support and substantial Republican support so that the extremists aren’t able to dictate the agenda.”…
As is customary, all 212 House Democrats have been voting for Jeffries, their leader, for the speakership job. But some centrist Democrats have signaled that they’d be open to making a deal with Republicans, though it’s unclear what that deal would look like.
The goal for Democrats, Jeffries said Sunday, is to ensure that “extremists” don’t run everything.
“The current rules of the House have facilitated a handful of Republicans being able to determine what gets voted on in the House of Representatives and that undermines the interests of the American people. We can change the rules to facilitate bipartisanship and that should be the starting point of our conversation,” he said.
Per (actual) Rep. Jeff Jackson (D), of North Carolina:
… As I write this, there’s some talk that Jordan may just give it a shot anyway, call a floor vote when we come back next week, and kick off another series of speaker votes like the experience from January that we all remember so fondly.
There’s also talk that, if he truly can’t see a path, he’ll step aside. But no one knows who else would have a better shot than McCarthy, Scalise, and Jordan.
Which brings us to the exotic scenarios.
Well Jeff, it only takes five Republicans voting with all the Democrats to elect Hakeem Jeffries as speaker.
That’s true, but those five Republicans would be immediately kicked out of their party and become the target of an avalanche of foaming, seething hatred by members of their former party that would be difficult to overstate. So that feels unlikely.
Ok then, what if a handful of Democrats join all the Republicans to elect a speaker they can both tolerate?This is worth exploring. While it still feels exotic, it’s at least plausible. And frankly, the longer this piano continues to crash down the stairs, the more plausible it becomes.
But imagine, for a moment, that you are running for Speaker. You’re down, say, 10 votes in your own party. So you say to your party, “Hey everyone, I appreciate the support. Looks like we’re almost there. I’m just going to head over to the other party real quick and get the rest of the votes I need.”
Well… suddenly, you’re not down 10 votes anymore. Now you’re down dozens and dozens because you just infuriated your whole party.
This is why McCarthy knew he couldn’t even ask the minority party for some votes. As soon as his party heard about it, he’d be toast. For those saying, “Democrats could have saved him,” my sense is that they are underestimating how massively unpopular that plan would have been within Republican ranks, and how that would have undercut whatever support had come from Democrats.
Also – small note – the government is currently set to shut down in 34 days…
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