Will Kevin McCarthy become Speaker?

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Not a bad strategy, really. Democrats have passed many major bills by progressives caving to the mainstream. They negotiate and don't follow through on their threats. But a neutered bill in the right direction is better than no movement at all. Biden's legislative victories (and democrat performance in the midterms) may have been much more severe if democrats refused to cave into the Manchins and passed NO bill instead of simply a not-as-good one.

I think they more see it as twice a single bill got split into 2 to appease the progressives and both times the progressive favored bill went nowhere or got watered down to near nothing. As far is it overall being wins for the democrats, the freedom caucus doesn’t give a fuck about the republican party. All they care about is freedom caucus wins. They are the true RINOs.

 

[shadow puppet]

A few days old but Rudnick's always good for a chuckle.

 

[GermanSuplex]

I think they more see it as twice a single bill got split into 2 to appease the progressives and both times the progressive favored bill went nowhere or got watered down to near nothing. As far is it overall being wins for the democrats, the freedom caucus doesn’t give a fuck about the republican party. All they care about is freedom caucus wins. They are the true RINOs.

I just saw a user comment on Breitbart, of all places, that really spun things in a different light for me... it explains why McCarthy may have agreed to the lower the threshold from 5 to 1, and now that I think about it, it may not be as bad for McCarthy as I've thought... the 1 person vote is all about obstruction. Why? Because how can you remove the Speaker without 5 or 10 people even agreeing for a vote? Lowering the threshold to one for certain things may make sense, especially in a more functional government, but as it is, its nothing more than a way to make it easy to grandstand and obstruct.

 

[lizkat]

That pair of doofuses Gaetz and Boebert are going to discover they're practically shunned by time the House is sworn in and gets down to business. They might even be up against some arcane House rule that can be deployed to foil their probable intent to rise and challenge McCarthy's grasp on the gavel every day the House is in session.

McCarthy will be looking to a trusted aide to identify every possible rule that could be used to pay that pair back for their behavior during the vote for a Speaker whose party arrived to open a new Congress with such a slim majority. I bet John Boehner might even phone him up with a few suggestions in between double scotches or whatever JB drinks these days. Both Ryan and Boehner have surely been on the phone w/ McCarthy this week.

It's one thing to oust a Speaker and another to haze a probable incoming one to the extent this is happening. What the hard right has done to the GOP is being framed by the perpetrators as sincere efforts to improve the status of rank and file members (even on both sides of the aisle). Sure has a nice ring to it.

What they're actually doing is making the GOP look incompetent. And the holdouts are fine with that too. What the party is, is still in thrall to the MAGA crowd that keeps Donald Trump in the wings. This holdout gig just makes that old circus and the one the hard right of the 118th Congress are planning seem a continuation of Trump's administration. Trump can dig that, no matter what he tweets about how it's time to back Kevin McCarthy. He's already been making posts that speak to a continuity between hs prior term in office and his next one, as though he were still president and 2024 would be his third election to the WH.

Today is the second anniversary of the 1/6 insurrection. So many of the players on the stage right now belong in the slam for their support of Trmp's effort to overthrow Biden's election, and yet they are still walking around "representing" millions of Americans who did not support that attack on the Capitol or the intent to defraud Biden of his victory.

Some days I can't decide if it's sickening or just surreal. Watching the once affable but now turned weasel McCarthy get the gavel won't change any of that for me, even if there's a part of me outraged that any congresscritters would put a Speaker nominee through this extortionate maneuver to convert minority wishes into power to disrupt the entire Congress.

 

[Roller]

That pair of doofuses Gaetz and Boebert are going to discover they're practically shunned by time the House is sworn in and gets down to business. They might even be up against some arcane House rule that can be deployed to foil their probable intent to rise and challenge McCarthy's grasp on the gavel every day the House is in session.

McCarthy will be looking to a trusted aide to identify every possible rule that could be used to pay that pair back for their behavior during the vote for a Speaker whose party arrived to open a new Congress with such a slim majority. I bet John Boehner might even phone him up with a few suggestions in between double scotches or whatever JB drinks these days. Both Ryan and Boehner have surely been on the phone w/ McCarthy this week.

It's one thing to oust a Speaker and another to haze a probable incoming one to the extent this is happening. What the hard right has done to the GOP is being framed by the perpetrators as sincere efforts to improve the status of rank and file members (even on both sides of the aisle). Sure has a nice ring to it.

What they're actually doing is making the GOP look incompetent. And the holdouts are fine with that too. What the party is, is still in thrall to the MAGA crowd that keeps Donald Trump in the wings. This holdout gig just makes that old circus and the one the hard right of the 118th Congress are planning seem a continuation of Trump's administration. Trump can dig that, no matter what he tweets about how it's time to back Kevin McCarthy. He's already been making posts that speak to a continuity between hs prior term in office and his next one, as though he were still president and 2024 would be his third election to the WH.

Today is the second anniversary of the 1/6 insurrection. So many of the players on the stage right now belong in the slam for their support of Trmp's effort to overthrow Biden's election, and yet they are still walking around "representing" millions of Americans who did not support that attack on the Capitol or the intent to defraud Biden of his victory.

Some days I can't decide if it's sickening or just surreal. Watching the once affable but now turned weasel McCarthy get the gavel won't change any of that for me, even if there's a part of me outraged that any congresscritters would put a Speaker nominee through this extortionate maneuver to convert minority wishes into power to disrupt the entire Congress.

It looks like McCarthy is getting closer and may actually get the gavel later today or soon thereafter, which I didn't expect. But if and when he becomes Speaker, will he actually try to do some good and work with the opposition, or will it be more of the stuff we hear from the MAGA crowd? I'm afraid he'll be more like Trump, who never "pivoted toward the Presidency" after he was elected. Now, I don't think McCarthy is nearly as flawed as Trump, but I don't think he has the makings of an effective leader, either.

I also wonder how much GOP voters will remember this fiasco in 2024. I think by then much of it will be forgotten.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

A few days old but Rudnick's always good for a chuckle.

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Every time I see “her” picture I can’t believe that people still buy the myth that pro wrestler Owen Hart died in a catastrophic harness failure. This is like one step above Clark Kent taking off his glasses cosmetic surgery level.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

It's being suggested that this relatively minor vote is a preview of what we are going to get from Republicans for the next 2 years on any and every vote. Given their slight majority, nobody really expects Democrats to be able to get anything done. With that low expectation set I guess we can just sit back and enjoy the Republicans eating their own as the only thing getting done in Congress.

 

[lizkat]

It's being suggested that this relatively minor vote is a preview of what we are going to get from Republicans for the next 2 years on any and every vote. Given their slight majority, nobody really expects Democrats to be able to get anything done. With that low expectation set I guess we can just sit back and enjoy the Republicans eating their own as the only thing getting done in Congress.

Well yeah except there will be hellish times as the debt limit comes onto the table. The GOP eating their own on their own dime is one thing but putting the full faith and credit of the USA on the block internationally is a whole other gig. There will probably be a government shutdown. This even though it's been made clear that Americans do not LIKE government shutdowns.

A lengthy shutdown could solve some November 2024 problems for Democrats, but first the country has to get through that shutdown and the rest of 2023, even if the tail wagging the R dog wants to see if going over the cliff of actual default on our obligations is really a big deal.

McConnell, Schumer and Jeffries know that we cannot afford to default on our debt. McCarthy knows that too. Whether he can keep that sub-caucus in line or whether that will even be his job by then is a good question.

I'm assuming McCarthy gets the House gavel, eventually. If he doesn't... if it's someone like McHenry instead, well, there might not be so many challenges to the Speaker but there will still probably be a shutdown over the debt limit.

There shouldn't even BE a debt limit. Neither party gives a fig about it except when the other party is trying to pass a big ticket piece of legislation, and both parties ignore it while decorating the branches of the omnibus "Christmas tree" every year.

The debt limit is usually just a number carried around in the back of the mind, as if it were a running tab of how many lattes one has bought since Starbucks was born. What does that even mean? That one shouldn't have bought them? That one shouldn't buy any more? That one cannot buy any more? Ah, well, no... not THAT, surely.

But here we are without a House speaker and the holdouts talking about the debt limit as if it's a bomb on the train tracks, which it probably is. But see that's all it is. A metaphorical bomb on the train tracks.
We're not going to default on our obligations and the adults in the room will find a way to ensure that.

McCarthy should tell all these remaining holdouts to get stuffed. There could come a moment, if not tonight, when the right number of accidentally not-voting Rs might put Jeffries into the speakership. If the holdouts want to play that kind of game, they do it at their peril no matter who ends up with the gavel.

 

[shadow puppet]

Well yeah except there will be hellish times as the debt limit comes onto the table. The GOP eating their own on their own dime is one thing but putting the full faith and credit of the USA on the block internationally is a whole other gig. There will probably be a government shutdown. This even though it's been made clear that Americans do not LIKE government shutdowns.

I was just reading about this. Had to do a quick listen and peruse b/c I'm at work. It does not sound good. At all. In fact, it sounds scary AF.

Link to listen to the video: https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1611491299395346438

 

[Eric]

I was just reading about this. Had to do a quick listen and peruse b/c I'm at work. It does not sound good. At all. In fact, it sounds scary AF.

Link to listen to the video: https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1611491299395346438

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Short of getting actual indictments on the Bidens they're pretty much going to be toothless short of cock blocking all legislation. Expect no progress of any kind for the next two years from a heavily divided congress.

 

[lizkat]

Emily Cochrane, NYT, quoting Gaetz - Jan. 6, 2023, 8:32 p.m. ET

“We’re running out of things to ask for,” Matt Gaetz of Florida said. But he would not say if he would support the agreement being ironed out with McCarthy and the far-right rebels, or the emerging rules package.​

​

Very nice. /S

Basically cops now to just jerking McCarthy's chain and still might not vote for him.

It's not brilliant to brag on what most of the GOP conference already understands about Gaetz and would like to see come to a halt. There will be payback and not just from McCarthy.

 

[SuperMatt]

Emily Cochrane, NYT, quoting Gaetz - Jan. 6, 2023, 8:32 p.m. ET

“We’re running out of things to ask for,” Matt Gaetz of Florida said. But he would not say if he would support the agreement being ironed out with McCarthy and the far-right rebels, or the emerging rules package.​

​

Very nice. /S

Basically cops now to just jerking McCarthy's chain and still might not vote for him.

It's not brilliant to brag on what most of the GOP conference already understands about Gaetz and would like to see come to a halt. There will be payback and not just from McCarthy.

Gaetz‘s new office after McCarthy becomes speaker:

 

[lizkat]

I was just reading about this. Had to do a quick listen and peruse b/c I'm at work. It does not sound good. At all. In fact, it sounds scary AF.

Link to listen to the video: https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1611491299395346438

View attachment 20652

Well the rules package has to be passed by the full House, so... maybe cooler heads will prevail.

There is at least one R congressman-elect from Texas who has said he's not up for that package as he understands it at this time. The Rs' margin is very small so every no vote definitely matters.

 

[GermanSuplex]

Orville Redenbacher just nominated McCarthy.

 

[lizkat]

Orville Redenbacher just nominated McCarthy.

I'm graduating to a couple of egg rolls tonight. Popcorn feels so over at this point...

 

[Macky-Mac]

and Boebert votes present in round 14

 

[GermanSuplex]

and Boebert votes present in round 14

“Let’s nominate McCarthy, then vote him in as Speaker. But in between, let’s trash him over and over in the press, in social media and on the house floor. Just to help him get settled in.”

*Ahahaha. The make or break vote for McCarthy coming down to Gaetz.

 

[lizkat]

Gaetz is some piece of work:

Emily Cochrane (NYT) Jan. 6, 2023, 10:47 p.m. ET:​

​

There is quite an intense huddle around Gaetz. Earlier he told some of us the group was running out of things to ask for, but maybe there’s still more.​

​

Catie Edmondson (NYT) Jan. 6, 2023, 10:47 p.m. ET:​

​

Gaetz, never one to shy away from the spotlight, has built up quite the drama around his vote. He missed his name being called, ambled around the House floor, and then called over McCarthy’s negotiator, Patrick McHenry, beckoning him with a wagging pointer finger. The two are two intensely talking.​

​

Emily Cochrane (NYT) Jan. 6, 2023, 10:51 p.m. ET:​

​

Rosendale votes for Biggs. No wonder there is all this focus on Gaetz. It's all down to him now.​

​

Annie Karni (NYT) Jan. 6, 2023, 10:54 p.m. ET:​

​

Alyssa Farah, a former communications director for the House Freedom Caucus, tweeted that McHenry is the best Republican vote counter in the House and he wouldn’t have given tonight’s nominating speech if he didn’t know the votes were there. But with Rosendale voting against McCarthy, and the entire ballgame coming down to Matt Gaetz, that seems like a risky bet right now for everyone.​

 

[GermanSuplex]

Screw around all week trashing each other, then vote for the guy anyways and pretend it was a “good thing”.

If Gaetz’s comment that “he’s running out of things to ask for”, you have to admit he played McCarthy like a fiddle. The Freedom Caucus may be democrats best ally rather than a formidable opponent, in some ways.

*McCarthy begging Gaetz on the house floor, live for the world. This is groveling like I’ve never seen.

**Unreal.

McCarthy may win, but the highlight reels for democrats are going to be amazing. This is a joke. A fight nearly broke out.

Boebert and Gaetz are coordinating, and played the whole caucus live on air and embarrassed a clearly frustrated McCarthy right after he openly begged them for a vote to put him to 217.

It’s like a car crash. I can’t not watch, but I’m not pleased. Wish they’d just vote McCarthy in if he’s the guy.

*McCarthy is very clearly frustrated. He thought he had it, and I believe the other members thought he had this up until the last guy. We are now at two of the worst members in the caucus controlling 220 members of their side of the aisle.

 

[dada_dave]

This is just … sad … funny in a way … but horrible that any of these cretins wield power