Trump Won’t Be Speaker. But “Gym” Jordan Might!

The good news is Trump won’t be Speaker. The bad news is Gym “He Groped Me Coach!” might. But if you’re panicking about the idiot Congress Critter stating he was nominating Trump you can relax, as an article in Newsweek explains.

Let’s backtrack for a minute. It was quite the day yesterday with history being made. Of course if you’re Kevin McCarthy and the history that was made was YOU Kevin being the very first person in history to be VOTED OUT as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives it’s maybe a bit of history you’d rather not make it into  history books. (Of course that assumes Trump and the GOP don’t get control of govt. and turn us into a fascist state and all books are banned and burned) Ok, so prior Speakers have been forced out by their colleagues, resigning rather than be subjected to the ritual humiliation McCarthy suffered yesterday but he stuck it out till the bitter end. And had his “Precious”, the Speaker’s Gavel taken from him for good.

I wrote an article here yesterday suggesting perhaps we shouldn’t be all gleeful, toasting McCarthy’s political demise.  It began with an age-old warning: “Be careful what you wish for” which was and still is sound thinking. If you think things couldn’t get any worse than McCarthy as Speaker I have three words that will knock you out of that mode – Donald Trump’s Presidency!” Admit it. How many times did he say or do something (starting with his announcement in 2015) and you said to yourself & maybe others “It/he can’t get any worse” only to be proven wrong. I rest my case.

Speculation started even before that final vote of who would take over for McCarthy. That’s only natural and pundits love to speculate. And if not enough we got a sense of the timeline and procedure ahead. McCarthy pal Patrick McHenry assumed the “Acting” role as Speaker (not much actual authority although he did kick Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer out of their Capitol HIll “hideaway” offices in a truly petty move) angrily banged the gavel stating the House would be in recess “subject to recall.” What that means is next week House GOPers are going to get together and try to do what they couldn’t do between the 2020 election and the new Congress convening this past January – settle on who would become Speaker.

I don’t know about you but they couldn’t do it then I’m not terribly confident they’ll figure it out next week either. I for one see another fight brewing between the Matty Gaetz bat-sh*t insane crazies and the regular crazies in the House GOP. But candidates are being discussed and some are exploring their options and viability and meeting with others.  But the game is afoot so to speak. Journalists are pressing both sources and potential candidates to find out who is going to step into the steel cage to fight it out for the Gavel.

And yes, sure as we can predict the sun rising in the east every morning some MAGA Congress Critter popped up to nominate Trump for Speaker. One doesn’t have to actually be an elected Representative to hold the role after all. It was suggested before back when McCarthy seemed like he’d have a fight on his hands to get the Gavel and during the actual chaotic mess that played out during round after round of voting last January. Trump didn’t seem all that interested. It would after all be a step down and didn’t include all the cool perks he’d gotten used to as President. He had his eyes set on getting his old Presidential gig back.

Luckily, as Newsweek reports it’s not going to happen:

But even if Trump had full Republican support in the House, Rule 26 of the GOP Conference states, “A member of the Republican Leadership shall step aside if indicted for a felony for which a sentence of two or more years imprisonment may be imposed.” The conference’s rules are voted on by all members in the November before each congressional session.

Trump is facing criminal trials in four different jurisdictions with plenty of charges that each on their own carry more than a two year prison sentence. So no matter how many MAGAs in the House might want it (not to mention all the goobers out in MAGA World) that option isn’t even on the table.

However, Congressional waste of space and flaming bag of sh*t bomb thrower Jim Jordan of Ohio has decided this time around to throw his hat headgear into the ring. Or on to the mat. Choose your metaphor. He wasn’t interested back in January but he is now. Maybe because his bigly committee work to “get” Hunter Biden on the way to “getting” his father, President Joe Biden have flopped? He was ugly enough before he kept throwing buckets of egg on that face during the hearings he’s chaired. You might be thinking of reports fellow GOPers are grumbling Jordan (and Comer too) have let everyone down and you’d be right. However, “promoting” Jordan to Speaker might give Republicans a “twofer” in allowing someone perhaps more competent to take over his committee chair work, and freeing him up to use the much larger “microphone” he’d have as Speaker to get back to his real skill – political bomb throwing.

Of course, Newt Gingrich could tell Jordan it’s a far different thing to be a regular ole House member tossing stink bombs all the time and being Speaker. Gingrich never wanted to be President – his goal from early on in life was to become House Speaker. As you know it didn’t work out so well for him in the end. I’m not sure whether he’d encourage or discourage Jordan. Also, if I were Jordan and he offered to  help I’d question Gingrich’s motives but that’s a whole different article.

Who else might there be? Steve Scalise hasn’t as of my writing this formally declared his candidacy but health issues notwithstanding has said he’s interested and has set up meetings with people and groups within the GOP caucus. He was actually mentioned back in January too but he stuck by McCarthy, and as I recall cited his health too. I actually worry he might somehow win over the Gaetz Gang. He’s smarter, and more focused/disciplined than McCarthy and won’t go making promises he can’t keep. Worse, unlike McCarthy who was willing to morph into whatever was needed at a given time Scalise is hard core, brutally conservative.

Anyway, be of good cheer tonight. Although Gaetz once said:

if Republicans took back the House majority, he would “fire” then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and “nominate Donald Trump for speaker of the United States House of Representatives.”

Fortunately, after Troy Nebs tweeted he was nominating Trump Fox’s Sean Hannity did a segment talking about a “draft Trump” movement starting in the GOP. Democratic Rep. Sean Casten decided to help them out by noting they’d be breaking their very own rules:

Responding to a clip of Hannity’s segment, Casten said, “I would direct your attention to Rule 26(a) of the House Republican Conference rules for the 118th Congress.”

Fortunately Trump has not only been interested in the past, he’s not interested now. Speakers can’t pardon themselves. Only a President could even try. Still, I find it hard to see how we wind up better off than we were with McCarthy. Jordan would be awful of course. Scalise might not be as crazy but he could be more effective and therefore worse.

However, we are a long ways I think from finding out who is going to emerge from all this. I saw a segment on some show earlier today suggesting THIS time the GOP will get it’s you-know-what together in private before taking to the floor to vote for a new Speaker.  Anyone besides me think them coming to an agreement next week is likely?

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