Republicans in Disarray!

Monday Morning Open Thread: New Session, Same Old Repubs

by Anne Laurie| January 9, 20236:28 am| 162 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Stupidity, Republicans in Disarray!

New Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA) calls all the Republican talk about process a "smokescreen":

"They are going to use the debt ceiling as leverage to take American seniors hostage … This is all about forcing us to make cuts to Social Security … and Medicare." pic.twitter.com/bwKJsVpJw1

— The Recount (@therecount) January 8, 2023

#NowPlaying pic.twitter.com/6Q89DcM3tf

— KAMALA NATION (@KamalaNation) January 7, 2023

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Monday Morning Open Thread: New Session, Same Old RepubsPost + Comments (162)

Late Night Open Thread: You Get the Behavior You Reward

by Anne Laurie| January 7, 20231:30 am| 79 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Stupidity, Republican Venality, Republicans in Disarray!

Fox News is talking about the House Speaker votes like they should've talked about Jan. 6, so we switched the footage for them pic.twitter.com/zsI3pFiZ1D

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) January 6, 2023

That’s a well-known behaviorists’ maxim: If the critter (person, child, animal) you’re working with gets what they want (even if that’s only attention) when they’re misbehaving, they have no reason to stop misbehaving.

BREAKING: Kevin McCarthy elected House speaker after 15 rounds of votes as tensions boil over in standoff that tested GOP's ability to govern. He takes the gavel for new GOP majority eager to confront President Biden. https://t.co/i0r3FfVHxI

— The Associated Press (@AP) January 7, 2023

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Late Night Open Thread: <em>You Get the Behavior You Reward</em>Post + Comments (79)

Friday Evening Open Thread: Split Screens

by Anne Laurie| January 6, 20236:13 pm| 174 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Proud To Be A Democrat!, Republican Stupidity, Republican Venality, Republicans in Disarray!

Day 4: Gonna chill in the office with Hodge between votes.

It’s been a long week! #SpeakerVote #HeyHodge pic.twitter.com/UEHS0nJa7N

— Rep. Jimmy Gomez (@RepJimmyGomez) January 6, 2023

House members gather to mark the second anniversary of January 6th

Only one Republican member was present. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick. pic.twitter.com/j2dLSeACNi

— Kristin Wilson (@kristin__wilson) January 6, 2023

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Friday Evening Open Thread: Split ScreensPost + Comments (174)

Repub Stupidity Open Thread: Tales of the Tantrum Taliban

by Anne Laurie| January 5, 20238:12 pm| 147 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Republicans in Disarray!, Schadenfreude

The magnitude of the dissent against McCarthy — 20 defectors — masks that it only takes a few to hold it up indefinitely. Norman and four of his friends are enough.

75 percent of the Never Kevins could switch their votes to him tomorrow and it still wouldn't be enough. https://t.co/QGZX7af9kH

— Jacob Rubashkin (@JacobRubashkin) January 5, 2023

Tina Nguyen, at Puck, “McCarthy’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold”:

In the weeks leading up to January 3rd, the first day of the new Congress, a small clique of far right hardliners within the House Freedom Caucus—the majority of them freshmen, backbenchers, and members still waiting to be sworn in—were quietly, furiously reading up on the chamber’s arcane rules. They took meetings with the Office of the Parliamentarian, peppering the House’s resident expert with questions about which procedures to abide by on the floor, past precedents to thwart a speakership election, and what sort of motions they could call to grind Kevin McCarthy’s political future into dust. “I guarantee you,” a strategist close to their efforts told me, “that each of those 20 knows vastly more about House procedure than your typical non-leadership, middle-of-the-road member of the Republican conference.”…

On January 3rd, this small, tight-knit posse burst from the shadows. I was standing in a hallway in a Congressional office building, attending a Republican member’s open house, when several Republican lobbyists gasped that Bishop, a congressman entering his second term had, unexpectedly, just voted “no” on McCarthy. By the end of the first round, not one, not ten, but 19 Republicans had voted against McCarthy, fueled by the last-minute addition of several members who were pissed off by McCarthy’s arrogant declaration that morning that he’d “earned” the Speaker title. By the third round of voting on Tuesday, as the anti-Kevin coalition expanded to 20, it was clear that the opposition was driven by more than just political demands. “Borrowing language from the Pro-McCarthy wing, yes, this is not for fame or notoriety, it’s a holy war,” a conservative comms operative familiar with the thinking of the 20 told me. “It’s ideological and principle based objections. It’s about distrusting status quo conservatives.”

The curricula vitae of the group that Don Bacon termed the “Taliban Twenty” are diverse, both politically and biographically: Anna Paulina Luna is a St. Petersburg-based MAGA influencer, Keith Self is a relative moderate (by MAGA terms) from suburban Dallas, Eli Crane is a former Shark Tank entrepreneur who has barely tweeted, the lingua franca of the movement. But the unified opposition of these newcomers, most of whom were elected after 2018, can be subdivided into three broad categories. There are the procedural wonks, who are clamoring for rule changes and reforms to the committee process, like Chip Roy; the MAGA sadists who would simply like to make McCarthy ice fish naked in a Siberian forest in mid-January, like Gaetz; and a larger group who share in the suspicion that McCarthy has no true ideological core…

Selections from a *highly* recommended thread:

pic.twitter.com/iiXdVrdoH4

— MC Frontalot (@mc_frontalot) January 5, 2023

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Repub Stupidity Open Thread: Tales of the Tantrum TalibanPost + Comments (147)

Thursday Evening Open Thread: GOP Civil War of Attrition, Round Ten

by Anne Laurie| January 5, 20235:10 pm| 141 Comments

This post is in: GOP Death Cult, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Republicans in Disarray!

anarchongress. no gods no masters no guys from bakersfield

— Christopher Hooks (@cd_hooks) January 5, 2023

The solution is in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat. https://t.co/jiriFGTUS7

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) January 5, 2023

it is not without downsides, but i would be a liar if i said i was not entertained by the republican party civil war breaking out in the house while we hold both the white house and senate

— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachi) January 5, 2023

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the voting will continue until morale improves

— Jean-Michel Connard (@torriangray) January 4, 2023

Former head of the RNC is enjoying this:

Round #10
Alone again. Naturally. pic.twitter.com/okvH3jzvsZ

— Michael Steele (@MichaelSteele) January 5, 2023

Things I did not know:

We are getting these various camera angles today because C-SPAN is controlling the cameras. Once a Speaker is chosen, they clamp down and have their people control the cameras instead.

C-SPAN always asks to keep control after the first day and is always rejected. https://t.co/q9cqkfDXqQ

— Joe Bishop-Henchman (@jbhenchman) January 3, 2023

https://t.co/tC2Dc4hDxl

— Joe Bishop-Henchman (@jbhenchman) January 4, 2023

The hilarity of the GOP. Two warlords cut some deal most people can't even understand. But since the GOP is now funded by about a dozen billionaires this is huge somehow. Translate this it's basically:no more trying to beat down the kind of freaks who made 2022 a disaster for us. https://t.co/6FBJbA1Gk4

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) January 5, 2023

This quote is simply amazing — I don't think, in any other circumstance, Republicans would accept the suggestion that Biden could handle a national security crisis without congressional oversight! https://t.co/CYbr8bxWOC pic.twitter.com/VOOZdalEPg

— Maggie Astor (@MaggieAstor) January 5, 2023

Think it’s more like: in any other circumstance, Republicans would pretend to believe Biden can’t be trusted, but here their true understanding of the situation is revealed. Should affect how credulously we treat their future pronouncements. https://t.co/MWfhHu2D1Q

— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) January 5, 2023

Which one’s Beavis, which one’s Butthead?

We know who Ro wants and we're not buying pic.twitter.com/zq2olCuYlG

— Jolly Cactus ?? ?? (@cactusinsurance) January 4, 2023

Our failed media pundits:

Kevin McCarthy is an election denier actively working to make the United States an authoritarian nation who spent most of the last decade accommodating the most extreme elements of the GOP

But yes, let's fret about his feelings pic.twitter.com/wq7hKjJiiT

— Fiddler (@cFidd) January 4, 2023

Thursday Evening Open Thread: GOP Civil War of Attrition, Round TenPost + Comments (141)

Late Night Open Thread: Flee, While You Still Can

by Anne Laurie| January 4, 202310:44 pm| 140 Comments

This post is in: Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Stupidity, Republican Venality, Republicans in Disarray!, Grifters Gonna Grift

Rarely have I seen lawmakers flee the Capitol as quickly as the rush right after the House gaveled out tonight. pic.twitter.com/ZwStJZN7wP

— Matt Laslo (@MattLaslo) January 5, 2023

BREAKING: House Republicans just barely got enough votes to adjourn for the night. Supposedly Kevin wants to continue negotiations, but none of us should be fooled: he won’t have the votes tomorrow. He won’t have the votes next week. Kevin McCarthy will never have the votes.

— Victor Shi (@Victorshi2020) January 5, 2023

Fact: a majority of the people voting for Speaker of the House have now voted for Hakeem Jeffries six times.

— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) January 4, 2023

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Kevin McCarthy: “I want to delay the vote for two years when cooler heads prevail and Democrats retake the House.”

— Captain Obvious (@TheFungi669) January 5, 2023

Alexandra Petri, at the Washington Post, remains a national treasure:

… Honestly, we are a little confused you are taking this so poorly. This is like electing a bunch of clowns to office and being disappointed when they put on a magnificent clown show for you. Here is precisely the clown show you ordered! You shouldn’t be ashamed. You should be applauding. It is like ordering a decorative salad made entirely from Legos and being mad that you can’t eat it. It is like voting for Lauren Boebert and then becoming upset that a legislature that contains her is not productively working for the American people.

I’m sorry, what did you think you were getting? Did you really say to yourself, when you voted for Matt Gaetz, “Here is a man who is going to build coalitions and pass sensible, bipartisan legislation that will improve our lives?” No! You said, “I’m voting for Gaetz!”

Do you realize that this party contains Marjorie Taylor Greene? Actually, in this particular speaker scenario, Greene is the middle-of-the-road institutionalist, a sentence that is as surprising to us as it is to you! When you are counting on Greene as one of the founding blocks of your coalition, the writing is on the wall.

We thought you were serious about just electing people to be squeaky wheels, and specifically squeaky wheels that keep setting off the House metal detector because they are armed with guns for no clear reason. We said to ourselves, “If they wanted to move legislative priorities through Congress in a functional way, they knew whom they ought to have voted for: not us! We came here to make pointless noise and pass nothing, and we are never going to be out of noise!”…

To those few of you who voted for a Republican in a swing district who made some wild claim about governing or enacting any piece of legislation, we say, “Whoops! Next time, look at the whole party you’re putting into power when you cast your vote! Because we have a QAnon caucus now!”

Our party is always yelling that Washington is a broken, dysfunctional mess. What is embarrassing is that you thought we meant we were going to govern to change that. What is embarrassing is that you thought we were going to govern at all.

Politico reporter:

Some Rs also secretly meeting/talking to Dems BUT zero sign yet that Dems are alarmed enough to bail out GOP

Any talk of power-sharing/etc are STILL not serious at this point

— Sarah Ferris (@sarahnferris) January 4, 2023

DO NOT OVERLOOK:

It’s remarkable how the national press has essentially ignored what to me seems a really big deal: the Trumpiest Republicans in Congress are defying Trump & he isn’t making them pay a price

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) January 4, 2023

To become Speaker Kevin McCarthy needs the guy who nearly got him & the rest of Congress killed. If he doesn’t become Speaker McCarthy no longer needs the guy who nearly got him killed & could testify about January 6

Trump is aware of that. I bet that’s why he’s stuck w McCarthy

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) January 4, 2023

I assume no such thing. His spine is irrelevant. He’s resisted testifying mostly bc of ambition. When his dream is dead he could save time/money by complying w subpoenas, & in the process screw the guy who nearly killed him

None of it’s about principlehttps://t.co/85GobPctPn

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) January 4, 2023

And he’s discovered reporters will talk to him about this issue after the mar-a-lago press avail was pretty quiet. https://t.co/NpBdcP80Xx

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 4, 2023

MAGAt grifters smell blood:

Charlie Kirk calls on Donald Trump to broker a Speaker of the House deal: “Some people would say, well, Charlie, if he's not able to make the deal it will make him look bad. Well, look, at some point, you gotta take some risk.”https://t.co/LspoGHiPJx pic.twitter.com/MfGsmELOlw

— Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) January 4, 2023

Late Night Open Thread: <em>Flee, While You Still Can</em>Post + Comments (140)

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Democrats Do It Better

by Anne Laurie| January 4, 20238:07 am| 134 Comments

This post is in: NANCY SMASH!, Open Threads, President Biden, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republicans in Disarray!

It was my privilege today to gavel out the end of the 117th Congress — an extraordinarily productive session #ForThePeople.

I look forward to continuing to serve the people of San Francisco in the 118th Congress and will share more on this account. pic.twitter.com/IExmFl2i0H

— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) January 3, 2023

Jeffries: We ready. They ain’t. ?? pic.twitter.com/vbRE6ioz49

— Renee (@PettyLupone) January 4, 2023

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Powerful: Nancy Pelosi votes Hakeem Jeffries for Speaker of the House and receives a standing ovation. pic.twitter.com/167LctqFE9

— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) January 3, 2023

.@RepJeffries: "Today for the first time in 100 years, the House of Representatives failed to organize on opening day. It's a sad day for the House of Representatives as an institution. It's a sad day for democracy. It's a sad day for the American people." #118thCongress pic.twitter.com/vUiowJUde4

— CSPAN (@cspan) January 4, 2023

Brooklyn Congressman Hakeem Jeffries got more votes for speaker than Republican Kevin McCarthy in Tuesday's historic tally. https://t.co/paMg8iUB2b

— CBS New York (@CBSNewYork) January 4, 2023

It is very apparent that @GOPLeader was cutting class these past few years as @SpeakerPelosi taught her MasterClass on Vote Whipping, Vote Counting, and Leading!

— Jaime Harrison, DNC Chair (@harrisonjaime) January 3, 2023

This is throwing it into relief but in a few years people will regain some historical perspective and understand that what Pelosi did and how she did it in the last Congress is one of the great feats in history.

— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) January 3, 2023

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi's legacy lives on. Cheryl Johnson, the woman she assigned Clerk of the House of Representatives, is in charge until reckless #GOP elects insurrection-friendly Kevin McCarthy, or David Duke w/o the baggage, Steve Scalise.#TheReidOut #SpeakerJeffries https://t.co/uVJb1OCREx

— dogonvillage (@dogonvillage) January 4, 2023

What are you supposed to do when one of your country's parties considers a nonfunctional federal government a good thing? https://t.co/6y7o8Bk8GI

— chatham harrison is tending his garden (@chathamharrison) January 3, 2023

It's not like they intend to govern anyway

— chatham harrison is tending his garden (@chathamharrison) January 3, 2023

Meanwhile, the MAGAts are furious at Mitch McConnell for… not turning down the money that will repair their tie to the outside world, money the Repubs never tried offering when they had the power:

Biden and McConnell, standing side by side at a dilapidated bridge they are promising to fix, is likely to be a sharp contrast to the @HouseGOP chaos – and just what the Biden admin wants more of in months to come @steveholland1 @TrevorNews https://t.co/DkGmOCkvTc

— Heather Timmons (@HeathaT) January 4, 2023

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

White supremacy is terrorism.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

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

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Everybody saw this coming.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

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

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Monday Morning Open Thread: New Session, Same Old Repubs

Late Night Open Thread: You Get the Behavior You Reward

Friday Evening Open Thread: Split Screens

Repub Stupidity Open Thread: Tales of the Tantrum Taliban

Thursday Evening Open Thread: GOP Civil War of Attrition, Round Ten

Late Night Open Thread: Flee, While You Still Can

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Democrats Do It Better